Director of Pine Operations
Reports to the General Manager of Pine and Harwood Sawmills. Responsible for the operation and productivity of Pine Mills in Dixfield, Maine; Doaktown, New Brunswick; and the value‑added plant in Cobleskill, New York. The preferred location is Dixfield, Maine and relocation support will be provided for out‑of‑area candidates.
Responsibilities
Safety
- Maintain the highest standards of safety, providing strong leadership and ensuring the team follows all policies, procedures, and regulations.
- Become knowledgeable about high‑risk areas of the pine mills and ensure action plans are in place to mitigate risk.
- Chair the bi‑annual safety management review meetings at your sites.
- Ensure resources are deployed to meet improvement goals on your Safety Scorecard.
Strategy
- Participate in the development of the pine mills operations strategy.
- Identify resources required to meet the goals, including prioritizing CAPX requests.
- Ensure mill and value‑added managers understand their expectations, roles, and responsibilities to deliver on the business strategy and align site level activities with division goals.
- Identify talent internally and externally, develop succession plans for key roles, and develop high‑potential talent for future positions.
Operations
- Manage and identify opportunities to improve productivity, reduce cost, and maximize the quality, value, and recovery of wood products produced across the pine mills and the value‑added facility.
- Ensure a daily management system is in place and mills are delivering results.
- Engage with mill leadership teams to ensure sites exceed budgeted targets.
- Provide leadership on the maintenance audit, ensure it is implemented and improvement plans are in place to reach a 3.0 on Tier 1 measures, identifying resource requirements and synergies where possible.
- Prioritize high‑risk areas and allocate resources to address risks, establishing contingency plans.
- Provide clear direction and oversight of maintenance projects and prioritize work.
- Deploy continuous improvement resources where ROI is greatest.
- Oversee environmental audit, understand all risk areas, and ensure sites adhere to best practices.
Quality
- Engage managers to deliver on recovery and grade targets.
- Ensure customer delivery expectations are met.
- Ensure sites achieve a minimum of 3.0 on all areas of the quality audit; review audit parameters and adjust as required.
- Partner with Woodlands to link log quality with lumber value (stain, rot, etc.).
- Deal with customer complaints promptly, linking corrective actions to the quality audit.
Other Duties
- Lead budgeting for sites.
- Lead period forecasts and maintain +/-10% accuracy in forecast submissions.
- Maintain controls and processes to manage inventory accuracy, preventing gaps that could expose the company to theft or fraud.
- Utilize JDI systems and data to drive effective business decisions and improve profitability.
Qualifications
- Post‑secondary education in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management, Business or equivalent; Master’s level education or willingness to complete an MBA with the company is required.
- 7–10 years of management experience within forest products.
- Solid budget and business‑planning experience.
- Superior analytical and problem‑solving skills.
- Ability to facilitate and lead change with multiple stakeholders, including business leaders and operators.
- Demonstrated ownership and capacity to manage multiple priorities in a fast‑paced environment.
- Driven, self‑starter with pragmatic thinking.
- Ability to use data to drive solutions.