Batching Manager

Job Summary:

Spray Products is seeking a hands-on, highly organized Batching Manager to lead batching and compounding operations at our Medina manufacturing facility. This leader will oversee a team of batchers responsible for safely and accurately preparing formulas that support aerosol and liquid production across multiple product families.

The ideal candidate combines strong frontline leadership, deep technical knowledge of compounding and mixing, experience handling hazardous materials, and a continuous improvement mindset. This role is critical to production execution, material accuracy, safety, schedule attainment, and quality performance. The Batching Manager will work closely with plant leadership, production scheduling, quality, maintenance, and supply chain to ensure the right batches are prepared safely, on time, and to specification.

Job Duties:

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of batchers and batching leads in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

• Set daily priorities and staffing plans to support production schedules, line readiness, and customer demand.

• Build a culture of accountability, teamwork, communication, safety, and operational discipline.

• Train employees on standard work, batching procedures, GMP/work instructions, PPE, hazardous-material handling, and safe equipment operation.

• Conduct performance management, skills development, cross-training, and succession planning for batching personnel.

• Partner with HR and plant leadership on hiring, onboarding, attendance management, and employee development.

Batching / Compounding Operations

• Oversee all batching and mixing activity to ensure formulas are prepared accurately, completely, and on time.

• Verify raw materials, lot traceability, weights/measures, sequence of addition, mix times, and batch documentation.

• Ensure strict adherence to approved formulas, work instructions, quality standards, and batch records.

• Monitor tank and equipment utilization, staging, cleanout/changeover practices, and flow of materials to production.

• Coordinate with production scheduling to prioritize batch timing and support campaign planning across Medina lines.

• Troubleshoot compounding issues involving viscosity, appearance, blending sequence, mix performance, and material compatibility.

• Partner with Quality and R&D when deviations, formula questions, scale-up issues, or non-conformances arise.

Safety, Compliance & Hazardous Materials

• Champion safe handling of flammable, combustible, corrosive, and otherwise hazardous raw materials used in aerosol and liquid manufacturing.

• Enforce all site safety procedures, PPE requirements, LOTO expectations, spill response practices, and hazardous-waste handling requirements.

• Maintain compliance with plant, OSHA, EPA, DOT, fire code, and internal EHS requirements as applicable.

• Participate in incident investigation, corrective actions, safety observations, and near-miss reduction.

• Maintain orderly, audit-ready batching areas with a strong focus on housekeeping and risk reduction.

Scheduling, Communication & Cross-Functional Coordination

• Communicate daily with plant leadership on schedule readiness, constraints, labor coverage, material availability, and risk to plan.

• Coordinate with warehouse, procurement, and inventory control to ensure raw materials are available and staged correctly.

• Partner with maintenance to ensure mixers, tanks, pumps, scales, and transfer equipment are available and reliable.

• Escalate issues proactively that may impact batch release, line downtime, schedule attainment, or customer commitments.

• Support daily production meetings and provide accurate status updates on batching progress and priorities.

Continuous Improvement & KPI Ownership

• Drive improvements in batching accuracy, labor efficiency, cycle time, tank turns, schedule attainment, and right-first-time performance.

• Help reduce waste, rework, changeover losses, material variances, and downtime related to batching readiness.

• Use data to identify bottlenecks and support root-cause problem solving.

• Develop and maintain KPI visibility for the batching function, such as:

o batch schedule attainment

o right-first-time batch rate

o labor efficiency

o material variance / yield

o batching cycle time

o downtime attributable to batching delays

o safety incidents / near misses

• Support Lean, 5S, standard work, visual management, and other continuous-improvement initiatives. to budget to ELT.

Qualifications and Experience Requirements:

Required

• 5+ years of manufacturing experience in batching, blending, compounding, or mixing, preferably in aerosol, chemicals, coatings, adhesives, lubricants, personal care, or other regulated liquid/chemical environments.

• 2+ years of experience leading or supervising frontline manufacturing teams.

• Strong understanding of compounding processes, formula execution, scaling, mix order, agitation, temperature considerations, and material handling.

• Experience working with hazardous materials and strong knowledge of safe chemical handling practices.

• Ability to read and execute formulas, batch tickets, SOPs, and production documentation accurately.

• Strong communication skills with the ability to coordinate effectively across operations, quality, warehouse, planning, and maintenance.

• Working knowledge of manufacturing KPIs and a demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement.

• Comfortable working in a hands-on manufacturing environment with changing priorities.

• Basic computer proficiency, including ERP/MRP transactions, spreadsheets, and production reporting.

Preferred

• Experience in aerosol manufacturing or high-volume chemical blending.

• Experience with flammable propellant-related products, solvents, adhesives, lubricants, cleaners, or coatings.

• Associate’s or bachelor’s degree in engineering, chemistry, operations, supply chain, or related field.

• Experience with Lean manufacturing, root-cause analysis, and standard work deployment.

• Experience with inventory control, lot traceability, and material reconciliation.

• Prior experience in a facility with strong EHS, GMP, or ISO-style process discipline.

Leadership Profile

The successful candidate will be:

• a visible and credible floor leader

• calm under pressure

• highly organized and detail-oriented

• safety-first and quality-minded

• proactive in communication

• disciplined in execution

• committed to coaching and developing people

• energized by improving processes and solving problems

Physical / Work Environment

• Frequent standing, walking, bending, reaching, and working in a manufacturing environment.

• Ability to wear required PPE and work around chemicals, solvents, drums, totes, and mixing equipment.

• Ability to lift and/or move materials consistent with plant requirements.

• May require flexibility in hours to support plant schedules, startup, shift overlap, or urgent production needs.