Factory Operations Program Manager

Overview

Do you want to join a team that's changing the world? Do you have a strong background as a Factory Operations Program Manager? Then we're looking for you! Check out the job description and apply now! Put your skills to meaningful use, gain unique experience, and work with world-class team members with diverse backgrounds and expertise who share the same vision.

Join the PECNA team today!

Meet the Recruiter: Eric Laffey

Join us at Panasonic Energy as we expand to De Soto, Kansas, where we’re building the world’s largest lithium-ion battery factory. This is an exciting opportunity to grow your career while contributing to the future of electric vehicles. As part of our team, you’ll help push the limits of battery technology, enhancing performance and efficiency in sustainable transportation.

Our state-of-the-art facility, just outside the Kansas City Metro, will be a hub for innovation in green energy solutions. If you're passionate about sustainability and eager to contribute to the electric vehicle revolution, we invite you to be part of our dynamic team. Join us and make a meaningful impact on the future of energy and transportation.

The Factory Operations Program Manager leads a portfolio of factory operations–focused programs and projects that drive strategic initiatives, operational efficiency, and capital expansion within a high-volume lithium-ion battery manufacturing environment. This role is accountable for program-level execution, ensuring projects are planned, prioritized, and delivered with a strong focus on on-time, on-budget outcomes. In addition to overseeing interdependent initiatives, the Program Manager provides direct people leadership to Project Managers and PMO Analysts and serves as a key partner to Factory Operations, Engineering, and Supply Chain leadership.

Success in this role requires comfort operating in an agile, ambiguous, and fast-paced manufacturing environment, strong judgment, and the ability to balance strategic leadership with execution-focused oversight.

• Proactively partner with Factory Operations and project leadership to develop detailed execution plans, resource strategies, and critical path analyses that support on-time delivery
• Drive hands-on program execution rigor, ensuring projects remain focused on schedule adherence, cost control, and operational readiness
• Support short-term, high-impact problem-solving or “consulting-style” engagements as needed to remove barriers to factory execution
• Define and manage program scope, success criteria, deliverables, budgets, and resource plans across a portfolio of interrelated projects
• Create, maintain, and govern integrated master schedules to ensure alignment across engineering, operations, procurement, and construction activities
• Track and report program-level KPIs, ensuring timely milestone delivery, issue resolution, and performance transparency
• Optimize resource allocation and sequencing to balance capacity, cost, and schedule constraints while maximizing program outcomes

• Operate effectively in ambiguous and rapidly evolving environments by continuously reprioritizing work based on factory needs, risk, and business impact
• Design, iterate, and implement scalable planning, prioritization, execution, and sustainment mechanisms to support factory operations programs
• Provide thought leadership in program and portfolio management, influencing best practices and driving adoption across factory-facing teams
• Identify and manage program interdependencies, prioritizing initiatives to align with strategic objectives and operational timelines
• Apply program-level insights, metrics, and lessons learned to continuously refine project delivery approaches and PMO best practices
• Support long-term planning by aligning program execution with evolving business needs and capital strategy

• Lead, coach, and develop Project Managers and PMO Analysts through performance management, goal setting, and career development planning
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration,…