Plant Manager

We are looking for a talented Plant Manager to join our Packaging team at our Denver, Colorado, plant.

 

Job Summary:

Manages and leads a cross-functional team to ensure speed, dependability, and efficiency in plant operations.

In this role, you will make an impact in the following ways: 

• Strengthening customer partnerships — You elevate customer satisfaction by building strong, trust‑based relationships and ensuring their operational needs are consistently met.
• Driving plant performance — You lead all plant functions to meet production deliverables, improve efficiency, and ensure safe, reliable operations.
• Embedding Cummins values — You promote a high‑performance environment by modeling Cummins processes, values, and compliance expectations across the plant.
• Developing plant talent — You coach, mentor, and grow plant staff, strengthening capability, accountability, and long‑term workforce readiness.
• Setting plant strategy — You define the plant’s goals, priorities, and operational roadmap, ensuring alignment with business objectives and customer commitments.
• Aligning with the Supply Chain — You manage the plant’s interactions with the broader Supply Chain, ensuring smooth coordination, predictable flow, and minimal disruption.
• Leading community engagement — You represent the plant externally, strengthening Cummins’ presence and reputation through community involvement and local partnerships.
• Driving cross‑functional collaboration — You connect teams across functions to solve problems, accelerate decisions, and deliver consistent, high‑quality outcomes.

 

To be successful in this role you will need the following: 

• Financial acumen — You make better operational and strategic decisions by understanding cost drivers, interpreting plant financials, and using data to prioritize investments, efficiencies, and trade‑offs.
• Action orientation — You move quickly on new opportunities and tough challenges, setting a tone of urgency and momentum that keeps the plant advancing even under pressure.
• Collaboration — You build strong partnerships across operations, supply chain, HR, safety, and community stakeholders, ensuring alignment and shared ownership of plant goals.
• Effective communication — You tailor your message to technicians, leaders, executives, and community partners, ensuring clarity, alignment, and confidence in the plant’s direction.
• Developing talent — You grow people through coaching, feedback, and development plans that strengthen capability, succession, and long‑term plant performance.
• Driving engagement — You create an environment where employees feel valued, motivated, and connected to the plant’s mission, improving retention, safety, and productivity.
• Vision and purpose — You articulate a compelling strategy for the plant, helping teams understand not just what they’re doing, but why it matters.
• Managing complexity — You simplify ambiguity, synthesize conflicting information, and make sound decisions that keep operations stable and moving forward.
• Planning and alignment — You translate strategy into clear priorities, resource plans, and execution rhythms that keep the plant on track.
• Strategic mindset — You anticipate future risks and opportunities, shaping long‑term improvements in capability, cost, quality, and community impact.
• Health & Safety fundamentals — You model proactive safety behaviors, reinforce an interdependent safety culture, and ensure the plant consistently meets Cummins’ safety expectations.
• Cross‑functional operating excellence — You understand the roles across the operating team and facilitate the technical and administrative discussions that drive continuous improvement.
• Valuing differences — You create an inclusive environment where diverse perspectives strengthen decision‑making, innovation, and team cohesion.
  
  Education, Licenses, Certifications: 
  College, university, or equivalent degree required.
  This position may require licensing for compliance with export controls or sanctions regulations. 
  
  Experience: 
  Significant level of relevant work experience, including managerial, leadership, budgetary, and cross-functional experience, required.

The Denver Packaging Plant Manager is responsible for leading site performance in Safety, Quality, Delivery, and Cost (SQDC) by executing Cummins and DBU strategy through disciplined use of standard work. The role focuses on tactical execution, daily management, and continuous improvement, while operating within the approved operating model and network design.

Success is measured by predictable performance, strong operating discipline, and the ability to deliver results through ownership, cross-functional collaboration, and a culture of continuous improvement aligned with Cummins values.

 

Key Responsibilities

• Lead site SQDC performance using Cummins operating systems, leader standard work, and tiered management routines, ensuring consistent, predictable execution
• Own site results end-to-end, holding self and team accountable for performance, proactively addressing gaps, and ensuring commitments are delivered with discipline and urgency
• Execute the defined Integrated After Market (IAM) network design; raise constraints and improvement opportunities through formal governance 
• Apply disciplined prioritization—distinguishing critical vs. important and urgent vs. non urgent—to protect safety, quality, delivery, and cost outcomes
• Deliver Sales & Operations Execution (S&OE) commitments in the 1–3 month horizon, partnering closely with cross-functional stakeholders (Planning, Sourcing, Product Engineering, Sales, etc.) to align priorities, remove barriers, and deliver business results
• Provide inputs and operational readiness to support Integrated Business Planning (IBP) decisions in the 3–12 month horizon (network decisions established through IAM governance)
• Drive continuous improvement within standard frameworks (COS, Lean, structured problem solving), ensuring improvements are data-driven, sustained, and embedded into standard work
• Actively seek, share, and adopt best practices across the Upfit network, reinforcing a “network-first” mindset and consistent ways of working
• Engage frontline teams and functional partners to identify improvement opportunities, leveraging diverse perspectives to strengthen solutions and outcomes

 

Leadership Expectations

• Model Cummins values: Integrity, Diversity & Inclusion, Caring, Excellence, Teamwork
• Demonstrate strong ownership of results—taking accountability for both successes and gaps, and driving timely, effective countermeasures
• Foster a collaborative environment by actively partnering with functional leaders and stakeholders to achieve shared SQDC outcomes and improve overall business performance
• Communicate openly and candidly, ensuring alignment, transparency, and trust across teams and functions
• Actively seek and embrace feedback from leaders, peers, and team members to continuously improve leadership effectiveness and site performance
• Build leader capability focused on execution, prioritization, escalation, problem solving, and network-first thinking
• Reinforce that standard work is the baseline, not optional, while driving disciplined adherence across all levels of the organization
• Deliver results through systems and problem-solving alignment; prevent one-off workarounds from becoming the standard and ensure sustainable solutions are implemented

 

 

Compensation and Benefits

Please note that the salary range provided is a good faith estimate on the applicable range. The final salary offer will be determined after considering relevant factors, including a candidate’s qualifications and experience, where appropriate.