Operations Director (Beef)

Combined Selection Group Ltd; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Combined Selection Group Ltd seeks a Director of Operations to lead day-to-day activities across our beef business in the United States. You will drive operational performance, productivity, quality, safety and profitability while partnering with production, procurement, sales, finance, QA, maintenance and logistics.

This role requires strategic and hands-on leadership to build a culture of operational excellence, ensure regulatory and customer requirements are met, and develop a high-performing

Responsibilities

• Operational Leadership: Lead all day-to-day operational activities across the beef business. Establish clear operating standards, KPIs, targets, and accountability across all functions. Drive continuous improvement in throughput, labor efficiency, yield, utilization, downtime, and overall operating performance.

Job description

Position Summary

We are seeking an experienced and commercially minded Director of Operations to lead and optimize day-to-day operations across our beef business. The successful candidate will have a strong understanding of the U.S. beef supply chain and a proven track record of delivering improvements in operational performance, productivity, quality, safety, cost control, animal welfare, and profitability. This role will provide strategic and hands‑on leadership across operational teams, working closely with senior management, production, procurement, sales, finance, quality assurance, maintenance, logistics, and supply-chain functions. The Director of Operations will be responsible for building a culture of operational excellence while ensuring the business consistently meets customer, regulatory, financial, and production requirements.

Key Responsibilities

1. Operational Leadership Lead all day-to-day operational activities across the business. Develop and execute annual and long-term operational strategies aligned with company objectives. Establish clear operating standards, KPIs, targets, and accountability across all operational functions. Drive continuous improvement in throughput, labor efficiency, yield, utilization, downtime, and overall operating performance. Identify operational constraints and develop practical solutions to improve capacity and profitability. Build a high-performing operations leadership team and develop succession plans for key positions.
2. Beef Production & Processing Oversee beef production and/or processing activities, depending on business structure. Optimize cattle flow, production scheduling, plant utilization, yields, and product quality. Ensure operating practices support maximum carcass and product value. Monitor key production metrics including:
   • Head processed/received
   • Throughput
   • Carcass and boxed-beef yields
   • Labor hours per head/unit
   • Downtime
   • Product loss and waste
   • Conversion costs
   • Quality and customer specifications
   Work closely with procurement and supply-chain teams to ensure appropriate cattle and raw-material availability.
3. Food Safety & Quality Ensure operations consistently meet or exceed all applicable USDA-FSIS, food-safety, quality, and customer requirements. Maintain a strong food-safety culture throughout the organization. Partner with Quality Assurance and Food Safety leadership on HACCP, sanitation, traceability, recalls, corrective actions, and audit readiness. Ensure appropriate documentation, standard operating procedures, and control systems are maintained. Drive root-cause analysis and corrective/preventive actions when quality or food-safety issues arise.
4. Animal Welfare Ensure the highest standards of cattle handling and animal welfare throughout applicable operations. Maintain compliance with company policies, customer requirements, industry standards, and applicable regulations. Monitor animal handling, transportation, receiving, processing, and related procedures. Promote a culture where animal welfare is treated as a core operational responsibility.
5. Health & Safety Establish and maintain a strong workplace safety culture. Ensure compliance with applicable OSHA requirements and company safety policies. Track and improve safety KPIs, including recordable incidents, lost-time incidents, near misses, and corrective actions. Partner with management to identify hazards and implement effective risk-reduction programs. Hold operational leaders accountable for safety performance.
6. Financial & Cost Management Own operational budgets and cost-control initiatives. Work closely with Finance to develop budgets, forecasts, capital plans, and operational business cases. Identify opportunities to reduce conversion costs without compromising safety, quality, animal welfare, or customer service. Analyze labor, maintenance, utilities, supplies, logistics, and other operating expenses. Evaluate capital investments and operational improvement projects based on ROI and strategic value.
7. People & Leadership Lead, coach, and develop operational managers and supervisors. Establish clear expectations, performance standards, and accountability. Build strong relationships across hourly and salaried teams. Support recruitment, retention, training and succession planning. Develop frontline leadership capability and create a culture of continuous improvement. Promote effective communication across shifts and departments.
8. Continuous Improvement Implement a structured continuous-improvement program across operations. Use data and operational KPIs to identify opportunities and prioritize initiatives. Apply Lean, Six Sigma, TPM, 5S, root-cause analysis, or other appropriate improvement methodologies. Lead cross-functional projects designed to improve productivity, quality, yield, safety and profitability. Establish a culture where problems are identified early and solved systematically.
9. Maintenance & Asset Reliability Partner with Maintenance leadership to maximize equipment reliability and uptime. Develop preventive and predictive maintenance strategies. Monitor equipment downtime and recurring failures. Support capital expenditure planning and modernization of production assets. Ensure facilities, equipment, refrigeration, utilities and other critical infrastructure are maintained to appropriate standards.
10. Supply Chain & Logistics Work collaboratively with procurement, transportation, warehousing and sales teams to optimize product flow. Improve inventory management, scheduling, transportation efficiency and customer fulfillment. Identify supply-chain risks and establish appropriate contingency plans. Ensure operational decisions support customer requirements and overall business profitability.