Manufacturing Leadership Development Program Participant

Job Description

Manufacturing Leadership Development Program | Guardian Industries

The Tone:
This is an early career leadership development program at Guardian Industries, located in Richburg, SC. Guardian Glass is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of float, value-added, and fabricated glass products. This program is designed to cultivate future technical and operational leaders, building a pipeline to create long-term value for Guardian and society through structured plant rotations and hands-on improvement work.

The TL;DR
• Role: Early Career
• Type: Full-time
• Location: In-person Richburg, SC

• Team: Participants will work across hot end, cold end, and coating operations with support from a senior-leader mentor and experienced operations and engineering partners.
• Mission: Build a pipeline of future technical and operational leaders for Guardian Glass.

What You’ll Actually Do
• Rotations: Complete structured rotations across the plant’s major operating areas, with assignments generally lasting three to six months in each area.
• Improvement Projects: Build technical knowledge through hands-on projects focused on continuous improvement, process innovation, reliability, quality, safety, supply chain, and value creation.
• Mentorship: Meet regularly with a designated senior-leader mentor to review progress, development priorities, and future assignments.
• Supervisory Development: Develop supervisory capability through progressive floor-leadership assignments after completing initial plant rotations.
• Collaboration: Partner with operators, engineers, supervisors, and leaders to understand plant processes, identify opportunities, and implement sustainable improvements.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Bachelor’s degree in engineering, engineering technology, or another technical discipline, completed by the program start date (May 2027).
• Experience: Desire to work in an industrial manufacturing environment and complete assignments across multiple plant operating areas.
• Skills: Willingness and ability to work a schedule that supports plant operations and developmental supervisory assignments, which may include off-shift hours.
• Eligibility: Legally authorized to work in the United States without requiring employer sponsorship now or in the future.
• Bonus:
• Internship, co-op, project, military, or work experience in manufacturing, operations, engineering, or technical leadership.
• Experience applying continuous improvement, data analysis, problem-solving, or process optimization methods.