How you will make history here…
The individual will lead a team of industrialization leads to deliver successful scale up/vertical start-up on innovation projects, enabler/business continuity projects that deliver in areas of safety, quality and cost – directly impacting Net Sales and EBIT targets. This position will drive objectives and deliverables for the team in collaboration with R&D And Quality, and will set direction for early risk management, strategic outlook for capability platforms to inform guardrails, continuously improving processes and outcomes post execution. The individual will develop the capabilities and competencies of employees through ongoing training, coaching, and mentoring, while promoting employee engagement, empowerment, and teamwork and ensuring full compliance with Company policies and standards related to safety, quality and workplace conduct.
What you will do…
60% - Sets direction and aligns risk profiles for active projects. Ensures full transparency and contingency plans are built collaboratively with Quality, Manufacturing, and R&D partners.
- Manages technical readiness process to drive early risk management and solutions mind-set/contingency planning effort to ensure innovation is on time with a successful vertical start-up.
- Develop and manage a technical readiness playbook for transparency and planning against critical business plans
- Ensures systematic business processes in place to deliver consistent and repeatable results – product capital requirements, standards costing, contingency planning
- Ensures systematic operational procedures for trial readiness, inclusive of standards for plant trial alignment of success criteria and measures of otucomes
- Create standard for post launch project scorecarding Stage 4 and Stage 5 and forum for risk elevation and action planning
- Develop loss model standards for new products to aggressively pursue margin roadmap for innovation and attack quality concerns with urgency
20% - Develop team and ensure capability is aligned with business needs; Ensure clear objectives and expectations with team in alignment with business needs
- Lead cross-functional teams focused on results delivery through continuous improvement and process management programs.
- Promote a culture of accountability and teamwork. Develop capabilities of team leadership through mentoring, training, and coaching.
- Ensure that behaviors, practices and the work environment support a safe workplace by enforcing safety and sanitary rules and principles.
- Create, develop, and sustain a “can-do” climate and high levels of frequent communication, cooperation, rewards and recognition, training, and mutual support among departments. Ensure there is a culture of continuous improvement to drive to “set the standard”
- Perform in a variety of capacities related to employment decisions throughout the employment life cycle, i.e., hiring, performance evaluation, retention, employee relations issues as appropriate, etc.
20% - Develops and implements effective communication plans to keep indirect reports well-informed regarding commercialization/industrialization activities, tech readiness and project updates, business objectives, results, initiatives, changes, etc. This can include written communications on trial performance, providing weekly schedules, and DDS reporting on trial performance.
Who you will work with…
You will work with process engineering, manufacturing quality/operations, commercialization, and product development.
What you bring to the table (must haves) …
- Bachelor’s degree, preferably in Food Science, engineering or comparable technical degree required
- Minimum of ten (10) years working for a manufacturing company, in either process development/process engineering/manufacturing operations/project management (preferably food)
- 50% travel required
It would be great to have (nice to haves)…
- Cross-functional experience with a proven track record of delivering successful business results
- Comprehensive knowledge of OSHA standards, HACCP guidelines, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), etc.
- Ongoing passion to identify continuous improvement opportunities and lead initiatives to deliver bottom-line results. Must be a change agent.
- Outstanding analytical, problem-solving skills and able to formulate action plans based on real data.
- Excellent communication skills (both verbal and written). Must possess strong training/facilitation skills.
- Computer proficiency in Windows-based software applications (i.e., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). SAP experience is a plus. Minitab or statistical analysis experience a plus.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, team environment.
- Knowledge of commercialization process and execution requirements in plant
- Solid understanding of process development concepts, process scalability and targeted in process measurements to drive comprehensive technical readiness
- Ability to overcome resistance to organizational change, influencing others, and leading the change initiative.
- Ability manage multiple projects simultaneously and prioritize based on business needs.
- Develop and maintain rapport with employees at all levels of the organization to drive results. Must interface effectively with multiple departments / functions in the plant, as well as Corporate Senior Management.
- Ability to train a diverse group of salaried and hourly employees, adapting training programs and presentation style to fit the audience.
Join our talent community
We’re proud to be a purpose-driven company. Our goal is simple: to connect people through food they love. It’s the reason we innovate, grow, and show up every day because food brings people together.