Plant Manager - Sawmill

Plant Manager / General Manager

Location: Fermoy, County Cork
Department: Operations
Employment Level: Executive / Senior Management
Employment Type: Full-Time, Permanent

The Opportunity

Elite Talent Hub Recruitment is recruiting on behalf of a leading manufacturing client for an experienced Plant Manager / General Manager to lead its sawmill operation in Fermoy.

Reporting to the Head of Operations, the successful candidate will hold full responsibility for the safe, efficient, compliant and commercially effective performance of the site.

Working closely with Forestry, Sales, Engineering, SHEQ, HR and Finance, the Plant Manager will align production capacity with customer demand, raw-material supply and the organisation's strategic objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the safe and efficient operation of the sawmill, from log intake through primary and secondary production.

• Develop production plans in collaboration with Forestry and Sales.

• Monitor production, yield, uptime, quality, costs and performance against agreed budgets and KPIs.

• Promote a strong safety culture and ensure compliance with SHEQ and regulatory standards.

• Drive lean manufacturing, continuous improvement and operational-excellence initiatives.

• Identify and resolve operational constraints affecting output, efficiency, cost or customer service.

• Lead, coach and develop management, supervisory and operational teams.

• Oversee recruitment, onboarding, training, performance management and employee engagement with HR.

• Manage site budgets and control labour, energy, materials and production costs.

• Establish effective daily, weekly and periodic production-review meetings.

• Work with Engineering to maximise plant reliability, availability and asset performance.

• Support capital-investment and new-product-development projects.

• Coordinate with other manufacturing sites to optimise capacity, production flow and customer service.

• Build strong cross-functional relationships and promote the sharing of best practices.

Knowledge and Experience

• Degree or relevant qualification in Engineering, Operations, Manufacturing or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

• Minimum of five years' experience in a senior Plant, Site, General Management or Operations Management role.

• Strong experience within manufacturing, industrial or continuous-process operations.

• Experience managing a large-scale, capital-intensive production environment.

• Sawmilling, timber-processing or wood-products manufacturing experience would be advantageous.

• Strong working knowledge of SHEQ systems and regulatory compliance.

• Demonstrated experience applying lean manufacturing and continuous-improvement principles.

• Experience managing production plans, budgets, costs and operational KPIs.

• Proven ability to lead and develop multidisciplinary teams.

• Experience supporting engineering, asset-reliability and capital-investment projects.

• Strong commercial, financial and stakeholder-management skills.

Essential Competencies

• Strong leadership and people-development capability

• Operational excellence and continuous improvement

• Sound decision-making and accountability

• Clear communication and cross-functional collaboration

• Effective change leadership

• Strong focus on safety, results and performance

• Commercial and financial awareness

• Structured problem-solving skills

Key Performance Measures

• Safety, environmental and regulatory compliance

• Production output against plan

• Yield, uptime and operational efficiency

• Cost per cubic metre or tonne

• Delivery of the site budget

• Quality and customer-service performance

• Employee engagement, retention and absence

• Supervisor development and leadership capability