Chief Production Planning & Operations Leader

Healthy Bites Collective; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 88,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Life insurance

Generous paid time off

Job summary

Gourmet Gorilla, part of Healthy Bites Collective, seeks a Director of Production Planning & Operations in Chicago (Goose Island) to own master production scheduling, purchasing, and KPI-driven performance. You’ll lead a team through early mornings, focusing on efficiency, cost control, and compliant NSLP production processes.

You will drive continuous improvement, manage vendor relations, and collaborate with nutrition and safety teams to ensure high-quality meals delivered on time to schools

Qualifications

• 5+ years in large scale food production or commissary operations, including at least 2 years managing managers or supervisors.
• Measurably improving labor, yield, food cost, throughput, or on time delivery.
• Strong understanding of production planning, scheduling, and logistics for large batch cooking.
• Experience with purchasing, inventory, cost targets, and KPI dashboards.
• Familiarity with HACCP, USDA, and local health codes, and experience passing regulatory and third party audits.
• Strong leadership, organization, and communication skills.
• Ability to work early morning hours and spend significant time on the production floor, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Responsibilities

• Own the master production schedule, translating menu, volume, and delivery forecasts into daily and weekly production, packaging, and labor plans.
• Forecast volume changes and plan labor, equipment, and capacity ahead of them.
• Establish standardized recipes, batch sizes, yields, and production standards, and hold adherence across shifts.
• Work with our nutrition team to keep recipes and recipe SOPs accurate, scalable, and compliant with NSLP production and record-keeping requirements.
• Own ordering from distributors and specialty vendors based on the production plan and par levels.
• Negotiate pricing, manage approved vendors and product specs, and build strong vendor relationships.
• Oversee inventory, FIFO rotation, inventory turns, and waste tracking, and report food cost accurately each month.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Senior Production Manager and teams.
• Drive improvements in labor productivity, yield, food cost, and throughput through process redesign and standardization.
• Put daily management routines in place: shift huddles, accountability, and visual management.
• Track and report KPIs: cost per meal, labor efficiency, yield, and on-time completion.
• Partner with Food Safety & Facilities Coordinator to stay audit ready and embed food safety.

Skills

Production planning

Leadership

Process improvement

Inventory management

KPIs dashboards

Food safety knowledge

Job description

Gourmet Gorilla, part of Healthy Bites Collective, seeks a Director of Production Planning & Operations in Chicago (Goose Island) to own master production scheduling, purchasing, and KPI-driven performance. You’ll lead a team through early mornings, focusing on efficiency, cost control, and compliant NSLP production processes.

You will drive continuous improvement, manage vendor relations, and collaborate with nutrition and safety teams to ensure high-quality meals delivered on time to schools