Scott Stocker started at Boeing in 2005 as an industrial engineer in the company’s Fabrication Division in Auburn, Washington.
Today every 787 Dreamliner the company sells comes off his line.
Stocker is vice president and general manager of the 787 program and site leader for Boeing South Carolina in North Charleston. All 787 final assembly has been in South Carolina since early 2021. Boeing ended 2025 with 9,059 employees at its South Carolina sites, the Post and Courier reported.
The job puts him in charge of three things at once: more jets each month, fewer defects and a second final assembly building rising next to the first.
Stocker knows the North Charleston floor from the inside. He arrived in November 2013 as director of preflight, paint and delivery, according to the Post and Courier. He later led 787 final assembly and 787 production control. Before that, he spent three years at Boeing Aerostructures Australia in Melbourne and ran the Everett Modification Center in Washington.
In 2020, as vice president of 737 manufacturing in Renton, Washington, he oversaw the restart of 737 MAX production after a months-long pause. He went on to become vice president of manufacturing and safety for Boeing Commercial Airplanes and chaired the company’s Manufacturing Operations Council.
He came back to North Charleston on Dec. 15, 2023, succeeding Lane Ballard. Ballard moved to a supply chain engineering post and is now Boeing’s chief technology officer. The pace has picked up since his return. The line built five 787s a month in early 2025 and seven by July, the Post and Courier reported. Boeing began moving to eight a month in the fourth quarter, and the line was building eight by January, according to Boeing and the SC Daily Gazette. Boeing delivered 88 Dreamliners in 2025 and 62 through Sept. 30 of this year.
The next step, 10 a month, has slipped. Reuters reported in September that engine shortages have slowed the move to 10 a month and that slow certification of premium seats has reduced deliveries.
Stocker has described his leadership style in plain terms.
“The strongest leaders are those that acknowledge when they don’t have all the answers and then seek out those who do,” he told the Manufacturing Leadership Council in 2022.
That approach was tested in April 2024. A North Charleston employee flagged what looked like an irregularity in a required conformance test where the wings join the fuselage. Boeing told the Federal Aviation Administration that some required inspections may not have been completed, and the agency opened an investigation.
In a memo to employees, Stocker praised the worker for raising the issue and wrote that it is “critical that every one of us speak up.” Boeing reinspected the 787s still in production, WCSC Live 5 reported. The FAA has not announced an outcome of the investigation. In July, the agency let Boeing resume issuing airworthiness certificates for all new 787s, citing eight months of data showing consistent production quality.
The next test is concrete and steel. Boeing broke ground Nov. 7, 2025, on an expansion it valued at more than $1 billion, with more than 1,000 jobs over five years. The centerpiece is a second 787 final assembly building about the size of the current one, which covers roughly 1.2 million square feet. Boeing’s chief financial officer said in September the building should be finished in 2027. In an August company feature marking 15 years since the 787 was certified, Stocker pointed to the construction site.
“Our expansion is one of the most visible signs of how much opportunity still lies ahead for the 787 Dreamliner,” he said. “We’re preparing for what comes next.”
