Chief Operating Officer in Fort Wayne, Indiana at Press-Seal Gasket Corporation

Three generations. Multiple plants. One operator to run them.

Press-Seal Corporation has been manufacturing specialty rubber sealing products for the waterworks and industrial markets for three generations, family-owned throughout. Our products sit underground in municipal infrastructure across North America, where failure is not an option and quality is not negotiable.

We are no longer a single-plant company. Through acquisition and organic growth, we now operate multiple manufacturing facilities across Indiana, with more expected. We are creating the role of Chief Operating Officer to run them. Ownership will still be involved in plant-level duties.

Purpose of Position

Reporting directly to the CEO, the COO owns manufacturing across all Press-Seal facilities — Fort Wayne, Jasper, InSeal, and the plants we acquire next. You will carry the operating P&L and be measured on three things above all: throughput, cost, and margin.

You will also own all of engineering — new product development and plant-level industrial engineering both. That means one person is accountable for what we decide to build, how fast it gets to launch, and whether the process on the floor can actually make it at cost. Few operating roles at this size carry that whole span.

This is a floor role, not a corner office. You will know the extrusion lines, presses, mixers, lathe-cut cells, and the people running them. You will decide which work belongs at which plant, where the constraints are, and what capital is worth spending. When we buy a company, you are the one who makes the operating thesis real.

What You’ll Own

• Consolidated operating P&L across all manufacturing sites

• All engineering — new product development and plant-level industrial engineering

• Plant leadership development and accountability

• Capacity, capital planning, and constraint removal

• Quality systems (ISO 9001, IATF 16949, PPAP, NSF 61) and EHS performance

• Materials strategy, inventory, and supply resilience

• Operating integration of acquired facilities

What We’re Looking For

• A decade or more of manufacturing leadership with multi-site P&L ownership — you have run more than one plant at the same time

• Experience leading engineering on both sides: product development timelines and plant-level industrial engineering

• A track record integrating acquisitions or turning around underperforming operations

• Materials-processing background: rubber, polymer, plastics, or similar — mixing, molding, or extrusion

• Real fluency in lean methods and formal quality systems

• A results record you can put numbers to

Rubber compounding or molding depth, and experience in waterworks, filtration, or tier automotive supply, will move you to the top of the list.

Why Press-Seal

We are family-owned and intend to stay that way. That means decisions get made in days, not quarters, and the person setting strategy is in the building. It also means we take a long view — we are building an operating platform, not dressing up a company for sale.

You will report to the CEO with a direct line, a real mandate, and the authority to match it.