Plant Director

Ventura Foods; Birmingham (AL); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Prescription, Dental, Vision

Profit Sharing and 401(k) matching

Paid Vacation, Sick Time, Holidays

Employee Events and Assistance

Annual bonus

Job summary

Ventura Foods in Birmingham, AL seeks an accomplished manufacturing and distribution leader to direct end-to-end plant operations. You will drive safety, quality, and efficiency while building an accountable team and delivering service targets, cost controls and capital plans.

Responsibilities cover production, warehousing, maintenance, and cross-functional collaboration with Supply Chain, Quality, R&D, Engineering, and Finance to scale up operations, reduce waste, and optimize performance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership.
• Experience in safety, quality, budgets, and KPI management.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end manufacturing plant and distribution operations.
• Direct production, warehousing, and distribution across shifts.
• Own operating plan, forecasts, and controllable spending.
• Drive Lean, continuous improvement, and data-based decisions.
• Build an accountable, high-performance leadership team.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Operations management

Lean / Six Sigma

Safety & Quality

Financial acumen

Cross-functional leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree

MBA (preferred)

Tools

ERP/MES systems

Data analytics

Job description

Location: Birmingham, AL, US, 35201

Position Summary:

Lead the end-to-end performance of the manufacturing plant and distribution operations. Build an engaged, accountable organization that safely produces compliant, high-quality products at the required service, cost, and volume. Balance daily execution with long-term capability building through reliability, capital planning, continuous improvement, data-driven management, and cross-functional partnership.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Service: Direct production, warehousing, and distribution execution across all shifts. Translate demand into achievable plans and use daily management routines to deliver schedule attainment, case fill, order fill, and customer commitments.
• Cost: Own the site operating plan, forecasts, and controllable spending. Improve conversion cost, labor productivity, material usage, utilities, destroyed product, overhead, inventory, and working capital while protecting safety, quality, service, and long-term capability.
• Quality/ Food Safety: Ensure food safety, product quality, sanitation, allergen, traceability, recall, and preventive-control programs meet company, customer, FDA, and applicable regulatory requirements. Maintain audit readiness and promptly elevate material risk.
• EHS: Lead the site safety, health, and environmental management system. Model visible safety leadership; ensure employee participation, hazard identification and control, training, emergency preparedness, contractor safety, incident investigation, and timely corrective action.
• Asset Management/ Maintenance Reliability: Establish the asset‑care and reliability strategy, including preventive and predictive maintenance, spare‑parts discipline, utilities, facilities, and grounds. Improve OEE and downtime performance and maintain safe, reliable plant infrastructure.
• Capital Management & Execution: Develop and execute the site capital roadmap. Build sound business cases; manage scope, budget, schedule, change control, safe installation, commissioning, and benefits realization for capital and engineering projects.
• People Leadership: Select, coach, develop, and retain an effective leadership team and frontline workforce. Set clear goals, strengthen technical capability, conduct talent and succession reviews, administer policies consistently, and promote an inclusive, high-accountability culture.
• Operational Excellence: Build a fact-based continuous‑improvement system using Lean problem solving, standard work, visual management, and verified savings. Sponsor loss elimination, automation, digital tools, and data‑quality improvements and ensure gains are sustained.
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration: Partner with Supply Chain, Procurement, Quality, R&D, Engineering, Sales, Finance, and HR to balance capacity, inventory, service, and cost. Govern plant trials, product transfers, and launches for safe, capable, and profitable scale‑up.
• Other: Maintain business continuity and crisis‑response readiness. Manage environmental obligations and relationships with regulators, customers, suppliers, contractors, carriers, emergency responders, and community stakeholders; communicate site performance and risks transparently.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree, is required
• 10+ years of progressive manufacturing experience, including significant leadership of multi‑function operations, is required
• Demonstrated ownership of plant safety, food safety and quality, customer service, budgets, cost improvement, workforce planning, maintenance/reliability, capital projects, and KPI management, is required
• Travel up to 5%
• MBA or relevant graduate degree is preferred
• Food or beverage manufacturing and high‑volume or automated operations strongly preferred
• Lean or Six Sigma; HACCP; PCQI when assigned responsibility requires it; and SQF, BRCGS, or other GFSI‑scheme experience, is helpful

Knowledge and Skills:

• Enterprise‑minded manufacturing leader with strong business judgment and the ability to convert strategy into disciplined plant execution
• Working knowledge of food‑safety systems, preventive controls, GMPs, sanitation, allergen management, quality systems, EHS, maintenance and reliability, capital delivery, production planning, warehousing, and distribution
• Skilled in financial analysis, root‑cause problem solving, lean management, organizational development, labor and employee relations, crisis leadership, and change management
• Demonstrated ability to use ERP/MES systems, production and quality data, visual management, and performance analytics to make timely decisions
• Communicates clearly with frontline employees, executives, customers, regulators, and external partners

Why Join Us:
Ventura Foods offers career growth opportunities as well as competitive compensation and benefits:

• Medical, Prescription, Dental, & Vision – coverage beginning on your 1st day for eligible employees
• Profit Sharing and 401(k) matching (after eligible criteria is met)
• Paid Vacation, Sick Time, and Holidays
• Employee Appreciation Events and Employee Assistance Programs
• Annual bonus (based on the incentive program terms and conditions)

Physical Demands:
All jobs require sufficient physical strength and dexterity to perform the required task(s)and typically also require at a minimum: intermittent sitting, standing, walking, climbing, squatting, kneeling, pushing, and pulling. Occasional lifting and/or moving up to 50 pounds or more with assistance may also be required. Please see the job description for specific requirements.

Please see the job description for specific requirements of the position for which you are applying.

Typical shifts are 8-12 hours per day. Additional unscheduled time after hours and on weekends may also be required. Employees must be willing and able to wear personal protective equipment as required by Company policy and/or legal requirements. In addition, certain jobs may require employees to:

• Work outside and/or in adverse temperatures which could include extreme heat, cold, and humidity;
• Be exposed to vibrations, chemicals used in operations, fumes and food allergens (may include soy, dairy and other allergens); and
• Be required to work in confined and dark spaces, and at heights in excess of 18 feet.

Our Culture
Our Culture reflects our commitment to treating every employee with respect and creating an environment where people can do their best work. We rely on a variety of strengths, backgrounds, and experiences across our teams to help us innovate, grow, and deliver for our customers. By fostering a workplace that is supportive, collaborative, and grounded in integrity, we continue to attract strong talent and meet the high expectations of a rapidly evolving marketplace.

Ventura Foods is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Ventura Foods may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted tools at certain stages of our hiring process, including identifying & sourcing candidates, reviewing applications and matched candidates on job boards and websites, and generating screening questions to help us work more efficiently and consistently. We regularly review our tools to promote fairness and reduce the risk of bias. However, while these tools support our process, every hiring decision is made by a real person on our team. Applicants in the State of New York may request an alternative process by contacting us at [e-mail] .