Open Standard

Production Lead - Cabinetry & Architectural Millwork

Location: Oakland, CA

Lead daily shop execution with prepared work, clear employee direction, and accountable production results.

Open Standard is seeking a dependable Production Lead who has already directed people and coordinated work in fabrication, manufacturing, or construction. You will bring practical leadership, technical judgment, and follow-through. Cabinetry or architectural millwork experience is strongly preferred; candidates from related environments must demonstrate transferable planning, drawing-reading, and quality-control skills. Company-specific products and systems can be learned.

Open Standard is an Oakland cabinetry and architectural millwork company serving design-minded homeowners and their project teams. Our work brings together thoughtful design, precision engineering, and skilled fabrication for residential kitchens, bathrooms, and closets.

About the Role

As Production Lead, you will own daily shop-floor execution of the approved production schedule. Translate priorities into employee assignments, realistic task completion expectations, and a prepared next-task queue so the team can maintain output without avoidable interruptions.

Work with operations leadership, engineering, and procurement to verify work readiness, resolve shortages and drawing questions, and keep fabrication moving safely. Escalate decisions outside your authority promptly; engineering retains responsibility for technical releases and procurement for placing authorized orders.

Success will be reviewed through daily planned-versus-completed work, weekly output against the approved production target, readiness of upcoming work, material-related stoppages, schedule variances, and defects or rework. Report causes, action owners, and recovery steps rather than simply recording missed targets. Performance targets will be set with operations leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Before each shift, prepare assignments by employee and station, with job priorities, expected completion, and the next ready task; update the plan as conditions change.
• Lead a brief start-of-shift alignment, confirm employees understand their assignments and quality expectations, check progress during the day, and redirect work promptly when blocked.
• Before releasing a task, verify approved drawings and revisions, production sheets, programs, bills of materials, and necessary technical information; resolve discrepancies with engineering rather than asking employees to guess.
• Check upcoming work with procurement for required material, hardware, edgebanding, tooling, and equipment readiness. Track missing items by job, quantity, required date, purchase-order or delivery status, and follow-up owner; verify receipt and suitability before marking work ready.
• Maintain a rolling look-ahead of upcoming work with operations, engineering, and procurement; identify bottlenecks and material risks before scheduled starts and minimize unnecessary task changes.
• Escalate shortages, incomplete releases, equipment problems, or schedule risks as soon as identified; assign follow-up owners and due dates and present ready alternative work and a recovery plan.
• Provide clear employee direction and practical coaching, check completion and understanding, and escalate recurring performance or training gaps to operations leadership.
• Check first pieces and work at production handoffs against approved dimensions, materials, finishes, hardware, and workmanship requirements. Contain defects before further processing; coordinate corrections and record rework causes.
• Maintain shop organization, material storage, tool readiness, and equipment maintenance coordination.
• Record completed production, planned-versus-actual task completion, downtime, defects, and unresolved blockers each workday. Review weekly results with operations leadership and prepare the next shift's work before leaving.

Required Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience directing employees and coordinating daily work in fabrication, manufacturing, or construction, with examples of maintaining output and meeting commitments.
• Ability to build and maintain a practical daily work plan, assign tasks by employee capability, anticipate dependencies, and coordinate several workstations or trades.
• Clear written and verbal communication, including giving instructions, confirming understanding, documenting blockers, and holding employees accountable respectfully.
• Dependable follow-through on assignments, shortages, corrective actions, and completion dates; ability to lead without requiring constant direction from the owner.
• Ability to read dimensioned construction or fabrication drawings, distinguish current revisions, interpret material requirements, and identify missing or conflicting information.
• Practical knowledge of safe work sequencing, equipment and operator readiness, and dimensional and workmanship checks in a relevant production or construction environment.
• Ability to recognize when work is not ready or does not meet the approved requirements, contain the issue, and seek the appropriate technical decision before proceeding.
• Comfort using digital tools to track tasks and communicate progress.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct shop-floor leadership experience in custom cabinetry, architectural millwork, or a closely related manufacturing environment.
• Familiarity with cabinet construction, sheet goods and veneers, edgebanding, hardware, assembly, and the workflow and safe-use requirements of woodworking equipment.
• Experience with digital production records or MRP systems such as Katana. Open Standard can train its product standards, production workflow, reporting tools, and equipment-specific procedures; independent CNC programming and mastery of every machine are not prerequisites for this leadership role.

Pay and Benefits

• Full-time, W-2; confirm final employment terms before posting.
• Compensation: $90,000-$110,000 per year, depending on relevant experience and qualifications.
• Benefits: Two weeks of paid time off (PTO), full benefits, and a 401(k) plan.
• Schedule: On-site shop leadership in Oakland. The shop generally operates four 10-hour shifts Monday-Thursday, with some Friday work.
• Training covers company products, standards, and systems; candidates must bring the required leadership and transferable technical skills.

Why Join Open Standard?

• Join a growing company where your preparation and follow-through directly support the people doing the work.
• Work alongside experienced colleagues while bringing the practical leadership needed to turn approved designs into finished products.
• Your ideas can improve daily routines, reduce avoidable interruptions, and make the shop work better.
• Take ownership of daily execution and help build a dependable production operation as the company grows.

Apply

Send your resume and a cover letter describing a team you have directed, how you prepared work and materials, and a production or schedule problem you resolved.

Open Standard is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics.