Position Summary
Seeking an experienced, hands-on Plant Manager to lead the daily operations of our food manufacturing and distribution facility. Liquid processing experience strongly recommended. This position is responsible for production, food safety, quality, warehousing, inventory, shipping and receiving, maintenance, and employee performance.
The Plant Manager will ensure that customer orders are produced safely, accurately, on time, and at the required quality while controlling labor, waste, operating costs, and inventory. The successful candidate will be highly visible on the plant floor and able to combine disciplined operational management with practical problem-solving and strong people leadership.
Key Responsibilities Plant Operations
- Direct all daily manufacturing, packaging, warehousing, and distribution activities.
- Develop production and staffing schedules based on customer orders, inventory requirements, labor availability, and equipment capacity.
- Ensure products are manufactured, packaged, stored, and shipped according to specifications and delivery commitments.
- Monitor production output, labor efficiency, downtime, yields, waste, and order accuracy.
- Identify production constraints and implement solutions that improve throughput and reliability.
- Coordinate closely with sales, purchasing, customer service, quality, and logistics.
- Establish and maintain clear operating procedures, performance standards, and shift-accountability systems.
Food Safety and Quality
- Maintain a strong culture of food safety, sanitation, quality, and regulatory compliance.
- Ensure compliance with applicable FDA, USDA, OSHA, state, local, and customer requirements.
- Oversee adherence to GMPs, HACCP or preventive-controls programs, allergen controls, sanitation procedures, traceability, and product-hold protocols.
- Partner with the quality team to investigate complaints, nonconforming products, and food-safety concerns.
- Ensure corrective and preventive actions are completed promptly and effectively.
- Support customer, regulatory, and third-party inspections and audits.
- Maintain facility readiness for product recalls and traceability exercises.
- Ensure employees receive appropriate food-safety, sanitation, and quality training.
Warehouse and Distribution
- Oversee receiving, storage, picking, staging, loading, and shipping operations.
- Maintain inventory accuracy, lot traceability, product rotation, and appropriate FIFO/FEFO practices.
- Ensure refrigerated, frozen, or ambient products are stored and transported under required conditions.
- Monitor shipping accuracy, on-time delivery, freight costs, damaged products, and customer returns.
- Coordinate company vehicles, third-party carriers, and delivery schedules as applicable.
- Maintain an orderly, secure, and sanitary warehouse.
Safety and Facility Management
- Promote a safety-first culture throughout the facility.
- Ensure compliance with workplace-safety programs, equipment procedures, and required training.
- Investigate accidents and near misses and implement appropriate corrective actions.
- Oversee preventive maintenance, equipment repairs, utilities, and general facility upkeep.
- Work with maintenance personnel and outside vendors to minimize unplanned downtime.
- Assist in evaluating and implementing capital improvements, automation, and new equipment.
Team Leadership
- Lead, coach, and hold accountable supervisors, production employees, warehouse personnel, drivers, maintenance staff, and other assigned team members.
- Recruit, onboard, train, schedule, and develop employees.
- Establish clear goals and regularly communicate operating results to the team.
- Conduct performance evaluations and address attendance, conduct, and performance concerns consistently.
- Build a culture of teamwork, accountability, respect, continuous improvement, and open communication.
- Develop supervisors and cross-train employees to strengthen coverage and support company growth.
Financial and Performance Management
- Manage plant operating expenses, labor costs, overtime, waste, and productivity.
- Participate in budgeting, forecasting, workforce planning, and capital-expenditure decisions.
- Track and report key performance indicators, including:
- Safety incidents
- Food-safety and quality results
- Production output and schedule attainment
- Labor efficiency and overtime
- Yield, scrap, rework, and product waste
- Equipment downtime
- Inventory accuracy
- Order accuracy and on-time shipment
- Customer complaints and returns
- Use operating data to identify root causes and implement measurable improvements.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in operations management, food science, engineering, business, supply-chain management, or a related field preferred. Equivalent relevant experience will be considered.
- At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in manufacturing or distribution.
- At least 3 years of management experience in a food manufacturing, processing, packaging, or distribution environment.
- Demonstrated experience managing production employees, supervisors, warehouse operations, and cross-functional teams.
- Working knowledge of GMPs, HACCP, food-safety systems, sanitation, allergen controls, traceability, and regulatory inspections.
- Experience managing budgets, production schedules, labor, inventory, and operating-performance metrics.
- Familiarity with ERP, warehouse-management, inventory-control, or production-planning systems.
- Strong leadership, communication, organizational, and problem-solving abilities.
- Ability to make sound decisions in a fast-paced environment and respond effectively to operational emergencies.
- Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, SQF, BRCGS, PCQI, HACCP, or related training is a plus.
- Bilingual English/[Spanish or other relevant language] is a plus.
Physical and Scheduling Requirements
- Ability to work regularly in manufacturing, warehouse, refrigerated, freezer, and loading-dock environments as applicable.
- Ability to stand and walk for extended periods and safely navigate an active production facility.
- Ability to lift up to [50] pounds when necessary.
- Ability to wear required personal protective equipment.
- Flexibility to work early mornings, evenings, weekends, or holidays when operating conditions require it.
- Availability to respond to urgent production, food-safety, refrigeration, maintenance, or distribution issues outside normal business hours.
What Success Looks Like
The successful Plant Manager will:
- Finalize and maintain a safe, audit-ready, and well-organized facility.
- Consistently meet production and delivery commitments.
- Improve labor efficiency, yields, inventory accuracy, and equipment reliability.
- Reduce waste, downtime, customer complaints, and operating costs.
- Build a capable, accountable supervisory and hourly workforce.
- Implement scalable systems that support the company’s continued growth.
Pay: $75,000.00 - $100,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Retirement plan
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
