Plant Director - Railway Manufacturing

About the role

Wabtec is looking for a Plant Director in Kąty Wrocławskie to lead all manufacturing activities of its plant, which produces railway products for European and global customers. The role reports to the Regional Operations Leader and works with a cross-functional manufacturing leadership team, as well as corporate functions such as Finance, HR, Engineering, Quality and Operations. It covers production planning, welding, CNC machining and final mechanical and electrical assembly.

Key responsibilities

• Drive performance against Safety, Quality, Delivery, Inventory and Cost (SQDIC) goals and implement corrective actions
• Manage operational budgets, workforce planning, capital investment projects and cost optimisation
• Enforce EHS policies and compliance with Polish regulations, and uphold railway quality standards and certification obligations
• Lead continuous improvement through Lean, 5S, Kaizen and Six Sigma, and run root cause analysis and corrective action processes
• Lead, coach and develop production supervisors, engineers, technicians and operators, and partner with HR on recruitment, onboarding, performance reviews and succession planning
• Work with Engineering, Supply Chain and Quality teams to improve efficiency

Required profile

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Operations Management or a related technical field
• 7-10 years of progressive operations management experience in heavy fabrication, industrial manufacturing or complex production
• Experience managing large manufacturing teams and in the railway, automotive, aerospace or similar regulated sectors
• Fluency in English and Polish, written and spoken
• Legal right to work in the EU; no visa sponsorship offered

Required skills

• Certified welding processes, CNC machining and multi-stage assembly
• Lean Manufacturing: Value Stream Mapping, SMED, Kaizen, 5S, Six Sigma
• Budget management (CapEx and OpEx)
• International quality standards, preferably IRIS / ISO TS 22163 and EN 15085 welding certification
• SAP or Oracle ERP and advanced Microsoft Office