Toolroom Lead

Country:
United States of America

State / County:
California

City:
Santa Ana

Division:
Fasteners

Company:
Cherry

Function:
Operations

Workplace Type:
On-Site

Position type:
Full Time

Opportunity

The Toolroom Lead is a hands‑on working leader responsible for coordinating daily Toolroom activities, providing technical guidance to die makers, and ensuring tooling readiness to support production. This role oversees work prioritization, preventive maintenance execution, tooling repairs, inventory coordination, and operational communication while actively performing toolroom work. This is a Working Lead role responsible for providing technical leadership, work coordination, training, and coaching while continuing to perform hands‑on toolroom duties.

Formal employee management responsibilities remain with the Department Manager.

• Coordinate and prioritize daily work assignments for die makers.
• Provide technical guidance, troubleshooting support, and training.
• Support a culture of safety, quality, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Communicate tooling issues, priorities, and risks to management.

• Coordinate and monitor preventive maintenance activities for dies and tooling.
• Ensure maintenance activities are completed and documented.
• Support tooling repairs, troubleshooting, and production readiness.
• Manage spare tooling components and inventory requirements.

• Monitor tooling workflow to support production schedules and minimize downtime.
• Ensure dies are reviewed and ready for production startup.
• Escalate tooling, quality, capacity, or resource concerns as needed.
  
  Partner with Operations, Engineering, and Quality to resolve tooling issues.

• Maintain daily toolroom and press room reports.
• Track die performance, repair status, and tooling availability.
• Coordinate toolroom supply replenishment and inventory controls.
• Maintain accurate tooling and maintenance records.

• Monitor daily staffing levels and planned absences to support departmental workflow requirements.
• Coordinate employee scheduling needs with department management.
• Assist with workforce planning to ensure adequate coverage of critical tooling activities.

• Hiring or termination decisions
• Discipline or corrective actions
• Performance evaluations
• Compensation or promotion decisions
• Payroll processing and approval responsibilities

Education:

High school diploma or equivalent required. Tool & Die apprenticeship, Journeyman certification, or equivalent experience preferred.

• Extensive experience in tool and die making, die maintenance, tooling repair, and punch press operations.
• Strong knowledge of preventive maintenance programs, tooling troubleshooting, and die setup.
• Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, tooling prints, and specifications.
• Proven ability to diagnose die issues and implement corrective actions.

• Strong leadership, organizational, and communication skills.
• Ability to coordinate multiple priorities in a fast‑paced manufacturing environment.
• Experience training and mentoring skilled trades employees.
• Proficient with Microsoft Outlook, Teams, Syteline, and related business systems.

Success in this role is measured by:

• Preventive maintenance compliance.
• Reduction in die‑related downtime.
• Tooling readiness and availability.
• Achievement of safety, quality, throughput, and productivity goals.
• Timely completion of tooling priorities.
  
  Accurate reporting and communication.
• Effective training and development of die makers.
• Strong teamwork and accountability within the Toolroom.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

For informational purposes only, the range of pay for this role is $35.00 to $45.00 US Dollar (USD) Hourly based on a variety of factors.

• Employees will receive 80 hours paid time off every year.
• Employees will also receive 10 paid holidays.
• E…