Food Manufacturing Operations Supervisor

You’re the steady hand that keeps a busy food plant humming. As the second-shift operations leader in Melrose Park, IL, you’ll guide a 20-person production team to deliver safe, high-quality products on time—every time. If you enjoy developing people, solving problems on the fly, and driving measurable results, this role offers a hands-on seat at the center of the action.

Schedule & Location

• Melrose Park, IL (on-site)
• Monday–Thursday: ~3:30 PM–12:30 AM
• Friday: typically a shorter shift

Requirements: Bilingual English/Spanish; U.S. Citizen or fully executed Green Card holder.

A Day in the Role

Start your shift with a floor walk and huddle. Confirm staffing, review production priorities, and align Quality, Maintenance, Sanitation, and Warehouse partners. As production ramps up, you’ll coach operators, troubleshoot equipment or material issues, and keep an eye on efficiency, yields, and waste. You’ll verify GMP, food safety, sanitation, and safety practices, reinforce SOPs, and document performance. By end of shift, you’ll close out reports, hand off to the next team, and capture improvement ideas for tomorrow.

What You’ll Lead

• Direct, coach, and develop ~20 production employees with clear expectations and feedback.
• Coordinate daily plans to meet schedule, quality specifications, and output targets.
• Assign work, balance labor, and adjust workflow as priorities change.
• Track downtime, labor utilization, yield, scrap, and overall efficiency; drive improvements.
• Resolve process, equipment, material, or staffing issues quickly to protect service and quality.
• Partner closely with Quality, Maintenance, Sanitation, and Warehouse to remove roadblocks.
• Ensure compliance with GMPs, HACCP/preventive controls, sanitation, allergen control, and safety procedures.
• Train team members on SOPs, standardized work, safety, and quality standards.
• Manage attendance, performance, accountability, and growth for your team.
• Complete accurate production and shift documentation.
• Identify and execute ideas to cut downtime and waste while boosting productivity.

What You Bring

• Hands-on experience in food production or food manufacturing (required).
• Background leading teams as a Production Supervisor/Manager, Shift Manager, or Manufacturing Supervisor.
• Proven success managing ~20 or more employees in a fast-paced environment.
• Bilingual English/Spanish with the ability to communicate effectively with Spanish-speaking team members.
• U.S. Citizen or fully executed Green Card holder.
• Expertise scheduling labor, organizing workflow, and setting daily priorities.
• Working knowledge of GMPs, food safety, sanitation, quality, and workplace safety.
• Confidence addressing performance and holding teams accountable for safety, quality, and output.
• Comfort with the outlined second-shift schedule.

Technical Toolkit

• Food processing operations, GMPs, HACCP, preventive controls, sanitation, allergen control.
• Production scheduling and workflow management.
• Production reporting and documentation best practices.
• Labor planning and staffing management.
• Downtime/efficiency/waste/scrap/yield tracking and analysis.
• Root-cause problem solving and corrective actions.
• Continuous improvement/Lean fundamentals and standardized work/SOPs.
• Equipment/process troubleshooting and escalation.
• OSHA-related manufacturing safety practices.
• ERP or production-management systems; Microsoft Excel for production data analysis.

Backgrounds That Translate Well

Dairy, cheese, refrigerated foods, meat, bakery, beverage, prepared foods, or other high-volume food manufacturing environments.