The Manufacturing Plant Director will direct daily operations across our production, packaging, warehousing, and maintenance functions — ensuring safe, efficient, and compliant output that meets our quality standards and customer commitments. You will own production scheduling, budgeting, staffing, and continuous improvement, with a direct line to senior leadership on performance and strategy.
This is a high-ownership, on-the-floor leadership role. The right candidate is both a systems thinker and a hands-on operator — someone who can build the structure, coach the team, and step in where needed.
What You’ll Do
Operations Leadership
- Direct daily manufacturing operations across production, packaging, warehousing, and maintenance to ensure smooth workflow and consistent achievement of production targets.
- Develop and manage production schedules that balance customer demand, inventory levels, and facility capacity.
- Identify and eliminate bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and waste through lean manufacturing principles and continuous improvement initiatives.
Safety & Compliance
- Enforce rigorous food safety standards including HACCP and GMPs across all facility operations, ensuring zero-compromise compliance.
- Maintain full compliance with OSHA occupational health standards and all applicable federal, state, and local regulations.
- Ensure the facility is audit-ready at all times for FDA, USDA, SQF, and customer-driven inspections.
Quality & Sanitation
- Maintain high and consistent product quality standards across all production runs; oversee sanitation protocols and ensure strict adherence to customer specifications.
- Partner with Quality teams to investigate deviations, lead root cause analysis, and drive corrective actions that prevent recurrence.
- Champion a quality-first mindset across all departments — from raw material intake through finished goods release.
Performance & Efficiency
- Establish, track, and analyze KPIs across production, quality, safety, and cost; use data to drive decisions and hold teams accountable.
- Implement and sustain lean manufacturing practices to improve throughput, reduce waste, and optimize cost-efficiency across the facility.
People Leadership
- Recruit, train, evaluate, and develop plant staff; build a bench of capable, motivated operators and supervisors who own their work.
- Ensure adequate scheduling and staffing levels to meet production demands without sacrificing team well-being.
Budget & Strategic Planning
- Own and manage the plant’s operating budget; identify cost reduction opportunities while maintaining quality and compliance standards.
- Partner with senior leadership on strategic planning, capital investments, and facility expansion as the business scales.
What You’ll Bring
- Proven management experience in a food processing or manufacturing environment, with demonstrated ability to lead large, multi-functional teams.
- Deep technical knowledge of food safety systems including HACCP, GMPs, SQF, CIP (Clean in Place) and ISO quality management frameworks.
- Hands-on experience with production machinery, maintenance operations, and sanitation programs.
- Strong command of lean manufacturing methodologies and a track record of driving measurable efficiency gains.
- Solid understanding of regulatory requirements including FDA, USDA, and OSHA standards.
- Strong leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills — comfortable on the floor and in the boardroom.
- Proficient with production and business systems; able to translate data into operational decisions.
- Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field preferred; equivalent experience considered.
This Describes You
- Floor-First Leader — You lead from the front. Your team knows you’re present, engaged, and invested in their success and safety every single day.
- Relentless on Standards — Safety, quality, and compliance aren’t checkboxes for you. They are the baseline, and you hold everyone — including yourself — to them without exception.
- Systems Thinker — You see the whole operation, not just the parts. You identify inefficiencies before they become problems and build processes that hold up under pressure.
- People Developer — You invest in your team. You coach, develop, and challenge the people around you because you know that great operations are built by great people.
- Calm Under Pressure — When equipment fails or demand spikes, you don’t panic — you problem-solve. You bring steadiness and clarity when the environment is anything but.
