Area Manager - Northeast

At Air Products, we reimagine what’s possible. By tapping into the motivation of our people and our collective experience, we create the ideas and innovations that drive us forward. When we come together – where every voice is heard and everyone knows they belong and matter – we create solutions that launch people into space, support lifesaving care in hospitals, and enable the construction of groundbreaking, world scale production facilities.

Reimagine What’s Possible 

The Northeast Area Manager is a senior operations leadership role accountable for the safe, reliable, and cost-effective performance of plants across New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and Quebec. The area includes air separation facilities, generated gas plants, and terminals. Reporting to the North Sub-region Operations Director, this leader owns area performance and ensures operating discipline, customer commitments, asset reliability, and business objectives are consistently achieved.

The Area Manager leads plant operations and maintenance execution with a focus on reliability, productivity, customer supply assurance, and operating cost performance. During operational upsets, emergencies, or business-critical events, this leader must provide decisive direction, mobilize cross-functional resources, communicate effectively with senior leadership, and drive sustainable corrective actions.

Success in this role requires the ability to influence across functions, communicate with credibility, and build strong relationships with employees, labor representatives where applicable, senior customer contacts, community stakeholders, and internal business partners. The Area Manager must lead with accountability, urgency, and sound judgment while developing leaders and strengthening the overall organization.

Principal Accountabilities

• Provide visible leadership for Environmental, Health, Safety, and Quality performance across the area, with clear accountability for risk reduction, compliance, and protection of people, communities, customers, and the environment.

• Own area operating performance by driving safe, reliable, and cost-effective production to meet customer supply commitments and business objectives.

• Partner with the Line Manager, Asset Managers, Account Managers, and central support teams to improve profitability, optimize assets, strengthen reliability, and align resources with regional priorities.

• Lead operational response during unplanned events, customer impacts, and business-critical issues by mobilizing resources, communicating effectively, and ensuring corrective actions are completed.

• Develop organizational capability by strengthening leadership depth, coaching teams, improving workforce engagement, and building a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.

• Identify capital, maintenance, staffing, and productivity needs; support execution of the area capital plan; and deliver measurable improvements in cost, efficiency, reliability, and asset utilization.

• Build and maintain effective relationships with customers, community stakeholders, and internal partners to support supply reliability, business continuity, and long-term growth.

Key Leadership Competencies

• Strategic operations leadership with the ability to set direction, establish priorities, and deliver results across a complex, geographically dispersed area.

• Strong ownership mindset with accountability for safety, reliability, cost performance, customer commitments, and business outcomes.

• Decisive problem-solving and crisis leadership under time-sensitive, high-impact operating conditions.

• Ability to influence across functions, align stakeholders, and drive execution without relying solely on direct authority.

• Talent development and organizational capability building, including coaching leaders, strengthening succession depth, and improving team engagement.

• Business and financial acumen to evaluate trade-offs, manage resources, support capital priorities, and improve asset performance.

• Clear, credible communication with employees, senior leaders, customers, community stakeholders, and cross-functional partners.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years of progressive operations, manufacturing, or plant leadership experience in a chemical plant, industrial gas facility, petroleum refinery, or similarly complex operating environment.

• Minimum of 5 years of experience leading supervisors, technical employees, operations teams, or multi-site organizations with accountability for safety, reliability, cost, and performance results.

• Distribution and terminal experience is preferred.

• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence across functions, align stakeholders, and translate business priorities into executable operating plans.

• Strong safety leadership background with experience building accountability, improving hazard recognition, reducing operational risk, and sustaining compliance expectations.

• Proven business acumen, including experience managing operating costs, productivity initiatives, maintenance priorities, asset utilization, and capital or reliability improvement plans.

• Experience leading during operational upsets, customer supply issues, emergency response situations, or other business-critical events requiring sound judgment and decisive action.

• Track record of developing leaders, strengthening team capability, coaching performance, and building an engaged culture of ownership and continuous improvement.

• Strong communication skills with the ability to engage effectively with senior leaders, customers, community stakeholders, and internal business partners.

• Degree in engineering, a technical field, business, operations management, or an equivalent discipline preferred.

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Founded in 1940, Air Products is a world-leading industrial gases company and has a proud history of innovation, operational excellence, with an unwavering commitment to safety and environmental stewardship. Working together, we are taking our passion and diverse backgrounds forward to reimagine what’s possible and generate a cleaner future for our customers, our communities, and the world.
  
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer (U.S.).  You will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, citizenship, gender, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disability, or veteran status.  

Air Products is committed to working with and providing a reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you have a disability and you believe you need a reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening or to submit an online application, please e-mail us at [email protected]. General application status inquiries are not answered by this mailbox rather you’ll receive an e-mail directly from our Career Center and/or the Talent Acquisition Specialist.