Plant Manager

Introduction

Northern Cables Inc. is a Canadian-owned and operated manufacturer of commercial and industrial power cables. Founded and built in Eastern Ontario, the company has grown into a leading North American supplier, with over 300 employees across three manufacturing facilities. Its products support critical applications in mining, infrastructure, transit, and large-scale commercial projects.

Specializing in armoured cables, copper, and aluminum, Northern Cables operates a highly integrated manufacturing model, drawing and stranding its own conductors and producing finished cable entirely in-house. The organization sources the majority of its raw materials from North America and supports a broad customer base across Canada and the United States.

The business is now entering a new phase of evolution, transitioning from a historically shareholder-led organization to a more structured, management-driven model. Backed by a multi-year succession plan and significant ongoing investment in capital, automation, and facility expansion, Northern Cables is continuing to scale both its operations and leadership structure.

Within this context, the Plant Manager role in Brockville is a key leadership position at the company’s largest and most complex site. This is a highly visible, hands-on role responsible for driving operational performance, leading unionized teams, and supporting a significant pipeline of capital and process improvement initiatives. The Plant Manager will play an important role in strengthening day-to-day execution while contributing to the organization’s continued growth.

Summary of the Role

Reporting directly to the Operations Manager, the Plant Manager will lead and optimize all day-to-day operations at Northern Cables’ largest manufacturing facility in Brockville, Ontario.

As Plant Manager, you will lead the production team, providing direction and support across shift operations and daily coordination, with overall responsibility for production, health and safety, labour relations, and operational output. You will ensure safe, efficient, and consistent execution across all aspects of plant performance within a 24/7 production environment. Operating within a unionized setting, you will oversee contract management and employee relations while maintaining a disciplined, fair, and high-performing workplace. You will serve as the on-site leader, ensuring alignment between production targets, quality standards, and workforce engagement.

This leadership role requires a strong and visible presence on the shop floor, regular engagement with employees, and a proactive approach to problem-solving and decision-making. You will ensure that production schedules are met, equipment and processes are running effectively, and that issues are identified and addressed in real time. This includes supporting supervisors, maintaining clear expectations across teams, and addressing workforce matters as they arise across the plant. Working closely with the Engineering team, you will also share responsibility for maintenance coordination and play an active role in troubleshooting, process improvement, and operational problem-solving.

You will play an integral role in supporting ongoing capital projects, including equipment installation, plant layout optimization, and the integration of new technologies and automation. You will contribute to both the technical and operational aspects of these initiatives, helping ensure minimal disruption to production while enhancing overall efficiency and output. Additionally, the role will also support the continued advancement of lean and continuous improvement initiatives. You will be encouraged to bring forward ideas and help strengthen performance, efficiency, and workflow across the plant.

Beyond day-to-day operations, you will reinforce accountability across plant operations, ensuring performance is managed effectively and teams are aligned to production, safety, and quality objectives. You will support a culture of ownership and collaboration across the plant, working closely with supervisors and cross-functional partners to maintain disciplined execution and address operational challenges as they arise.

Is This for You?

You are a hands-on manufacturing leader who is most effective when close to the operation and connected to your team. Your experience likely comes from a production or industrial environment where you have led teams, managed day-to-day operations, and contributed to improving processes, structure, or team performance. You are comfortable operating in a setting that is fast-paced, physical, and people-driven, and are naturally present on the floor, engaging with employees, understanding challenges in real time, and ensuring that work is executed safely and efficiently. Exposure to continuous improvement or lean initiatives would be considered an asset.

You have a strong foundation in leadership and people management, with the ability to manage performance, support supervisors, and navigate workforce dynamics with confidence. You are comfortable addressing employee relations matters as they arise and understand how to operate within a structured, unionized environment. You lead with transparency and fairness, earning credibility through your actions and your willingness to step in when needed.

You are organized, pragmatic, and solution-oriented. You know how to prioritize, communicate expectations clearly, and keep teams aligned to production, safety, and quality objectives. You are comfortable working across both the floor and office environments, whether that involves reviewing production data, participating in meetings, or coordinating with cross-functional teams. You bring enough technical understanding to engage with engineering and production teams, but your strength lies in how you lead people and drive execution.

This posting is for a permanent full-time position with Northern Cables.

We use AI-powered tools (such as Fathom, Gemini, and Monica) to support certain administrative aspects of our recruitment process, such as interview note-taking, transcription, and summarization. These tools are used to improve efficiency and consistency. All AI-generated outputs are reviewed by a qualified recruiting professional, and all hiring decisions are made by humans. We do not use AI for selection purposes but do utilize AI powered search functions (Microsoft/Google) to help identify candidates on behalf of our clients.