Moji Food - Plant Manager (WA - Kent)

Dough Zone USA; Kent (WA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

MOJI Food Inc. is seeking a hands-on Plant Manager for our Kent, WA site to lead daily production, safety, and quality programs. You will supervise the Production Manager and Purchasing & Warehouse Manager, ensuring cost control and continuous improvement while maintaining strong regulatory compliance.

The role emphasizes developing a diverse workforce, solving operational challenges, and scaling processes in a growing food manufacturing operation. On-site leadership is required.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in plant or operations management in high-volume food production environments.
• Experience managing USDA-inspected facilities and strong knowledge of GMP, HACCP, SSOP and food-safety regulations.
• Hands-on leadership style with ability to work on the production floor and engage frontline teams.
• Proven ability to lead multilingual, multi-shift teams in a fast-paced setting.

Responsibilities

• Own the full daily, weekly, and monthly operation of the plant, ensuring production schedules are met on time.
• Direct production planning, labor, lines, and output against demand forecasts and shipment schedules.
• Lead safety, quality, and regulatory compliance programs and maintain audit readiness.
• Oversee budgeting, cost control, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• mentor and develop the Production Manager and Purchasing & Warehouse Manager.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Engineering, Supply Chain, Business, Operations Management, or related field

Tools

ERP systems

Restaurant365 (R365)

Job description

Plant Manager — Kent, WA

Come grow with us at MOJI Food Inc!

We're looking for aPlant Managerto lead day-to-day operations at our Kent manufacturing site (22k square feet) that includes a central kitchen and commissary producing dumplings, buns, potstickers, noodles, and other food products.

This is ahands-on, working/coach leadership rolewith full accountability for site performance. The Plant Manager will ensure that our operation consistently delivers onemployee safety, food safety and quality, production output and efficiency, material availability, cost control, and team development.

The Plant Manager will directly lead theProduction ManagerandPurchasing & Warehouse Manager, while providing functional oversight ofQuality/Food Safety, Sanitation, and Maintenance.

Reporting to Corporate Operations leadership, this role translates company plans and customer demand intosafe, compliant, efficient, and cost-effective daily production.

This role is ideal for an operations leader who enjoys beingclose to the work, developing a diverse group of employees, solving problems, and building systems that make a growing food manufacturing operation safer, more efficient, and more scalable.

At MOJI Food Inc, you'll have the opportunity to make a direct impact on our people, products, customers, and continued growth.

Key Responsibilities

Site Operations & Production

• Own the full daily, weekly, and monthly operation of the plant, ensuring production schedules are meton time, in full, and to specification.

• Direct the Production Manager in planning labor, lines, and output against demand forecasts, store orders, and shipment schedules.

• Balance throughput, yield, labor efficiency, and quality across all production processes, including dough/wrappers, fillings, forming, cooking/steaming/frying, packaging, freezing, and cooling.

• Resolve daily operational bottlenecks, including staffing gaps, equipment downtime, and material shortages, to maintain uninterrupted production.

• Lead production planning for seasonal, holiday, new-store, and large-order demand surges.

Food Safety, Quality & Regulatory Compliance

• Hold the site accountable for applicableFDA, USDA/FSIS, Washington State Department of Agriculture, and local food-safety requirements.

• Ensure GMP, HACCP, SSOP, allergen control, traceability, and sanitation programs are consistently implemented and maintained in an audit-ready state.

• Lead the site through regulatory inspections, customer audits, third-party certifications, and mock recalls.

• Champion afood-safety-first cultureand have the authority to stop production when food safety, product quality, or regulatory compliance is at risk.

Cost, Budget & Financial Performance

• Own the site operating budget and manage key cost drivers, including labor, overtime, materials, packaging, yield, utilities, scrap, and waste.

• Track and improve cost-per-unit, labor hours per unit, yield, and waste/rework rates.

• Partner with Finance on month-end close, budget-to-actual variance analysis, forecasting, and financial planning.

• Identify, prioritize, and lead cost-reduction and operational-efficiency initiatives.

