Plant Manager

Transpacific Food | Full-Time | Salem, Oregon

About the Opportunity: Transpacific Food is seeking a hands-on Plant Manager who is comfortable leading from the floor, solving problems in real time, and keeping production, safety, quality, and efficiency moving in the right direction. This is a key leadership role for someone who understands food manufacturing, takes ownership of daily operations, and can build a dependable, accountable, inspection-ready plant culture.

The right candidate will be: A practical, roll-up-your-sleeves leader who can manage people, production schedules, equipment needs, documentation, audits, vendors, inventory, safety meetings, and continuous improvement without losing sight of quality, food safety, labor control, and customer expectations.

What You’ll Do

• Lead day-to-day plant production, packaging, sanitation, safety, and operational activities.
• Keep products manufactured to customer specifications while protecting finished product integrity.
• Monitor productivity, labor, overtime, waste, and cost controls to meet or exceed plant budgets.
• Maintain an inspection-ready plant with strong GMP, 6-S, food safety, and audit discipline.
• Hold weekly safety toolbox meetings and reinforce safe work practices by example.
• Oversee production documentation, training records, corrective actions, plant walkthroughs, and audit-related records.
• Train, coach, evaluate, schedule, and hold plant associates accountable in partnership with Human Resources.
• Work directly with maintenance, vendors, and third-party service providers for equipment, parts, repairs, and capital planning.
• Support lean manufacturing and continuous improvement efforts that improve reliability, housekeeping, throughput, and efficiency.
• Communicate clearly with dispatch, supervisors, peers, management, vendors, and related departments to keep timelines on track.

What We’re Looking For

• Minimum of five years of responsible experience in food production, plant operations, manufacturing leadership, or a comparable hands-on production environment.
• HACCP and SQF certification or strong working knowledge preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, operations, manufacturing, or a related field preferred; equivalent experience will be considered.
• Strong mechanical aptitude, including comfort with hand tools, power tools, equipment troubleshooting, and production machinery concepts.
• Ability to read instructions, memos, production documentation, drawings, and schematics.
• Confident written and verbal communication skills, including one-on-one coaching and small group presentations.
• Ability to work with basic math, percentages, ratios, measurements, inventory counts, and production data.
• Experience with GMP, food safety programs, internal and external audits, corrective actions, and regulatory or third-party audit preparation.
• Positive, dependable leadership style with a sense of urgency, strong follow-through, and willingness to step in where needed.

Why This Role Matters

The Plant Manager is central to maintaining safe, efficient, reliable, and customer-focused operations. This person sets the tone for the plant, leads by example, drives accountability, and helps the company meet production, quality, safety, and financial goals.

Work Environment

This is an on-site, active plant leadership position in a food manufacturing environment. The role requires regular time on the production floor and may involve exposure to moving mechanical parts, wet or humid conditions, varying temperatures, moderate to loud noise, and the need to wear required PPE. The position may require standing, walking, climbing, stooping, kneeling, crouching, reaching, and lifting or moving up to 50–100 pounds as needed.

How to Apply

If you are a hands-on plant leader who takes pride in safety, quality, efficiency, and building a dependable team, we would like to hear from you. Please submit your resume and a brief summary of your food manufacturing, plant leadership, and continuous improvement experience.