Manufacturing Strategy Manager

We're Hiring: Manufacturing Strategy Manager
Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote)
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience Level: Mid-Level to Senior
Work Arrangement: Fully Remote
About Us
We are a globally focused organization committed to building efficient, scalable, resilient, and technology-enabled manufacturing operations across diverse markets.
Our teams collaborate across Manufacturing, Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, Procurement, Quality, Finance, Technology, Product Development, and Commercial functions to develop manufacturing strategies that support growth, operational excellence, cost competitiveness, quality, and long-term business objectives.
The Role
We are seeking an experienced Manufacturing Strategy Manager to lead the development and execution of manufacturing strategies, operating models, capacity plans, network decisions, technology roadmaps, and transformation initiatives.
The ideal candidate will assess manufacturing capabilities and future requirements, develop strategic options, evaluate investments and operating models, and coordinate cross-functional initiatives that improve manufacturing performance, resilience, scalability, and competitiveness.
Key Responsibilities
Develop and implement manufacturing strategies aligned with corporate, product, market, and operational objectives.
Assess current manufacturing capabilities, capacity, technologies, processes, workforce, facilities, and performance.
Develop current-state assessments and future-state manufacturing operating models.
Translate business growth plans and demand requirements into manufacturing strategies and capacity plans.
Develop long-term manufacturing roadmaps covering capacity, facilities, technology, automation, workforce, and capabilities.
Evaluate manufacturing network structures, plant locations, production footprints, and make-or-buy options.
Assess opportunities for internal manufacturing, outsourcing, contract manufacturing, co-manufacturing, and strategic partnerships.
Conduct manufacturing footprint optimization and network strategy analyses.
Evaluate plant utilization, production capacity, bottlenecks, constraints, and scalability.
Develop capacity-expansion strategies for new products, markets, customer requirements, and projected demand.
Coordinate with Demand Planning, Supply Chain, Sales, and Commercial teams to understand future volume requirements.
Translate demand scenarios into manufacturing capacity, equipment, labor, facility, and investment requirements.
Develop manufacturing scenarios for growth, consolidation, relocation, expansion, outsourcing, and new facility development.
Conduct feasibility studies and strategic assessments for major manufacturing investments.
Develop business cases for plants, production lines, automation, equipment, technology, and capability investments.
Evaluate capital expenditure requirements, operating costs, productivity benefits, capacity gains, and return on investment.
Support capital-allocation decisions by providing manufacturing analysis and investment recommendations.
Analyze manufacturing cost structures and identify opportunities to improve cost competitiveness.
Benchmark manufacturing costs, productivity, quality, capacity utilization, and operational performance.
Identify opportunities for standardization across plants, production lines, processes, and technologies.
Develop manufacturing excellence frameworks, standards, and strategic performance requirements.
Identify opportunities to improve production efficiency, throughput, yield, quality, reliability, and asset utilization.
Support Lean, Six Sigma, operational excellence, and continuous-improvement strategies.
Evaluate automation opportunities across production, material handling, inspection, packaging, and other manufacturing activities.
Develop automation and smart-manufacturing roadmaps aligned with business requirements.
Assess Industry 4.0 technologies including IoT, advanced analytics, robotics, AI, digital twins, machine vision, and connected manufacturing systems.
Develop manufacturing digital-transformation strategies and technology priorities.
Evaluate manufacturing systems including MES, SCADA, ERP, PLM, quality systems, production planning, and industrial data platforms.
Identify opportunities to improve manufacturing data visibility, analytics, traceability, and decision-making.
Develop strategies for production planning, scheduling, capacity management, and manufacturing flexibility.
Assess workforce requirements, skills, organizational capabilities, and future manufacturing competencies.
Partner with Human Resources and Operations to develop manufacturing workforce strategies.
Identify critical technical capabilities and skills required for future manufacturing operations.
Support manufacturing organization design, operating models, governance, and accountability frameworks.
Develop strategies for production localization, regionalization, and supply-chain resilience where appropriate.
Evaluate manufacturing risks related to suppliers, equipment, technology, capacity, labor, materials, geography, and regulatory requirements.
Develop contingency and business-continuity strategies for critical manufacturing operations.
Coordinate with Procurement and Supply Chain teams to evaluate supplier dependencies and manufacturing-related supply risks.
Assess opportunities for vertical integration and strategic internal capability development.
Support new-product introduction and manufacturing-readiness strategies.
Partner with Product Development and Engineering teams on design-for-manufacturing and design-for-assembly considerations.
Evaluate manufacturing readiness for new products, processes, technologies, and production platforms.
Establish governance for major manufacturing transformation and strategic investment programs.
Coordinate cross-functional steering committees, strategic reviews, and executive decision forums.
Manage strategic manufacturing projects from analysis and business-case development through implementation.
Track strategic initiatives, milestones, dependencies, risks, budgets, and benefits realization.
Coordinate external consultants, engineering firms, technology providers, equipment suppliers, and manufacturing partners.
Evaluate supplier and partner capabilities, strategic fit, technology maturity, cost, and delivery performance.
Develop manufacturing performance dashboards and executive reports.
Monitor strategic KPIs covering capacity, cost, productivity, quality, delivery, technology adoption, and investment performance.
Identify emerging manufacturing technologies, industry trends, competitive developments, and market opportunities.
Key Performance Indicators
Manufacturing capacity utilization
Production capacity availability
Capacity expansion delivery
Manufacturing cost per unit
Manufacturing productivity
Overall equipment effectiveness
Production throughput
Production yield
First-pass yield
Scrap rate
Rework rate
Manufacturing quality performance
On-time production
Production schedule adherence
Manufacturing lead time
Cycle-time improvement
Labor productivity
Automation utilization
Manufacturing technology adoption
Manufacturing investment ROI
Capital expenditure adherence
Manufacturing operating-cost efficiency
Cost savings
Productivity improvement
Plant utilization
Manufacturing network efficiency
Make-or-buy effectiveness
Manufacturing flexibility
New-product manufacturing readiness
New-product ramp performance
Capacity forecast accuracy
Manufacturing scenario-planning accuracy
Strategic initiative delivery
Manufacturing transformation benefits
Benefits realization
Manufacturing risk reduction
Supply continuity
Equipment reliability
Manufacturing digitalization
Process standardization
Continuous-improvement savings
Ideal Candidate
The successful candidate should have strong experience in manufacturing strategy, operations strategy, industrial engineering, manufacturing operations, supply-chain strategy, operational excellence, plant management, or manufacturing transformation, preferably within a complex international manufacturing environment.
The candidate should demonstrate:
Strong understanding of manufacturing strategy, operating models, and production systems.
Experience developing manufacturing strategies, roadmaps, capacity plans, and transformation programs.
Strong knowledge of manufacturing processes, production planning, capacity management, and operational performance.
Experience evaluating manufacturing footprints, plant locations, outsourcing, make-or-buy, and network strategies.
Strong financial and commercial understanding of manufacturing investment decisions.
Experience developing business cases, capital-investment analyses, and ROI assessments.
Strong knowledge of Lean, Six Sigma, operational excellence, and continuous-improvement methodologies.
Experience evaluating automation, robotics, Industry 4.0, and smart-manufacturing technologies.
Strong understanding of manufacturi

Work arrangement
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