Technical Production Manager (Hands-On) — Craft Ceramics Workshop

Location: Denpasar, Bali (production is relocating to a new facility)

Working hours: Monday – Saturday, 09:00 – 18:00

Format: On-site

This is a position of specific responsibility (jabatan tertentu) under Government Regulation 35/2021 Article 27: working time is not fixed to a standard schedule and overtime pay does not apply. The salary is set to reflect that. Weekly rest day and public holidays apply as normal.

About the Company

We are a premium craft tile manufacturer specializing in high-end, handcrafted lava stone products for residential and commercial interiors. Our clients include architects, designers, developers, and private buyers in the premium segment. We are expanding our team and are looking for a hands-on, technically strong Production Manager who can keep a semi-manual workshop running and improve it.

Position Overview

This is not a desk role. Our kilns are built in-house, our raw material supply is not always stable, and our processes are semi-manual by design — that is what makes the product what it is. We need a manager who can stand at the kiln, find the real cause of a defect or a breakdown, fix it, and then make sure it does not happen again. You report directly to the Director and lead a production team of around 8 people, including the Senior Foreman, Workshop Foremen, Storekeeper, Sorter, Packer, Quality Control Specialist.

Key ResponsibilitiesImmediate priorities (first three months)

• Lead the relocation of production to our new Denpasar facility: dismantling, transport, kiln re-assembly, building the new kilns, electrical connection, commissioning, and restoring full output.
• Keep the equipment running. Daily walk-through, fast response to breakdowns, and a written breakdown log — what failed, why, what was done, how much time was lost.
• Enforce our existing quality documents daily: the QC instruction, the sorting regulation, and the defect standards we already use. Your job is to make them live on the floor, not to rewrite them.
• Deliver a daily and weekly production report to the Director: output in square metres, defect rate by cause, kiln downtime in hours, material consumption.
• Establish workplace discipline and safety at the new site, including fire and electrical safety.

Development tasks (first year)

• Build a real production plan: first measure the true capacity of each product line, then schedule against order volume.
• Set material consumption norms per square metre and reduce waste.
• Move kilns and equipment from breakdown repair to planned preventive maintenance, including a spare-parts list held in stock.
• Create an incoming-material acceptance procedure so that a change of supplier is caught before firing, not after.
• Cross-train the team so every key process is covered by at least two people.
• Track productivity and cost per square metre, and act on it.

Requirements

• 5+ years in manufacturing, at least 2 of them leading people directly on the floor.
• Hands-on troubleshooting of electrical and mechanical equipment faults. You read a wiring diagram, you use a multimeter, and you are not afraid of equipment that was built in-house rather than bought.
• Practical experience with industrial kilns — required, not a bonus.
• Ability to trace a defect back to its real cause: a process parameter, a material batch, or an operator habit. Experience with ceramics, glaze, or any fired product is a strong advantage.
• Working English — the Director sets tasks in English.
• Technical education in ceramics, materials science, chemistry, or mechanical engineering is an advantage; proven practice counts more than a diploma.
• Based in Bali or ready to relocate to Denpasar.

Before you apply

This is a workshop of about a dozen people, not a factory floor of three hundred. Much of the work is manual, the equipment is partly self-built, and problems arrive without warning. If you expect a finished system to administer, a maintenance department to call, and a stable supplier list — this role will frustrate you and you should not apply. If you like fixing what nobody has fixed before, you will enjoy it here. Hours are not always predictable: when a kiln fails on Friday evening, the person in this role is the one who deals with it.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary discussed with the successful candidate, based on demonstrated technical skill. The offer accounts for the unlimited-working-time status of the position, so overtime is not paid separately.
• Probation period: three months.
• BPJS Ketenagakerjaan and BPJS Kesehatan after the probation period.
• THR and paid public holidays according to Indonesian law.
• Company-provided laptop and mobile allowance.
• A small professional team, a premium design-led product, and long-term growth with the company.

Who we are looking for

We want an owner, not an observer: someone who takes full responsibility for the shop floor, reports honestly when something goes wrong, and comes back with a solution rather than a complaint. We will not consider candidates who manage only through others, who avoid the floor, or who need a written instruction before every decision.