Dairy Operations Leader: Safety, Quality & Growth

Confidential; California (MO); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential seeks an accomplished VP of Operations to lead end-to-end manufacturing across two dairy plants. This executive will own production, food safety and quality, supply chain, maintenance, planning, procurement, employee safety, and continuous improvement.

You will drive OEE, throughput, and cost performance, while building a high-caliber leadership team and ensuring zero-harm safety culture. The role requires extensive dairy/regulated-food experience, strong HACCP and audit-readiness

Qualifications

• Seven or more years of progressive operations leadership experience in dairy, refrigerated food, or another regulated food-manufacturing environment.
• Three or more years in a senior manufacturing or multi-site operations leadership role.
• Lean Six Sigma, PMP, or food-safety certifications preferred.
• Strong knowledge of HACCP, preventive controls, sanitation, allergen management, and audit readiness.

Responsibilities

• Lead daily operations across two plants, including production, packaging, sanitation, quality, warehousing, maintenance, planning, and materials management.
• Ensure full compliance with food safety, quality, traceability, sanitation, allergen-control, environmental-monitoring, and recall-readiness programs.
• Drive continuous improvement in OEE, throughput, yield, labor efficiency, waste reduction, changeover time, downtime, and on-time delivery.
• Own plant financial performance, including labor, materials, maintenance, waste, utilities, capital spending, and conversion costs.
• Develop and execute the operations strategy, capacity plan, capital-investment roadmap, and annual operating budget.
• Build, coach, and hold accountable a high-performing leadership team across plant operations and support functions.
• Maintain a zero-harm safety culture and ensure compliance with OSHA, environmental, refrigeration, chemical, and workplace-safety requirements.
• Partner with Sales, R&D, Finance, HR, and Supply Chain to support demand planning, new-product launches, customer requirements, and profitable growth.
• Establish and review KPIs for safety, quality, production, labor, cost, maintenance, inventory, and customer service.
• Lead timely problem-solving and contingency planning for supply disruptions, equipment failures, quality incidents, staffing challenges, and demand fluctuations.

Skills

Leadership

P&L management

Budgeting

Lean Six Sigma

Root-cause analysis

Continuous improvement

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering / Food Science / Operations / Business

Job description

Confidential seeks an accomplished VP of Operations to lead end-to-end manufacturing across two dairy plants. This executive will own production, food safety and quality, supply chain, maintenance, planning, procurement, employee safety, and continuous improvement.

You will drive OEE, throughput, and cost performance, while building a high-caliber leadership team and ensuring zero-harm safety culture. The role requires extensive dairy/regulated-food experience, strong HACCP and audit-readiness