People Leadership & Development

• Lead, coach, and develop theProduction ManagerandPurchasing & Warehouse Manager, and through them, supervisors, leads, hourly employees, and seasonal staff.

• Build a stable, safe, respectful, and accountable workplace for a multilingual multicultural workforce, includingEnglish, Chinese, and Spanish speaking employees.

• Partner with HR on hiring, onboarding, performance management, retention, and employee relations.

• Build bench strength and cross-training programs to reduce operational dependence on individual employees and strengthen leadership depth.

Supply Chain, Materials & Inventory

• Ensure, through the Purchasing & Warehouse Manager, that ingredients, packaging, and other materials are sourced, received, stored safely, and staged appropriately so production is not interrupted by material shortages.

• Oversee inventory accuracy, FIFO/FEFO practices, cold-chain controls, receiving, and finished-goods shipping to stores and the broader distribution network.

• Coordinate with Corporate Purchasing and other company sites on supply, inter-site transfers, sourcing, and standardization.

Maintenance, Facilities & Safety

• Ensure effective preventive maintenance, equipment uptime, facility organization, and adherence to5Sstandards.

• Enforce applicableOSHA and Washington L&I safety requirements, PPE standards, LOTO procedures where applicable, and chemical-safety practices.

• Lead incident investigations, root-cause analysis, and corrective actions, with a focus on reducing workplace injuries and improving overall site safety.

• Partner with Maintenance and other functional leaders to identify equipment, facility, and infrastructure needs.

Reporting & Continuous Improvement

• Report site performance to Corporate Operations leadership across key metrics includingsafety, food safety, output, quality, cost, delivery, and people.

• Use of operational data and KPIs to identify trends, establish performance targets, and drive measurable continuous improvement.

• Lead root-cause analysis and corrective-action efforts for recurring operational, quality, safety, and performance issues.

• Support capital planning, capacity expansion, automation initiatives, process improvements, and new-product scale-up.

• Establish a culture of accountability and continuous improvement in which problems are identified quickly, addressed at their root cause, and converted into sustainable process improvements.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience plant or operations management operations infood manufacturing, commissary, central-kitchen, or similar high-volume food production operations.

• Direct experience managingUSDA-inspected facilities. Meat processing experience.

• Demonstrated ownership of a production site'ssafety, food safety and quality, output, cost, delivery, and people performance.

• Strong working knowledge ofGMP, HACCP, SSOP, allergen control, sanitation, traceability, and applicable food-safety regulations.

• Proven ability to manageoperating budgets, labor costs, production performance, and operational KPIs.

• Experience leadingmultilingual, multi-shift teamsin a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret and act onproduction, labor, yield, cost, quality, and inventory data.

• Hands-on leadership style with the ability to work effectively on the production floor and engage directly with frontline teams.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Bakery and food production experience preferred. MOJI Food Inc producesprimarily Asian Foods. Specifically, dumplings, noodles, frozen and ready to eat products.

• Bilingual English/Chinesestrongly preferred given the workforce and corporate communication;English/Spanishis a plus.

• Experience supportingmulti-site restaurant, commissary, or foodservice supply operations.

• Experience withERP systems and/or Restaurant365 (R365).

• Proven experience leadingnew-product launches, production scale-ups, commercialization, or process-transfer initiatives.

• HACCP, PCQI, SQF, or other relevant food-safety certification.

• Exposure toLean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, 5S, or other continuous-improvement methodologies.

• Bachelor’s degree in food science, Engineering, Supply Chain, Business, Operations Management, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.

Physical Requirements & Work Environment: Safety is a priority.

• This is anon-site leadership rolein a food manufacturing environment that will include cold, hot, wet, refrigerated/freezer, and noisy production areas.

• Ability tostand, walk, and move throughout the facility for extended periods, including regular access to production, warehouse, and other operational areas.

• Ability tolift and carry up to 25-50 lbs. as needed.

• Ability to wear requiredpersonal protective equipment (PPE), including hairnets, gloves, safety shoes, freezer gear, and other required protective equipment.

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