Department Head - Mechanical Fabrication

Requisition Number: 79386

The company built on breakthroughs.

Join us.

Corning is one of the world's leading innovators in glass, ceramic, and materials science. From the depths of the ocean to the farthest reaches of space, our technologies push the boundaries of what's possible.

How do we do this? With our people. They break through limitations and expectations - not once in a career, but every day. They help move our company, and the world, forward.

At Corning, there are endless possibilities for making an impact. You can help connect the unconnected, drive the future of automobiles, transform at-home entertainment, and ensure the delivery of lifesaving medicines. And so much more.

Come break through with us.

Corning's businesses are ever-evolving to best serve our customers, industries, and consumers. Today, we accelerate and transform life sciences, mobile consumer electronics, optical communications, display, automotive, and solar markets. We are changing the world with:

• Trusted products that accelerate drug discovery, development, and delivery to save lives
• Damage-resistant cover glass to enhance the devices that keep us connected
• Optical fiber, wireless technologies, and connectivity solutions to carry information and ideas at the speed of light
• Precision glass for advanced displays to deliver richer experiences
• Auto glass and ceramics to drive cleaner, safer, and smarter transportation
• Solar polysilicon, wafers, and innovative photovoltaic modules, enabling low-cost solar energy solutions

Role Purpose

In this role, you will facilitate and direct daily production activities for the Laser Optics or Precision Optics fabrication business in Fairport. You will lead a high-precision manufacturing organization responsible for producing critical optical components while ensuring control and compliance with established process controls, specifications, standard work, and operating procedures. This role is accountable for achieving plant and customer requirements for safety, quality, delivery, selects, yield, equipment uptime, throughput, and cost.The Operations Department Head will work closely with Engineering, Planning, Quality, Maintenance, Supply Chain, and other functional partners to establish priorities, resolve manufacturing constraints, improve process capability, and align operational capacity with customer demand. A key focus of the role is building a strong, flexible, and accountable fabrication organization through clear expectations, disciplined execution, effective training and qualification, and employee development.

Key Responsibilities

Schedule resources and prioritize fabrication activities to ensure efficient production schedule compliance

Provide daily direction and leadership to production and maintenance employees, technicians, and engineers in accordance with established procedures and policies.

Communicate and report production and process performance metrics to production teams, plant operations staff, and functional leaders. Ensure production targets and customer delivery requirements are met on a daily and weekly basis.

Own execution against key operational performance measures, including safety, quality, delivery, selects, yield, throughput, equipment uptime, productivity, and cost. Establish and drive corrective actions when performance deviates from plan.

Engage with plant teams and functional groups to identify and implement process improvements, capacity improvements, and cost-reduction projects using structured problem solving, data analysis, Lean, DMAIC, and other continuous-improvement methodologies.

Perform performance reviews and develop and reinforce career and talent development plans for hourly/direct labor employees.

Ensure fabrication processes operate in compliance with established process control set-points, specifications, standard work, and operating procedures. Maintain process discipline and rigorous change control.

Develop, implement, and monitor training, qualification, certification, cross-training, and development programs for new and experienced operators to improve the capability and flexibility.

Partner with Engineering and technical teams to improve process capability, manufacturability, yield, cycle time, equipment performance, and overall process stability

Facilitate and monitor process and equipment changes and experimental plans involving the production process.

Manage monthly department spending, including variance analysis and corrective actions. Identify cost-reduction opportunities and provide operational input into annual budget and forecasting cycles.

Champion safety standards and expectations, including EHS requirements, cleanroom protocols, safe work practices, and timely completion of corrective actions.

Build effective cross-functional relationships and communicate production performance, risks, recovery plans, capacity constraints, and priorities throughout the Laser and Precision Optics organization.

Experiences/Education- Required

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Science, or another technical/STEM discipline.
• 5+ years of leadership experience in manufacturing or a technically complex operating environment, with demonstrated experience leading and developing frontline teams.
• Proven ability to translate technical and operational requirements into disciplined execution and results across safety, quality, delivery, cost, and productivity.

Experiences/Education- Desired

• Experience leading operations in a technically complex or high-precision manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading, developing, and building high-performing teams, including coaching, talent development, and succession planning.
• Experience