Senior Team Leader - Secondary Butchery Lamb

Silver Fern Farms Ltd; Balclutha; On-site; NZD 90,000 - 115,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Staff meat sales

Paid sick leave from start

Confidential employee assistance

Free on-site parking

Staff uniform

Job summary

Silver Fern Farms is seeking a hands-on Senior Team Leader - Secondary Butchery Lamb to guide a production team on the floor, delivering safety, quality, and efficiency while modelling respectful leadership.

In this role you’ll own day-to-day operations, drive continuous improvement, coach staff, and collaborate across departments to meet targets and maintain compliance.

Qualifications

• Experience leading production or processing teams in meat/FMCG is preferred.
• Commitment to health, safety, quality, and animal welfare.
• Ability to coach, support, and hold teams to account.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building across levels.
• Continuous improvement mindset with willingness to drive change.
• Strong computer and reporting skills (Excel, Outlook, production systems).

Responsibilities

• Inspire and coach your team to achieve production targets and compliance.
• Organise and monitor daily production plans and quality standards.
• Champion health and safety and embed a safety culture.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives and encourage new ideas.
• Coordinate across departments to ensure smooth operations.

Skills

Leadership experience

Health & safety

People management

Communication

Continuous improvement

Computer & reporting skills

Tools

Excel

Outlook

Production systems

Job description

Te Tūranga /About The Role

Step into a leadership role where you’ll be at the heart of our operations. As Senior Team Leader - Secondary Butchery Lamb, you’ll guide a production team to deliver excellence every day - ensuring safety, quality, and efficiency while fostering a culture of respect and accountability. This is a hands‑on role where you’ll spend most of your time on the floor, leading by example and driving continuous improvement.

Te Tūranga /About The Role

Step into a leadership role where you’ll be at the heart of our operations. As Senior Team Leader - Secondary Butchery Lamb, you’ll guide a production team to deliver excellence every day - ensuring safety, quality, and efficiency while fostering a culture of respect and accountability. This is a hands‑on role where you’ll spend most of your time on the floor, leading by example and driving continuous improvement.

Shift Pattern: Monday to Friday 5am-3pm. Saturdays would be as required based on processing overtime.

Te Mahi /Key Responsibilities

• Inspire and coach your team to achieve production targets and maintain compliance.
• Organise and monitor daily production plans, ensuring quality standards are met.
• Champion health & safety, embedding an uncompromising safety culture.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives and encourage innovative ideas.
• Communicate effectively across departments to ensure smooth operations.

Ōu Pūkenga /About You

We’re looking for a hands‑on, people‑first leader who’s confident managing production in a fast‑moving environment. You’ll take full ownership of your department - leading from the front, supporting your team to deliver great results, and making sure everything runs safely and smoothly. You’ll need to be proactive, solutions‑focused, and able to juggle day‑to‑day performance while keeping an eye on the bigger picture. Most importantly, you’ll build a team culture that’s strong, accountable, and ready to adapt to whatever comes next.

• Leadership experience in a production or processing environment (meat industry or FMCG a bonus)
• A strong commitment to health & safety, quality, compliance, and animal welfare
• Confidence in people management - you know how to coach, support and hold your team to account
• Great communication skills and the ability to build strong working relationships across all levels
• A continuous improvement mindset - you're always looking for better ways to do things and can bring others along with you
• Good computer and reporting skills - you’re comfortable using Excel, Outlook and production systems

Te Ahurea /Why work at Silver Fern Farms?

Silver Fern Farms are all about Creating Goodness from the Farms the World Needs. Creating goodness is about taking a broader view of what goodness means, how we can create it and the impact it can have. That Goodness is created through the work of our People, the skill & expertise of our Farmers and our customers around the globe. ‘Goodness’ is also about being good to people and communities, animal welfare, and showing care and respect for the environment.

For you, we offer heavily discounted staff meat sales through our on-site Butcher's Block, paid sick leave from the date of employment (no waiting for the 6-month anniversary required), and confidential employee assistance with career planning, financial advice and counselling. There’s the bonus of free on-site parking and a staff uniform as well.

Silver Fern Farms welcomes people from all backgrounds and walks of life. We are proud to have a diverse and inclusive environment and are committed to providing equal opportunities for all team members and applicants. Come and create goodness together with us.