Operations Manager

Wonderful Citrus; Mission (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Education Reimbursement

Equal Opportunity Employer

Job summary

Wonderful Citrus in Mission, Texas is seeking a Plant Manager to lead daily production, optimize throughput, and drive Lean/CI initiatives across juice processing and related operations.

The role requires a Bachelor's degree, 8–10 years manufacturing experience and 5+ years in leadership, with travel up to 10%. You will partner with maintenance, quality, and safety to ensure GMP, HACCP, and FSMA compliance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent with manufacturing leadership experience.
• 8–10 years progressive manufacturing experience.
• 5+ years in manufacturing leadership roles.
• Experience managing production operations, budgets and KPIs.
• Strong knowledge of industrial safety, quality systems, and processes.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally (~10%).

Responsibilities

• Own daily plant execution and production schedule to maximize throughput.
• Plan and direct production activities and set priorities.
• Develop budgets and cost controls; obtain data on parts and equipment.
• Coordinate with agriculture, planning, quality, engineering, maintenance, warehouse, logistics, and commercial teams.
• Lead KPI development and reporting to management.
• Maximize product recovery and investigate losses.
• Lead root-cause analysis and lean/CI projects.
• Ensure OSHA compliance and safety programs.
• Supervise two departments and manage vacation/work schedules.
• Enter production data into ERP accurately.

Skills

Manufacturing leadership

Budget mgmt

KPIs management

Safety compliance

Operations management

Analytical skills

Communication

Travel obligations

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Engineering/Food Science/Operations degree

Job description

Wonderful Citrus is North America’s leading integrated grower, shipper and packer of fresh citrus, including clementines/mandarins, navel and Valencia oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits, and other citrus varieties. Wonderful Citrus farms more than 74,000 acres of fresh citrus and has supplier relationships around the world to ensure a year-round supply. Our citrus can be found in all channels of distribution, with our consumer brands most visible in the produce department of grocery stores across the globe under our flagship consumer brands, Wonderful Halos Mandarins, Wonderful Seedless Lemons, and Wonderful Sweet Scarletts Texas Red Grapefruit.

Job Description

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Own daily plant execution and production schedule; maximize throughput while balancing quality, maintenance and labor requirements.
• Plans and directs production activities and establishes production priorities for products in keeping with effective operations and cost factors.
• Develop budget and cost controls, and obtain data regarding types, quantities, specifications, and delivery dates of parts and equipment ordered.
• Coordinate operations with agriculture/fruit supply, planning, quality, engineering, maintenance, warehouse, logistics and commercial teams.
• Confer with management to establish production KPIs and how they are monitored and reported.
• Maximize juice, pulp, oil and other valuable product recovery from incoming fruit; investigate losses and process inefficiencies.
• Reviews and analyzes production, quality control, maintenance, and operational reports to determine causes of nonconformity with product specifications and operating or production problems.
• Develop and implement operating methods and procedures designed to eliminate operating problems and improve product quality. Ensure these methods are documented and trained as per company standards.
• Conducts meetings to resolve or effectively reach a settlement of grievances and refers unresolved grievances to the human resources department.
• Ensure production data is accurately entered into the ERP systems in a timely manner.
• Lead root-cause analysis and improvement projects; eliminate recurring losses and bottlenecks; promote Lean/CI principles.
• Partner with maintenance to improve equipment reliability; prioritize critical work; ensure preventive/predictive maintenance is executed; reduce emergency work.
• Partner with food safety and quality to ensure compliance with internal polices, complete corrective actions in a timely manner, or any other task required to meet GFSI expectations.
• Lead production; develop supervisors; establish accountability and succession planning.
• Establish a strong safety culture; ensure OSHA compliance; enforce LOTO, confined space, chemical/ammonia, PPE and other programs; drive incident investigations and corrective actions.
• Ensure compliance with HACCP/FSMA, sanitation and GMP programs; maintain audit readiness; ensure deviations are properly controlled and documented.
• Be the subject matter expert for teams for the operations aspect of the business, supporting CAPEX, maintenance and FSQA.
• Effectively present operations related projects, initiatives, performance results, and other key updates to business leadership and employees.

NOTE: The Director of Operations, at any time, depending on the needs of the company, could add other duties.

FOOD SAFETY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• The employee shall be responsible for all reasonable measures and precautions to ensure compliance with 21CFR 117, FSMA, Juice HACCP, GFSI standards and process controls within their department.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• This job has 2 departments reporting to it, juice processing and feedmill. This position schedules all operations supervisory employees’ vacations and work schedules. This position is also required to work out any major employee disputes and perform annual employee evaluations.

Qualifications

Here’s what you’ll bring to the table:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and significant manufacturing leadership experience.
• 8–10 years of progressive manufacturing experience.
• 5+ years of manufacturing leadership experience.
• Experience managing production operations, employees, budgets and KPIs.
• Strong knowledge of industrial safety, quality systems and manufacturing processes.
• Demonstrated experience improving safety, quality, reliability, productivity and cost.
• Strong analytical, communication and organizational skills.
• Have the ability to travel domestically and internationally. (~10%)

Preferred qualifications:

• Engineering, Food Science, Operations or related technical degree.
• 10–15+ years manufacturing experience.
• Previous Plant Manager or Operations Manager experience.
• Food/beverage or citrus processing experience.
• HACCP/PCQI training.
• Lean/Six Sigma training or certification.
• Experience with sanitary processing, CIP and thermal processing.
• Experience managing a facility with refrigeration, boilers, wastewater and other significant utilities.
• Experience with capital projects and plant expansions.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee may be frequently required to stand, walk, use hands to handle or feel, reach with hands and arms, stoop, speak, hear, taste and smell. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. This position may require long hours including working weekends and nights.

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

As a member of the production team, this employee will be working in a manufacturing environment and therefore may occasionally be exposed to fumes, reagents and solvents, or airborne particles. This environment may also be noisy, hot or cold. The ability to stand for long periods of time is essential. Safety glasses, hearing protection and other personal protective equipment must be worn as specified in designated areas.

Additional Information

Wonderful’s dedication to you:

• Continued training and generous Education Reimbursement Program

Wonderful Citrus is part of The Wonderful Company, a privately held$6 billionglobal company dedicated to harvesting health and happiness around the world. Its iconic brands include FIJI Water, POM Wonderful, Wonderful Pistachios, Wonderful Halos, Wonderful Seedless Lemons, Teleflora, and JUSTIN and Lewis Cellars wines. The Wonderful Company’s connection to consumers has health at its heart and giving back in its DNA.

Wonderful Citrus and The Wonderful Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer and with opportunities for advancement. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected categories.