About the Role
Reporting to the Production Manager, you’ll be the driving force on the plant floor—visible, hands-on, and focused on outcomes. Your day starts with a safety walk, a quick huddle with the team of 3–30 operators and leads, and a review of yesterday’s KPIs—output, quality, waste, on‑time shipments. From there, you coach at the line, remove bottlenecks, and turn data into action that raises performance without compromising safety or standards.
What You’ll Lead
- Own day-to-day production execution to exceed customer expectations on quality, service, and delivery.
- Boost throughput and asset utilization while reducing waste, overtime, and unnecessary costs—maintaining current quality standards.
- Allocate people and equipment effectively to deliver plan; monitor operations and initiate corrective actions.
- Align local activities with division strategies; translate vision into clear priorities and targets for production employees.
- Recruit, onboard, schedule, and develop plant staff; build a trustworthy, high-performance culture through coaching and mentoring.
- Use structured problem solving and data analysis to identify opportunities, track metrics, and implement sustainable improvements for productivity, quality, safety, and return on assets.
- Lead regular meetings to communicate goals, progress, and initiatives; foster a customer-focused mindset with internal and external partners.
- Champion GMPs and SOPs; manage and drive continuous improvement programs across operations.
- Partner with the Production Manager/Plant Manager to communicate needs, manage expenses, and advance plant and company processes.
- Develop and trial new methods that reduce/avoid costs, enhance products, and ensure a safe working environment.
Safety Leadership
- Model and enforce all safety protocols and OSHA standards (including lockout/tagout).
- Participate in the Management Safety Team or support the Plant Safety Committee.
- Hold yourself and others accountable to safety expectations; drive continuous safety improvement across Plant Operations.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, or related field preferred; equivalent experience considered.
- 1–3 years of related manufacturing experience (required).
- Experience with extrusion, plastic bag converting, or paper converting is a plus.
- Proven technical and leadership skills with structured problem-solving to deliver results.
- Comfort operating with minimal supervision and collaborating effectively at all organizational levels.
- Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to present information and respond to questions from employees, managers, clients, customers, and the public.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office and willingness to learn new systems.
- Strong team building, decision-making, people leadership, and coaching capabilities; able to create accountability and lead by example.
- Working knowledge of budgeting, strategic planning, resource allocation, and basic HR principles.
- Ability to read/interpret complex documents and statistical information; request or generate performance reports for one or more departments.
- Exceptional organization, prioritization, and time management.
Language, Math, and Reasoning
- Language: Read, analyze, and interpret business/technical materials and regulations; write reports, correspondence, and procedures; present information effectively.
- Mathematics: Comfortable working with mathematical concepts and data.
- Reasoning: Define problems, collect data, establish facts, draw valid conclusions; interpret a wide range of technical instructions in written or diagram form.
Technical Knowledge
- Equipment design and capabilities to ensure efficient operations and support training.
- Cost drivers and daily decision-making to reduce overall costs and target improvements.
- Budget development, adherence, and analysis.
- Quality standards, GMPs, and SOPs.
- Regulatory requirements including wage and hour, environmental and waste minimization, company policies, and personnel requirements (OSHA, DEQ, EEO).
You’re Proficient In
- Leadership / People Management
- Language: Spanish
- Food and Beverage Manufacturing
- Supervisory Experience
- Warehouse Operations
- Lean Manufacturing Principles
- Coaching and Mentoring
- Scheduling
- Recruiting and Training
Physical Demands
Regularly required to talk and hear; frequently stand, walk, and sit; occasionally use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands/arms; climb or balance; and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. Must be able to lift/move up to 50 pounds. Vision: close, distance, color, peripheral, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
Work Environment
Regular exposure to moving mechanical parts; frequent exposure to wet/humid conditions; occasional exposure to high, precarious places, fumes or airborne particles, and vibration. Noise level is usually loud.