Vice President Operations

Judge Direct Placement is seeking a Vice President of Operations & Supply Chain in NY/PA area!

Responsibilities:

• Hands-on leadership role leading end to end operations including manufacturing, logistics, planning and customer service for a multi-site food manufacturing company.
• Drive improvements in plant performance across quality, service, and cost, including optimizing manufacturing structures, culture, and required skill sets.
• Manage and reduce manufacturing controlled costs (MCCs), including material losses and operational efficiency (OE).
• Lead teams to deliver high-quality, reliable, and efficient manufacturing operations.
• Identify and mitigate operational risks to ensure continuous supply and business continuity, proactively strengthening the supply chain through forward-looking risk management strategies.
• Partner with sales and commercial teams to enhance demand planning accuracy, developing processes that account for business complexities such as seasonality, inventory builds, and workforce flexibility.
• Establish clear expectations and hold leaders and teams accountable for performance outcomes.
• Address capability gaps through targeted training and strategic talent acquisition.
• Foster a culture of continuous learning and performance improvement.
• Build and lead a unified, high-performing team, cultivating a positive, engaged, proactive, and customer-focused culture. Encourage innovation and empower employees to contribute ideas and drive impact across the organization.
• Strengthen organizational confidence by leveraging past successes to continuously enhance supply chain and operational capabilities with a future-focused mindset.
• Champion workplace safety and product quality initiatives.
• Accelerate the execution of productivity and sustainability programs.
• Collaborate effectively across functions, particularly with R&D, Quality, Procurement, Marketing, and global supply chain partners.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree required
• 15+ years experience progressive leadership in the food manufacturing industry
• This executive will have grown up in manufacturing early in their career progressing through roles in production and manufacturing (ultimately becoming a Plant Manager then taking on multi-site manufacturing responsibilities).
• This role will require a hands-on and highly-engaged VP.
• Expertise and proven leadership in transformational/turn around experience is required
• Expertise in Lean Manufacturing, TPM, Six Sigma, Operational Excellence, and continuous improvement methodologies is highly valued.
• A thorough understanding of total-delivered cost and breadth of experience spanning supply chain functions to include planning, warehousing and delivery to customers (products are sold via retail channels).
• A mix of big company experience paired with end-to-end operations and supply chain leadership at a smaller company is ideal.