Artwork and Prepress Production Manager

About this role

At Niagara, we’re looking for Team Members who want to be part of achieving our mission to provide our customers the highest quality most affordable bottled water.

Consider applying here, if you want to:    • Work in an entrepreneurial and dynamic environment with a chance to make an impact.    • Develop lasting relationships with great people.    • Have the opportunity to build a satisfying career.

We offer competitive compensation and benefits packages for our Team Members.

Artwork and Prepress Production Manager

The Artwork and Prepress Production Manager provides day to day leadership for Niagara’s Artwork Production Design and Prepress Production Design functions, setting direction for team performance, print readiness, supplier execution, and cross-functional artwork workflow effectiveness. The Manager serves as a strategic partner to PLM, Sales, Marketing, Legal, Procurement, Operations, Quality, customers, and suppliers to anticipate business needs, resolve systemic issues, and advance artwork and prepress capabilities in support of organizational priorities. Essential Functions • Builds and leads a high-performing organization with strong bench strength, clear accountability, succession planning, and leadership capability across artwork production and prepress functions. • Owns the end-to-end artwork and prepress operating model, including governance, workflow standards, escalation paths, quality expectations, and continuous improvement priorities. • Partners cross-functionally with PLM, Sales, Marketing, Legal, Procurement, Operations, Quality, customers, printers, and third-party suppliers to shape artwork strategies, resolve complex business issues, and improve execution outcomes. • Establishes short- and long-term production objectives, capacity plans, KPI targets, and service-level expectations that support business growth, customer commitments, and packaging launch timelines. • Develops and maintains performance metrics for quality, turnaround time, workload distribution, supplier performance, print readiness, rework, and process efficiency; uses insights to drive measurable improvement. • Leads strategic supplier and print quality management, including vendor expectations, ColorCert governance, printer specification standards, proofing alignment, and consistent brand/color execution across suppliers. • Serves as a senior subject matter expert for print production, prepress, packaging artwork, mechanical file requirements, and supplier readiness; advises internal and external stakeholders on risks, tradeoffs, and best practices. • Leads complex customer and supplier engagements related to artwork requirements, pre-production planning, print feasibility, cost considerations, and issue resolution to protect customer relationships and business results. • Drives standardization of artwork processes, mechanical file requirements, preflight expectations, proofing practices, supplier uploads, and print-ready release criteria to improve consistency and reduce rework. • Identifies systemic artwork, prepress, supplier, and process risks; leads root-cause analysis and corrective action plans that improve quality, turnaround, scalability, and customer satisfaction. • Guides prioritization of internal artwork requests, special projects, marketing support, mockups, trials, and customer-facing materials to ensure resources are focused on the highest-value business needs. • Develops team capability through coaching, training, performance management, technical development, and customer-management guidance that strengthens execution, collaboration, and leadership readiness. • Creates communication forums, training content, and stakeholder alignment processes that improve understanding of artwork workflows, print production requirements, supplier expectations, and customer decision points. • Maintains awareness of industry trends, print technologies, packaging requirements, and functional best practices; translates relevant learnings into process, quality, and capability improvements. • Represents the function in strategic meetings, supplier reviews, customer discussions, press checks, and cross-functional planning sessions as needed to support business continuity and successful project execution. • Manages administrative responsibilities for the function, including time and attendance oversight, invoice and purchase order review, and related operational controls as needed. • This position requires approximately 25% travel. • Please note this job description is not designed to contain a comprehensive list of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without prior notice.

Qualifications • Minimum Qualifications: • 6 Years  – Experience in Field or similar manufacturing environment • 6 Years  – Experience in leadership role • 6 Years  – Experience project management • 6 Years  – Experience with prepress file preparation experience and related software such as Esko, ColorCert or similar • 6 Years  – Experience with Adobe Creative Suite • 6 Years  – Experience with Oracle Agile PLM Software or other large manufacturing product lifecycle management system • 6 Years  – Experience with Microsoft Office Applications including Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint

*experience may include a combination of work experience and education • Preferred Qualifications: • 10+ Years– Experience in Field or similar manufacturing environment • 10+ Years – Experience working in similar position            • 10+ Years – Experience managing people/projects • 10+ Years  – Experience with prepress file preparation experience and related software such as Esko, ColorCert or similar • 10+ Years  – Experience with Adobe Creative Suite • 10+ Years  – Experience with Oracle Agile PLM Software or other large manufacturing product lifecycle management system • 10+ Years  – Experience with Microsoft Office Applica

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