Plant Manager - Net Zero Modular Construction

Job description

ABOUT US Reframe Systems is a Physical AI and robotics company on a mission to make high-performance housing attainable and abundant in the communities where people want to live. Through our vertically integrated delivery model and highly automated microfactories, we deliver climate-resilient homes and buildings with greater speed and predictability than traditional construction. Our volumetric modular buildings are produced in our Andover, MA microfactory, with a growing pipeline across North America and a new microfactory on the way. We are building a system that balances repeatability with site-responsive design, enabling homes adaptable to each site, community, and customer need. Our cross-disciplinary team brings together architecture, robotics, design engineering, software, factory operations, and field delivery to change how housing gets delivered. We’re reimagining the future of housing through a smarter and more sustainable system that empowers people to live better. Come build it with us. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR We are looking for a Plant Manager to run the floor of our microfactory and own the daily execution that turns our production plan into finished homes. This is the person the build team looks to every day, the one who holds the line between what the company has committed to and what actually gets built on the floor. We are at a scaling inflection. Over the next year we move from our prototype facility in Andover to a 100,000 square foot factory in Billerica, grow direct labor from around 20 to 80 or more, and step up output from roughly 10 homes in the last year to 40 to 50 in the next, on a path to far higher volume after that. We need an operator who has built and run a production floor through exactly this kind of ramp, and who runs toward a floor that is short a leader rather than away from it. This is a hands-on, on-the-floor role. You own daily production, the people who build, and the operating rhythm that keeps quality, safety, and schedule on track. Your job is to run a floor that performs today and gets more capable every week. You report to the Head of Operations. Until that role is filled, you report to a member of Reframe's executive team. RESPONSIBLITIES PRODUCTION AND FLOOR LEADERSHIP - Own daily production on the floor: hit the weekly build plan, keep modules moving on takt, and clear the constraints that slow the line. - Lead the floor's full production team, including the production managers, area managers, and leads, and be the single point of leadership the team relies on day to day so that no one person on the floor is a single point of failure. - Run the daily management system: morning huddles, tiered check-ins, and visual management the team actually understands and owns. - Hold area and team leads accountable to weekly targets that step down along the efficiency glidepath, and give them the support to hit them. THROUGHPUT, QUALITY, AND SAFETY - Drive throughput toward our targets and improve labor efficiency by working the lowest-performing processes first. - Deliver a quality product. Own the in-process and line checks, catch and correct defects on the floor, and build every module to standard. - Lead safety on the floor day to day. Run safety walks, close out action items, and build a culture where working safely is how the floor operates. - Own schedule reliability and on-time module completion for active projects. PEOPLE AND TEAM DEVELOPMENT - Build the supervision and shift structure the floor needs as the team grows from around 20 to 80 or more. - Recruit, onboard, and develop builders and leads, and grow technicians into leaders the way good operators do, through real scope and candid feedback. - Partner with HR and Recruiting on the high-volume hourly hiring and onboarding the ramp requires. - Set clear expectations and a floor culture that takes pride in what it ships. FACTORY LAUNCH AND SCALE-UP - Help stand up the Billerica facility, from floor layout and work cell design through commissioning and first article, and lead the production team through the move. - Establish the daily operating system at the new facility so it performs from the start rather than relearning what we already know. - Translate the production plan into staffing, training, and floor readiness on an accelerated timeline. SYSTEMS AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT - Be a power user and requirements partner for our internal factory software team. You set the floor's requirements and you live in the tools every day. - Run standard work and continuous improvement on the floor, and partner with our operational excellence function to make the factory more capable every week. - Manage from the data the floor generates. If it is not measured, it is not managed. 30 / 90 / 1 YEAR OUTCOMES FIRST 30 DAYS - Build trust with the production team and current floor leads. Spend most of your time on the floor, not in a conference room. - Learn current-state performance (throughput, labor efficiency, quality escapes, safety, schedule reliability) and name the top three constraints holding back the build plan. - Re-establish a daily operating rhythm the team owns: a huddle that works, clear daily targets, and visual management people actually use. - Get smart on the Billerica move and what has to be true on the floor for a clean ramp. FIRST 90 DAYS - Deliver a measurable lift on the top constraint (cycle time, labor minutes per square foot, quality escapes, or schedule adherence) with a repeatable mechanism behind it. - Run a stable tiered daily management system and weekly target reviews that step down along the glidepath. - Produce a floor-readiness plan for Billerica in partnership with Manufacturing: layout, work cells, staffing, training, and commissioning sequence with clear dates. - Stand up the day-to-day quality and safety routines that scale with a growing hourly workforce. FIRST YEAR - Run a floor that hits its weekly build plan predictably, with throughput, quality, and labor efficiency trending the right way and a supervision structure that holds under load. - Lead the production team through the Billerica launch and ramp to stable output at the new facility. - Reduce the floor's reliance on heroics and on any single person, with leads who can run their own areas and a growing bench behind them. - Deliver a clear step-change in floor performance (cost per unit down, on-time completion up, escapes down) that supports the company's volume and unit-economics goals. QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED - 7+ years in manufacturing operations, including running a production floor through a real ramp or facility launch, with direct labor reporting to you. - You have built a floor from a low base: stood up work cells, supervision structure, and a daily operating system where they did not exist. - Strong people leadership, with a track record of growing builders and technicians into leads and holding a team to targets without losing them. - Comfort with high-mix, project-based production where the bill of materials and the work move with each job. - A real floor presence. You earn trust by being on the floor and solving problems, not by managing from a distance. - Strong data orientation and comfort in a technology-forward factory where software is part of how work gets managed. NICE TO HAVE - Experience taking a production operation from low rate to high volume. - Construction, modular, or other high-variability production background. Strong manufacturing operators from other industries translate well. - Familiarity with lean and TWI, and comfort running standard work and continuous improvement on the floor. - Experience setting requirements for and partnering with an in-house software or MES team. - You have lived the prototype-to-production transition and know what breaks. Reframe Systems is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you believe you have the skills to thrive in this role, we encourage you to apply—even if you don't meet 100% of the listed requirements. At this time, we are only considering candidates who are authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for current or future visa sponsorship.