Plant Manager

Red Kite Recruiting; Minnesota; On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

A private food and agriculture company in Southwest Minnesota is seeking a Plant Manager for a newly transformed processed-meats facility.

You will report to the General Manager, lead day-to-day production, and build the systems and leadership needed for growth.

Candidates should have meat or protein manufacturing leadership, pork experience preferred, USDA manufacturing experience, and a track record of developing people and improving plant performance.

Qualifications

• Experience leading meat or protein manufacturing operations.
• USDA manufacturing experience required or valued.
• Strong operational and financial acumen with a track record of improving plant performance.
• Experience developing leaders and staff.

Responsibilities

• Driving safety, food safety, quality, service, cost and people performance.
• Increasing throughput, utilization, yield and labor efficiency.
• Building scalable SOPs, processes and accountability systems.
• Developing Superintendents, Supervisors and frontline leaders.
• Supporting additional shifts and increased production capacity.
• Partnering closely with Quality, Maintenance, HR and Finance.
• Bringing solutions when the playbook doesn’t already exist.

Skills

Meat manufacturing leadership

Operational leadership

Financial acumen

Job description

We are partnering confidentially with a well-established, privately held food and agriculture company to identify a Plant Manager for a newly transformed processed-meats facility in Southwest Minnesota.

This is not a turnaround. It’s a build-and-scale opportunity. The company has made a significant investment in the facility, including new processing equipment, and the operation is now ramping production, customers, product lines and staffing. Today, the plant has approximately 100 employees with plans to grow to 150–170.

The Opportunity

You’ll report to the General Manager and lead day-to-day production while helping build the systems, processes and leadership structure needed for continued growth.

You’ll be responsible for:

• Driving safety, food safety, quality, service, cost and people performance
• Increasing throughput, utilization, yield and labor efficiency
• Building scalable SOPs, processes and accountability systems
• Developing Superintendents, Supervisors and frontline leaders
• Supporting additional shifts and increased production capacity
• Partnering closely with Quality, Maintenance, HR and Finance
• Bringing solutions when the playbook doesn’t already exist

What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for an experienced meat or protein manufacturing leader who knows what great operations look like and wants the opportunity to help build one.

Pork experience is preferred, with experience in ground meats, sausage and/or case-ready processing especially valuable. Candidates should bring strong USDA manufacturing experience, operational and financial acumen, and a track record of developing people and improving plant performance.

Why This One?

You get the opportunity to shape a growing operation without taking on the financial risk of a startup. The facility is backed by a large, established, vertically integrated organization investing for long-term growth.