Production Manager
Waters · Milford, MA
- Level
- Manager
- Team
- Production
- Degree
- Required (or equivalent experience)
- Experience asked
- 7+ years
- Industry
- Pharma & life sciences
- Posted
- Recently
The role in 30 seconds
A management production role at Waters (pharma & life sciences) in Milford, MA. To develop initiatives, cost action or cost improvement towards excellence.
- They ask for
- 7+ years · degree required (or equivalent experience)
- Tools it names
- Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, Value stream mapping, Root cause, ISO 9001
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of November 9, 2026
Production Engineer roles in Massachusetts: typical posted base $129k–$175k.
Median of the low and high ends of 9 live postings that list pay, out of 32 production engineer openings in Massachusetts, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Massachusetts plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 31 other live production postings in Massachusetts.
- Base pay
- Not listed in this posting
- Experience asked
- More than usual (7+ vs 6+)
Typical $129k–$175k, from 6 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 6+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- ✓ Lean 38%
- ✓ Root cause 38%
- New product launch 38%
- Automation 28%
- ✓ Team leadership 28%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
Stands out: this posting asks for Kaizen, Value stream mapping, ISO 9001, ISO 13485, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Production team at Waters
We found 1 person at this company and state: 1 leaders. Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. See them ↓
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
Write to Jim → (free) - 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
This plant: Waters in Milford
4 other open roles at this site · 1 person we found in production roles at Waters.
- Senior Production Engineer - CNC Programmer · Production · Senior
- Senior Principal, Lean Deployment · Lean / CI · Senior
- Senior Mechanical Technician (6 month contract) · Reliability · Technician
- Production Technician · Production · Technician
Full description from WatersAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
Responsibilities
- ◆Champion a physically and mentally safe environment for all employees and coworkers, creating high self-awareness and demonstrated injuries reduction over time until reaching 0 incidents.
- ◆Creating a work environment where employees are energized, excited, and motivated to continuously improve value stream processes, delight our customers, and accomplish both individual and team goals and objectives.
- ◆Meet all performance measures and targets associated with Safety, Quality, Cost, and Delivery.
- ◆Achieve production plans meeting attainment targets, tactical delivery plan to market and ultimately product availability for customers via high production performance.
- ◆Meeting DL: ABS cost as well as achieving expected labor & line efficiency, reaching the absorption targets with the resources required.
- ◆To develop initiatives, cost action or cost improvement towards excellence.
- ◆Develops the technical capability of the workforce and leadership through ongoing training methodology, improving employee’s flexibility and individual capability.
- ◆Sponsored the lean operating system transformation process to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Champion the implementation of a future state map and create a plan for adherence to the new processes.
- ◆Ensure production leadership participation and commitment to the planning handshake. Provide insights into headcounts availability and constraint time so that consensus for the plan be effective.
- ◆Demonstrate, teach, certify, and deploy root cause problem solving, making sure the production team address the problems systematically (5W, 3S). Lead kaizen events as expected in collaboration with CI partners.
- ◆Execute rapid market delivery strategy creating production flow between processes and therefore reduce processing lead times.
- ◆Manage departmental employees establishing clear goals and expectations, providing the resources they need to do their jobs and ensuring their development.
- ◆Consistently apply talent management process, identify key resources, and develop career plans.
- ◆Directly responsible for achieving the Annual Operation Plan (AOP) results and the subsequent performance management of all direct reports.
- ◆Develops complete understanding of the entire process of each product line (current state) including production bottlenecks and risks to the process that could stop or slow process flow.
- ◆Monitor KPIs routinely to ensure current production, quality, and cost targets are achieved using daily management structure to ensure sustainability and develop a performance culture.
- ◆Monitor and evaluate the effect of process changes and adjust as necessary to ensure maximum benefit of any changes.
- ◆Performs other job-related duties assigned.
Qualifications
- ✓A bachelor’s degree and/or combination of education in industrial engineering or related experience. A master’s degree in an Engineering, Technical or Business discipline is preferred.
- ✓A minimum of 7 years’ experience in operations is required, preferably in an electronic, medical device or biotechnology industry.
- ✓P&L responsibility for a product line or manufacturing department or site. Thorough understanding of financial metrics and performance KPIs.
- ✓Strong Continuous Improvement and Safety focus, proven experience. Passion for continuous improvement and operational excellence.
- ✓Demonstrated decision making and problem-solving skills. Familiarity with Six Sigma, and Lean methodologies is highly desirable.
- ✓Project Management experience.
- ✓Strong leadership skills, self-directed and the ability to make independent decisions and influence change management.
- ✓Excellent organizational, interpersonal, verbal, written and presentation skills.
- ✓Proficiency with SAP and Microsoft applications required.
- ✓Familiar with Bill of Materials (BoM) and Production Routings.
- ✓Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts and drive corrective actions.
- ✓Familiarity with cGMP, ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 13485:2016 is highly desired.
Company Description
Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) is a global leader in analytical instruments, separations technologies, and software, serving the life, materials, food, and environmental sciences for over 65 years. Our Company helps ensure the efficacy of medicines, the safety of food and the purity of water, and the quality and sustainability of products used every day. In over 100 countries, our 7,600+ passionate employees collaborate with customers in laboratories, manufacturing sites, and hospitals to accelerate the benefits of pioneering science.
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Overview
Waters Corporation is seeking a highly motivated, team-oriented, and dynamic leader to oversee our assembly operations within the manufacturing division. This hands-on leadership role is responsible for excellence in Safety, Quality, Delivery, and Cost (SQDC) performance. The successful candidate will manage approximately 35–50 employees across multiple shifts including production leads, ensuring the seamless execution of production processes and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and employee engagement.
