Regional Hot End Leader
No salary listed
Expert
Bachelor's
Guelph, ON, Canada
In PersonRequires regional and global travel, with a 40% baseline; travel may increase during certain project periods.
Manufacturing & Process EngineeringProcess Engineering
About the job
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in mechanics, thermodynamics, or glass is preferred; chemical engineering is also identified as a preferred field.
- Demonstrated ability to influence others through effective communication and working relationships across diverse functions and plants.
- Skill in upset analysis, problem solving, and decision making.
- Skill in data analysis and data-driven decision making.
- Fluency in continuous improvement methodologies and operating systems, including TPM, Lean, and Six Sigma.
- Ability to travel regionally and globally, with a 40% baseline and periods of higher travel as needed depending on projects.
- Ability to work effectively with teams and design for the future while managing day-to-day project requirements and multiple priorities in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
- Ability to motivate others, lead by example, and encourage teamwork and effective communication.
- Demonstrated analytical ability and presentation skills.
- Demonstrated ability to manage and control costs.
- Ability to initiate action, address issues promptly, and follow up with plants as necessary.
- Ability to adapt across cultures, environments, and working styles.
- Ability to exercise sound judgment without letting feelings or biases distract from reasoning or rationalizing failures.
- Ability to express opinions and feelings directly and candidly.
- Understanding of others’ feelings, awareness of personal impact, and ability to express opinions without causing offense or defensiveness.
Responsibilities
- Ensure a safe, clean, and environmentally compliant work environment and build a zero-defect safety culture during regional plant visits.
- Ensure control plans, work instructions, and other technical-operation procedures identify and mitigate safety risks; maintain focus on safe behavior; use TPM methodologies to reduce incidents; and continuously improve safety policies, procedures, and standards.
- Establish and maintain process standards for minerals and melting to produce glass safely, accurately, and efficiently, consistently meeting codes, specifications, customer requirements, cost objectives, and sustainability goals under the guidance of the Global Hot End Leader.
- Apply expertise in continuous and batch processes, glass melting, combustion processes, onsite hot work, remote melting-process control, troubleshooting, glass chemistry, and batch making.
- Manage complex operations involving multiple products, processes, and departments, as well as projects and initiatives across multiple sites.
- Train, assess, and develop plant hot-end technical talent in the region; build an integrated and collaborative team; develop a technical talent pipeline; arrange regional and plant resources; and transfer knowledge to improve plant hot-end technical capabilities.
- Define best-in-class standards for producing equivalent products worldwide to improve cost performance and stability.
- Collaborate with Operations, Innovation, Capital Delivery, Safety, TPM, and other teams to define and execute standardized best-in-class processes.
- Lead global CPV updates and performance-stability tracking for plants; lead best-practice evaluation and implementation at regional plants; and drive preventative operations and continuous improvement.
- Support corrective-action implementation and tracking with plant furnace engineers; analyze process data, provide feedback on performance and trends, and recommend ways to optimize performance in each regional area.
- Deploy the regional Hot End technical vision in support of the global OCF TEC Operational Excellence strategy and deliver world-class process outcomes that provide a regional competitive advantage.
- Use TPM methodology, including PM analysis, to link TPM pillars and deliver results; identify gaps affecting primary metrics using loss trees; and work with plants to develop and implement actions consistent with TPM methodology.
- Drive benchmark productivity (NE/CE), contribute to successful launch and sustainability of special projects such as rebuilds, expansions, and hot repairs, and establish standardized routines and processes for process management.
- Track and close plant key metrics, drive Hot End KAIs and KPIs, and improve plant efficiency through execution of Hot End Technical Standards.
- Introduce and implement energy-efficient melting technology through decarbonized minerals, melter/frontend design, and melting setup in association with carbon-emission categories, under the Hot End Leader’s guidance.
- Execute the use of recycled, byproduct, and decarbonized materials in place of conventional geological minerals; implement melting innovations and advanced technologies to improve energy intensity and melting pull rate.
- Digitize batch and melting processes, including predictive-maintenance functions; implement circular-economy sustainability in melting, including scrap-glass recycling, customer takeback, and end-of-life materials, according to company strategy.
- Accumulate and record new and existing knowledge from experts; analyze lessons learned from process upsets and improvements; identify knowledge gaps and request studies from Innovation or other teams to address them.
- Communicate and coordinate process and system requirement changes with the appropriate Information Systems teams.
- Align with Commercial, Finance, Operations, Customer Fulfillment, and Innovation on key actions, manufacturing targets, and project goals.
- Share best practices across the division and build cross-functional relationships to support regional and global manufacturing priorities.
Desired Qualifications
- International experience is preferred.
About the company
Original Composites and Fibers (OCF) makes glass fiber reinforcements for composites, including rovings, chopped strands, and fabrics, used in pultrusion, filament winding, and sheet molding compound. Its Advantex glass fiber is a corrosion-resistant E-CR line for stronger, lighter parts. It operates globally with 18 facilities in 12 countries and now runs as a standalone Praana Group platform after its Owens Corning sale. Its goal is to supply engineered glass fiber reinforcements that enable durable, lightweight composite parts across transportation, wind energy, marine, infrastructure, industrial, and consumer applications while expanding leadership in the market.
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
N/A
Total Funding
N/A
Headquarters
N/A
Founded
1938
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Praana completed the acquisition on May 1, 2026, giving OCF fresh ownership and strategic focus.
- The combined platform adds about 400,000 tons of capacity and expands manufacturing across Asia.
- Wind energy and composites demand stays strong, with glass fiber still dominating wind-turbine materials in 2026.
What critics are saying
- April 2026 deal value fell from $755 million to $645 million, signaling pricing pressure.
- 3B declared force majeure in Birkeland after a March 2026 plant fire, exposing supply fragility.
- Integrating 4,200 OCF workers and 1,300 3B workers by early 2027 risks execution failure and customer churn.
What makes Original Composites and Fibers unique
- Praana combines OCF and 3B across 18 plants in 12 countries, creating unmatched global glass-fiber reach.
- OCF inherits Owens Corning’s Advantex E-CR glass, prized for corrosion resistance in harsh applications.
- The business spans transportation, wind, marine, infrastructure, and industrial end markets, reducing single-industry dependence.
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Benefits
- Flexible Work Hours