Operations Manager Resume Example

Also called Operations Director, Plant Manager, Site Manager.

Operations managers are measured on throughput, cost, quality and safety, often all at once. A strong resume shows the size of the operation you ran and how those measures moved while you ran it.

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What this example does well

  • The scale is clear from the first line: people, shifts and budget.
  • Productivity and safety improved together, which answers the obvious worry about one at the expense of the other.
  • Promoting leads shows he develops people as well as processes.

Updated

Brian O'Connell

Operations Manager

Summary

Operations manager with twelve years in manufacturing and distribution. Runs a 180-person packaging plant working three shifts, with an annual budget of $38 million. Raised output per labor hour by 17% in two years while cutting recordable injuries by more than half.

Experience

Operations Manager, Heartland Packaging

May 2020 – Present Indianapolis, Indiana

  • Lead a plant of 180 employees over three shifts with an annual operating budget of $38 million.
  • Raised output per labor hour by 17% by rebalancing lines and fixing the three biggest causes of downtime.
  • Cut the recordable injury rate from 4.2 to 1.8 through daily safety walks and a near-miss reporting program.
  • Reduced scrap from 6.5% to 3.9%, saving about $900,000 a year.

Shift Manager, Crossroads Distribution

Mar 2014 – Apr 2020 Plainfield, Indiana

  • Managed a night shift of 65 associates shipping 30,000 orders a night.
  • Raised on-time shipping from 94% to 99.2% by changing wave planning.
  • Trained and promoted six leads, four of whom became supervisors.

Education

BS Industrial Management, Purdue University

2009 – 2013 West Lafayette, Indiana

Skills

Plant operations, Budget management, Lean manufacturing, Safety programs, Workforce planning, Continuous improvement, KPI reporting, SAP

Certifications

  • Lean Six Sigma Green Belt — 2019
  • OSHA 30-Hour General Industry — 2021
An example: Brian O'Connell is not a real person, and the details show the kind of thing to write rather than a real career. Shown in the Ledger template. Words that postings for this job often use are marked in yellow.

How do you write a summary for an operations manager resume?

Two to four lines at the top that say what you do, for how long, and what you are best at. Here is one for each stage of a career.

  • Entry level

    Operations supervisor ready to step up, with four years leading a 30-person picking team in a distribution center. Improved picks per hour by 12%, kept the team injury-free for 500 days and completed a Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt.

  • Experienced

    Operations manager with seven years of experience in distribution. Runs a site of 120 people, manages budgets and staffing, and improves productivity, quality and safety with lean methods.

  • Senior

    Director of operations with eighteen years of experience across five plants. Responsible for 900 employees and $150 million in costs, led a network consolidation that saved $11 million a year, and built a safety culture that halved injuries.

How to write a resume summary, with more examples

What are good bullet points for an operations manager resume?

Each starts with a verb and says what was done. Change the details and numbers to your own; a number you cannot explain in an interview is worse than none.

  1. Managed daily operations of a 150-person site running two shifts.

  2. Owned an operating budget of $25 million and finished the year 3% under.

  3. Raised productivity by 14% by removing bottlenecks found in time studies.

  4. Cut the injury rate by 50% with daily safety huddles and faster fixes to hazards.

  5. Reduced overtime by 30% by matching staffing to forecast demand.

  6. Brought on-time delivery from 93% to 98.5%.

  7. Led lean projects that cut waste and freed up 8,000 square feet of floor space.

  8. Hired, trained and coached supervisors and team leads.

  9. Reported weekly KPIs to senior leadership with clear actions for anything off track.

  10. Worked with maintenance to raise equipment uptime from 86% to 93%.

Which skills should an operations manager put on a resume?

Pick the ones the job posting asks for and that you can back up with an example from your work.

Hard skills

  • Operations planning
  • Budgeting and cost control
  • Lean and Six Sigma methods
  • Safety management (OSHA)
  • Workforce and shift planning
  • KPI design and reporting
  • Quality systems (ISO 9001)
  • ERP systems (SAP, Oracle)

Soft skills

  • Leadership
  • Decisiveness
  • Coaching
  • Problem solving on the floor
  • Clear communication

Licenses and certifications

  • Lean Six Sigma Green or Black Belt
  • OSHA 30-Hour
  • APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP)
  • Project Management Professional (PMP)

Which keywords belong on an operations manager resume?

The words recruiters and applicant tracking systems search for.

  • employees
  • shifts
  • budget
  • output
  • downtime
  • injury
  • scrap
  • on-time
  • safety

Use the ones that are true for you, written the way the posting writes them, and put each where it shows something you did. A list of keywords with nothing behind it helps nobody. To keep them readable by software, choose an ATS-friendly template, and read how applicant tracking systems read a resume.

Which numbers belong on an operations manager resume?

Start with scale: people, shifts, sites, budget and volume. Then give the measures you moved, with before and after: productivity, cost per unit, quality or scrap, on-time delivery and safety.

Pick the three or four that matter most to the employer you are applying to. A food plant cares about quality and safety first; a fulfillment center about speed and accuracy.

How do you show leadership in operations?

Through what happened to people. Promotions from your team, lower turnover, a better engagement score or a safety record all show that people worked well under you.

Keep adjectives out. "Trained and promoted six leads" says more than "strong leader".

What do employers look for in a business resume?

  • Give the scale of what you handled: budget, team size, number of sites, how many executives you supported.
  • Write about outcomes other people felt. A project delivered three weeks early or a process that went from five days to one is easy to picture.
  • Name the software you use every day. Many postings for these roles filter on it.

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Questions about an operations manager resume

Is a Lean Six Sigma certificate important?

It is common in postings for manufacturing and logistics. List the belt and year, and show a project where you used it.

How far back should I go?

About fifteen years. Early supervisory roles can be shortened to a line each.

Should I mention the software I use?

Yes, especially ERP and warehouse systems. Employers prefer someone who already knows their tools.

How long should an operations manager resume be?

Two pages is fine for experienced managers.

Make this operations manager resume yours.

Start from the example, swap in your own jobs and numbers, and switch to any template without retyping a word.

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