Lead Maple Production & Operations Manager

Butternut Mountain Farm; Town of Vermont, Northern (WI, KY); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401K with company contribution

Breakfast on site and product discount

Job summary

Butternut Mountain Farm requires a Production Manager to lead cross‑department production, align schedules with demand, and manage labor, materials, and equipment capacity across two shifts.

You will drive safety, quality, and traceability programs, implement KPIs, and partner with functions to optimize costs and service. A bachelor’s degree and strong leadership in regulated manufacturing are required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in management, business, economics, engineering or related field.
• Leadership experience across multiple departments, production lines, or shifts in regulated manufacturing.
• Working knowledge of SQF, HACCP, GMPs, sanitation, traceability, and production documentation.
• Experience using production KPIs, ERP/MRP systems, scheduling, inventory control, forecasting, and capacity planning.
• Knowledge of Lean, 5S, root-cause analysis, preventive maintenance, equipment reliability, and continuous improvement.
• Experience with budgeting, labor and overtime management, production cost control, hiring, coaching, performance management, and employee development.
• Strong Excel and data-analysis skills, mechanical aptitude, and familiarity with automated filling, packaging, conveying, batching, or processing equipment and related capital projects.

Responsibilities

• Lead production across departments, lines, and shifts; adjust schedules and resources to customer demand, inventory, staffing, materials, equipment capacity, and constraints; coordinate all production areas; and protect schedule attainment, service, and cost performance.
• Maintain strong safety, food safety, quality, sanitation, and traceability culture; enforce policies, procedures, and work instructions; ensure accurate records; lead corrective actions; and support audits.
• Establish and communicate KPIs for productivity, throughput, labor, overtime, downtime, waste, quality, staffing, and schedule attainment; use data to improve reliability and efficiency.
• Optimize syrup, ingredients, packaging, labor, and other resources; reduce loss, waste, rework, and shortages; maintain inventory accuracy and traceability.
• Coordinate repairs, preventive maintenance, and planned downtime; support equipment trials, installations, startups, replacements, and capital projects.
• Lead and develop supervisors, leads, and employees; set performance expectations; conduct coaching, reviews, training, and development planning.
• Manage staffing, overtime, absenteeism, labor utilization, and operating expenses; support annual operating, capital, and long-range capacity plans.
• Communicate priorities and risks to the Operations Management Team; resolve issues across functions; provide input for new products and equipment projects.

Skills

Production planning

Safety & compliance

Continuous improvement

Inventory management

Equipment & capital support

People leadership

Budget & capacity mgmt

Cross-functional leadership

Data analysis

Excel

Education

Bachelor's degree in management/business/engineering

Tools

ERP/MRP systems

Scheduling software

Microsoft Excel

Job description

Butternut Mountain Farm requires a Production Manager to lead cross‑department production, align schedules with demand, and manage labor, materials, and equipment capacity across two shifts.

You will drive safety, quality, and traceability programs, implement KPIs, and partner with functions to optimize costs and service. A bachelor’s degree and strong leadership in regulated manufacturing are required.