Head of Optimization for Cheese Processing Plants (m/f/d)

Hochland SE; Heimenkirch; Vor Ort; EUR 120.000 - 180.000; Vollzeit

Zusammenfassung

Hochland SE in Germany is seeking a Head of Optimization for Cheese Processing Plants to drive product and process optimization across four plants where cheese and vegan alternatives are produced. You will build and lead a 5-person functional organization and set strategic priorities for major optimization initiatives.

Aligned with business goals, you will define optimization strategies to improve cost, quality, yield and efficiency.

Qualifikationen

• Strong leadership in multi-site production; dairy technology expertise, especially processed cheese.
• Proven track record in transformation and performance improvement, with stakeholder management at corporate and plant level.
• Fluent English is essential to lead effective communication and collaboration across the organization.
• Willing to travel across Europe for up to 25% of your time.
• Strategic thinking, strong execution capabilities, and sound decision-making to turn business priorities into results.
• Experience in organizational development to drive successful transformation.

Aufgaben

• Oversee product and process optimization across four cheese plants.
• Lead optimization organization with five functional leads and teams.
• Define and drive optimization strategies delivering cost, quality, yield, and efficiency gains.
• Leverage cross-plant best practices to scale solutions.
• Assess technical feasibility for new products and variants across sites.
• Collaborate with R&D, Quality Management, Procurement, SCM and Engineering to enable innovation and alignment.

Kenntnisse

Leadership

Multi-site ops

Dairy tech

Transformation

Stakeholder mgmt

Project mgmt

English fluency

Jobbeschreibung

Head of Optimization for Cheese Processing Plants (m/f/d)

• You take overall responsibility for product and process optimization across four plants where we grate, slice and process cheese and where applicable their vegan alternatives.
• You develop and lead the optimization organization with five functional leads and their respective teams, while setting strategic priorities, steering major optimization and scale-up initiatives.
• Aligned with business priorities, you define and drive optimization strategies that deliver measurable improvements in cost, quality, yield and efficiency.
• Best practices and cross-plant synergies are leveraged to accelerate performance improvements and scale proven solutions across all production sites within the Hochland group.
• You are the first point of contact to check the technological feasibility to produce new products and variants on the respective sites.
• Close collaboration with R&D, Quality Management, Procurement, SCM and Engineering enables innovation, cross-functional alignment, product standardization and effective escalation support.

Your recipe to success:

• You bring strong leadership experience in multi-site production environments, ideally combined with relevant expertise in dairy technology, particularly processed cheese.
• A proven track record in transformation and performance improvement, paired with strong stakeholder management at corporate and plant level, enables you to drive sustainable change.
• Fluent English is essential to lead effective communication and collaboration across the organization.
• You are willing to travel across Europe for up to 25% of your time.
• Strategic thinking, strong execution capabilities, and sound decision-making allow you to turn business priorities into tangible results.
• You combine strong business acumen with experience in organizational development to drive successful transformation.