You need a head of production who can meet an OEM's demands without fail. That part is clear. The harder part is that the EV and autonomous shift keeps breaking the stability this role used to rely on.
At a tier-1 automotive supplier, the head of production holds the line together. They answer to demanding OEM customers. They run to just-in-time and just-in-sequence delivery. They own quality and safety. And they absorb every disruption between the supply base and the assembly plant.
In traditional automotive, that job was hard but stable. In the EV and autonomous era, it is harder. The components are newer, the suppliers are less established, and the pace of change is faster. Here is how to hire for it.
Before anything else, the candidate must have the core discipline of tier-1 production. This is the baseline, and it is not negotiable. Look for a proven command of the essentials:
IATF 16949 is the international automotive quality management standard, maintained by the International Automotive Task Force. Major OEMs require their suppliers to hold it. A head of production who does not live and breathe this standard is not ready for a tier-1 role.
A tier-1 head of production lives under constant pressure. OEM customers are demanding. Delivery schedules are unforgiving. A single missed sequence can stop an assembly line downstream. So composure under that pressure is central to the role. Ask the candidate about a time a delivery was at risk. Listen closely to how they describe the response.
A strong leader stays calm, protects the OEM relationship, and solves the problem. A weaker one describes panic, blame, or a line stoppage they did not prevent. The difference tells you how they will handle your worst day.
This is where the EV and autonomous shift changes the job. Combustion has decades of settled suppliers and stable parts. EV and autonomous programmes do not. New component categories bring new problems:
A traditional head of production may expect a stable supply base. The right candidate can hold output when that base is thin and still forming. Ask how they have managed supply risk when there was no established fallback.
New technology changes what quality and safety control means. The standards are higher, and the tolerances are tighter. Battery and electronics work raises the stakes. A defect in a battery module is not the same as a defect in a bracket. The safety consequences are greater, and the OEM scrutiny is closer.
Confirm the candidate understands this shift. They should grasp how quality control, testing, and safety change when the product carries high-voltage and software-driven risk. Experience with traditional parts alone does not cover it.
Many tier-1 suppliers are not simply running EV lines. They are standing them up. New programmes, new lines, and new capacity are being built across the sector. This calls for a different kind of leader. Running an established line is one skill. Commissioning and ramping a new one is another.
Ask whether the candidate has built as well as maintained. Have they launched a new line, scaled capacity, or brought a new programme into production? In a sector this young, the ability to build is often what the role needs most.
This role asks for a rare mix. Deep tier-1 production discipline on one side. The adaptability to run a fast-changing EV supply chain on the other. Few candidates hold both in equal measure. Most recruiters can find a traditional automotive production manager. Fewer can tell whether that person will cope with an immature, shifting EV supply base. That takes an understanding of both the automotive production world and the change moving through it.
This is where a specialist approach earns its place. The head of production is too central a role to fill on traditional experience alone.
This is the rigour Recruitment Legends brings to senior automotive and production hiring. We recruit across South Africa, with teams serving Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, and Cape Town. We confirm the tier-1 fundamentals, test for composure under OEM pressure, and assess whether a leader can handle a fast-changing supply base. The result is a head of production you can trust with the line.
Hiring a head of production or operations leader? Tell us about the role. We will take it from there.
