Life at Kaiser

Kaiser Aluminum’s leading role in our industry is the direct result of the people we have working here. We are proud of creating an environment and culture that attracts superior people. We’d like you to meet a few of those people as they share their stories of life at Kaiser.

Caroline

Metallurgical Engineer

I came to work at Warrick as my first job out of college, and I couldn’t have made a better decision. As a metallurgical engineer, I enjoy the hands-on aspect of working at Kaiser Aluminum. I get to spend a lot of time in the mills both working on quality issues and observing our processes. I have a lot of variety in my work, from writing heat treatment practices to helping address customer issues. There’s something different every day, and I always learn something new.

Kaiser employees are highly knowledgeable and eager to help. Any time there is a new challenge, you will find team members out in the mill, ready to make changes and working to understand our issues and how to solve them. Every day, I get to come to work and make impactful changes. The amount that I’ve learned since I have been with Kaiser is incredible, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of my career here brings me.

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Bradley

Vice President, Corporate Safety and Health

Helping people was a part of the foundation on which I was raised. At the age of 14, I joined the local fire department as a volunteer to give back to the community and help people. I learned from the brave men and women how to properly respond, how to help people when they could be having one of the worst days of their lives, and to be compassionate. This experience taught me a lot about the importance of life and family and inspired me to pursue a career focused on keeping people safe.

What I discovered is the best thing about Kaiser Aluminum is the people; every person in the organization has a role and is a member of the Kaiser “family” very similar to my experience in the fire service. We pride ourselves on being “Best in Class” and it stems from one of our core values of being a preferred employer. Every employee can be proud that the products we produce are far-reaching.

If you are considering a career with Kaiser, you will be a part of the Kaiser Aluminum “family”. I will look forward to working alongside you to ensure that you and every Kaiser family member go home safe and healthy at the end of the day.
Safety at Kaiser Aluminum is about quality of life. It’s not safety first, it’s safety always; safety has to be part of the overall business process. The business fails without safety and safety fails without the business.

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Courtney

Product Metallurgist

After a few years of working as a production metallurgist, my curiosity led me to want to understand more about the entire manufacturing process for the packaging products using our aluminum.

I now work as a technical liaison between our customers and the plant for all food packaging products produced and sold by Kaiser Warrick. I have a wide array of responsibilities from the day-to-day reviewing and dispositioning issues to driving and managing continuous improvement projects through the plant. As the Food Product Metallurgist, I also facilitate root cause investigations for any product-related issues raised by our customers.

The most fulfilling part of my job is helping to solve complex issues that affect the performance of the final product. I take great pride in knowing that my day-to-day efforts help promote the overall satisfaction of our customers as well as the health and safety of the consumers of our products. It is very fulfilling working with our Kaiser team at Warrick as we all take pride in our work and make integrity a priority every day. Kaiser has invested in my future and taken a chance on me, so I work very hard each day to invest the same energy into our products.

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Scott

Automation & Process Improvement Manager

When I was looking for work, I already had some familiarity with the Kaiser facility and process owners, as I have a relatively broad experience base in a fair number of heavy industrial facilities. Kaiser represented a wealth of new opportunities for growth, both technically and professionally, due to the large variety of equipment types, different processes and the scale of the facility. The ongoing challenges of maintaining and operating a facility this size and complexity provide a wealth of learning opportunities, both technically and in management roles.

One thing I enjoy about working at Kaiser is the fact that each day is quite different, simply due to the nature of the facility – particularly with the drive for process and equipment improvements. Continual planning, coordinating and execution of process and equipment upgrades make up a good portion of my day. If there are unexpected equipment issues or downtime, a lot of coordination, field work, planning and recovery work are involved in order to drive those conditions to completion. I also try to spend a portion of the day on the floor watching equipment operate and interacting with operators and maintainers on the floor to get a more involved picture of the facility.

At Kaiser, I enjoy solving difficult and long standing issues, as well as helping to provide educational and learning opportunities to others in the facility to try to help them do the same. Due to the size and complexity of some of the processes and lines, making a fundamental process change or improvement can be very challenging and time consuming, which makes succeeding at those projects very rewarding when it all comes together. I’ve found our facility to be full of talented people, the vast majority of whom show continual interest in trying to make the facility a better place.

As my career continues, my goal is one of continuous self-improvement – to learn better techniques for process management, for personnel management and for training. Kaiser has always been very supportive in providing me opportunities to do so.

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