Posted August 12, 2026
General Manager
Northstone, Inc.
Waukesha, WI, US
Full Time
Job Description
Job Description
General Manager
Responsible for the overall leadership, performance, and growth of the company in accordance with its mission, vision, and core values. This role oversees all departments to ensure efficiency, profitability, and long-term success, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory standards. The General Manager drives operational excellence and quality, fosters a strong leadership team, and represents the organization internally and externally. This position requires a balance of strategic vision and hands-on management, with a focus on continuous improvement, financial performance, and customer satisfaction.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Provide overall leadership and direction, ensuring alignment with company strategy, objectives, and standards
- Oversee daily operations across all departments, and engage where needed, to ensure productivity, efficiency, and operational excellence
- Maintain a strong culture of safety, and quality through process optimization, lean initiatives, and employee engagement
- Maintain financial accountability for $50M operation, focusing on protecting healthy margins, optimizing cash flow and driving sustainable, low-risk organic growth
- Support engineering and commercial teams on new product development, design improvements, and technical problem-solving
- Drive continuous improvement across the operations using a thoughtful approach; evaluate current processes with a high benchmark for disruption
- Collaborate with the commercial teams to support customer needs, pursue new business opportunities, and support market needs
- Ensure compliance with company policies, regulatory standards, and industry certifications
- Lead, coach, and retain a loyal, high-performing management team; develop department managers, fostering collaboration, accountability, and professional growth across the leadership team
- Analyze key financial and operational metrics and implement actions to ensure achievement of business objectives
- Promote a culture of leadership, innovation, teamwork, and continuous improvement that reflects the company’s values and commitment to excellence
- Represent the company at trade shows, conferences, standards committee meetings, and other related sales, technical, and customer functions as required
- Maintain an awareness of market conditions, industry trends, and competitor activities to support business planning and strategic decisions
- Project a positive image of the organization to employees, customers, industry, and community
- Protect the organization’s value by keeping information confidential and by complying with all policies, procedures, and work instructions for this position
QUALIFICATIONS:
- Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Operations Management, or a related field required; MBA or advanced degree preferred
- 7+ years of progressive cross-functional leadership experience in a $25M - $100M industrial manufacturing environment
- Proven success in a stewardship capacity demonstrating long tenure and stable execution rather than rapid, project-based corporate restructuring or high volume manufacturing
- International business experience working with international customers or distributors required
- Proven track record of strategic planning, budgeting, P&L management, and business performance improvement
- Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma or continuous improvement certification (e.g. Green/black belt) desired
- Direct or indirect sales and/or channel management experience desired
- Strong leadership skills with the ability to inspire, motivate, and develop a high-performance culture across all disciplines
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to represent the organization effectively in diverse settings
- Excellent business acumen with sound financial management and analytical decision-making skills
- Proven success in building, managing, and coordinating diverse teams and personalities; ability to motivate, mentor, and share knowledge
- Demonstrated ability to translate strategic goals into actionable plans and measurable outcomes
- Deep commitment to quality, safety, and operational excellence with a collaborative mindset
- Willingness to travel domestically and internationally (~20–30%)
