Position:Production Manager
Department:Operations / Manufacturing
Reports to:Plant Manager or Director of Operations
Employment Type:Full-time
Position Summary
The Production Manager oversees daily food-manufacturing operations to ensure products are produced safely, efficiently, on schedule, and according to quality and regulatory requirements. This position leads production employees, coordinates labor and materials, monitors performance, and works closely with Quality Assurance, Maintenance, Sanitation, Warehouse, and Supply Chain teams.
Key Responsibilities
- Manage daily production activities, staffing, scheduling, workflow, and line assignments.
- Ensure production targets are met for safety, quality, service, yield, cost, and efficiency.
- Enforce Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), food-safety procedures, allergen controls, sanitation requirements, and company policies.
- Ensure compliance with applicable FDA, USDA, OSHA, HACCP, preventive-controls, and customer requirements.
- Review production schedules and confirm availability of ingredients, packaging materials, equipment, and personnel.
- Monitor product specifications, batch records, weights, temperatures, yields, waste, downtime, and production output.
- Investigate deviations, product holds, quality issues, equipment failures, and production delays.
- Partner with Quality Assurance to implement corrective and preventive actions.
- Coordinate preventive maintenance and urgent repairs with the Maintenance department.
- Lead, train, coach, and evaluate supervisors, leads, and production employees.
- Promote accountability, teamwork, employee engagement, and a strong safety and food-safety culture.
- Manage overtime, labor utilization, changeovers, rework, scrap, and operating expenses.
- Maintain accurate production, inventory, traceability, training, and compliance records.
- Support internal inspections, regulatory visits, customer audits, mock recalls, and third-party certification audits.
- Lead continuous-improvement initiatives using Lean manufacturing, 5S, root-cause analysis, and other problem-solving methods.
- Participate in new-product trials, process validation, equipment commissioning, and scale-up activities.
- Prepare and report production KPIs to plant leadership.
- Perform other duties necessary to support safe and efficient plant operations.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in food science, engineering, operations management, business, or a related field preferred.
- Five or more years of food-manufacturing experience, including at least two years in a supervisory or management role.
- Working knowledge of GMPs, HACCP, allergen management, sanitation, traceability, preventive controls, and food-safety systems.
- Experience operating in an FDA and USDA-regulated facility.
- Strong leadership, communication, planning, and problem-solving skills.
- Ability to analyze production data and manage labor, yield, waste, and efficiency.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office and experience with ERP, production-planning, or manufacturing systems.
- HACCP, PCQI, SQF, BRCGS, Lean, or Six Sigma training is preferred.
- Bilingual English/Spanish capability is helpful but not required.
Key Performance Indicators
- Employee and workplace safety
- Food-safety and quality compliance
- Schedule attainment and on-time production
- Labor efficiency and overtime
- Yield, waste, scrap, and rework
- Overall equipment effectiveness and downtime
- Customer complaints and production deviations
- Audit findings and corrective-action completion
- Employee training, retention, and engagement
Physical and Work Requirements
- Ability to work in refrigerated, hot, wet, noisy, or allergen-controlled production environments.
- Ability to stand and walk for extended periods and occasionally lift up to 50 pounds.
- Ability to wear required personal protective equipment.
- Flexibility to work early mornings, evenings, weekends, holidays, or additional hours based on production needs.
- Availability to respond to operational or food-safety emergencies outside normal working hours.
Success Profile
The successful candidate is a hands-on leader who maintains high standards, makes timely decisions, develops employees, and balances production goals with safety, food quality, regulatory compliance, customer service, and cost control.