Supervisor of Production

Voith Group, a global technology company with a long history of moving industries forward, is looking for a Supervisor of Production to join its Voith Paper team in Appleton, Wisconsin. The role is full-time and onsite, built for someone who can lead a production floor with a clear eye on safety, quality and schedule adherence. The company’s broad portfolio spans energy, paper, raw materials and transport & automotive, and Voith’s Paper division focuses on the production side. Voith operates in more than 60 countries and employs about 20,700 people, with annual sales around € 4,8 billion. It remains one of Europe’s larger family-owned businesses.

For a deeper sense of the culture and opportunities at Voith, you can view the Voith careers video on YouTube. It’s a quick glimpse into how teams collaborate and grow within the company.

Reasons you’ll love working here include a balance between work and life, a competitive pay and benefits package, a 401K with a generous company match, a climate-neutral footprint worldwide, and options for tuition reimbursement. If you’re excited by steady, hands-on leadership on a manufacturing floor and by driving improvements alongside safety and quality, this role could be a strong fit.

The hands-on rhythm of production leadership

You’ll provide frontline leadership for the assigned production area and shifts, guiding the team through daily tasks while keeping safety, quality and policy compliance at the forefront. Alongside setting the production plan, you’ll flex staffing, overtime and equipment use to respond to changing priorities and constraints, always keeping the line on track. You’ll monitor key measures like safety, quality, delivery, cost and productivity, spotting gaps and driving timely fixes. When challenges arise, you’ll communicate risks, material or resource limits, and recovery plans to the Production Manager and supporting functions, ensuring everyone stays aligned. You’ll work closely with Quality to contain defects, implement corrective actions, and prevent recurrence, and you’ll apply structured problem-solving and Lean approaches to cut waste, downtime and variation. Daily shifts include briefings, accurate shift reporting and smooth handoffs, and you’ll set clear expectations, recognize strong performance, and address issues through coaching and appropriate corrective action. You’ll also help develop teammates through feedback, training and career conversations, encourage improvement ideas and standardized work, and keep dependable records for attendance, production and manufacturing systems. Participation in hiring and onboarding of production staff, plus supporting the training of new Supervisors, completes your circle of influence as you represent the shift in safety, quality and continuous-improvement meetings.

Must-haves and nice-to-haves, reimagined for you

What you’ll need to start strong:

• A high school diploma or equivalent
• At least three years of leadership experience in a manufacturing or industrial setting
• A proven track record of guiding hourly workers while managing safety, quality, productivity and schedule execution
• Experience reading production metrics and using data to shape operational choices
• Strong written and verbal communication, coaching, conflict resolution and problem-solving abilities
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and familiarity with MES or ERP systems
• Ability to work the assigned shift and provide coverage beyond normal hours when business needs require it

• Experience in a complex, multi-step manufacturing operation
• Knowledge of Lean manufacturing, root-cause analysis and structured problem-solving methods
• Prior work in a union manufacturing environment
• Experience with workplace investigations, employee relations, emergency response or incident management
• Awareness of quality systems, production scheduling and manufacturing performance reporting

Pay, perks and the practical side of the role

The role is based onsite in Appleton, WI, with a defined shift and the possibility of covering outside regular hours when needed. Voith highlights a competitive compensation and benefits package, including a 401K plan with a generous company match and a climate-neutral footprint worldwide. Tuition reimbursement is available to support ongoing learning, and the company’s environment emphasizes safety and collaboration across functions. Physical demands include frequent walking, sitting and standing on the job, with occasional pushing, pulling and lifting up to 50 pounds.

Tips to help you stand out for this job

Lead your resume with a concrete, quantifiable example of your three-plus years of leadership in manufacturing, especially where you managed safety, quality and productivity on an hourly workforce.

Show how you prove you can interpret production metrics and make data-backed shifts in plans, labor, and equipment use. Include specific tools or systems you’ve used (MES or ERP) and any measurable improvements you drove.

Prepare to talk about your daily shift-management routines, the way you run briefings, coordinate handoffs and keep accurate shift reporting, plus a real example of how you addressed a production risk or schedule disruption.

Consider a question that ties to the role’s cross-functional nature, such as how the site calibrates continuous-improvement efforts with Quality, Maintenance and Scheduling to keep performance on target.