Production Team Lead

Kerry; Blue Earth (MN); On-site; USD 42,000 - 67,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401(k) plan with company contribution

Paid time off

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

The Production Lead at Kerry is responsible for promoting safety awareness and producing high quality products while maximizing daily throughput. They provide leadership for the shift, coach employees, and solicit ideas for continuous improvement.

Key duties include enforcing GMP and SOP adherence, coordinating with QA, assigning audits, troubleshooting process issues, and guiding staff across blending to finish packaging. This role supports training and process changes under supervision.

Qualifications

• Must have a high school diploma or GED.
• Ability to tolerate physical and environmental demands.
• Able to troubleshoot and identify issues within the process.
• Ability to communicate verbally and in written form.
• Familiarity with GMP practices.

Responsibilities

• Promotes safety consciousness and coaches to ensure policies are followed.
• Assign safety audits and initiate incident investigations.
• Facilitate production with SOPs and quality specifications.
• Collaborate with QC to meet customer quality standards.
• Operate across blending to finished packaging tasks and supervise shifts.
• Review priorities and assign tasks to ensure on‑task performance.
• Monitor production paperwork for accuracy and completeness.
• Provide training and coaching on new procedures and changes.

Skills

Safety mindset

Quality control

Team leadership

Troubleshooting

Effective communication

Education

High school diploma or GED

Tools

GMP practices

Manufacturing systems

Job description

The Production Lead is responsible for promoting safety awareness, producing high quality product, while maximizing daily throughput. They also provide leadership for the employees, while soliciting ideas for continuous improvement.

Essential Job Functions

Safety:

Promotes a high level of safety consciousness among shift employees and coaches to ensure company policies / procedures are being followed.

Assign safety audit to employees for all areas.

Initiate incident or near miss investigations.

Communicate to supervisor or manager follow up and coaching with employees.

Quality:

Facilitates operation of the process to ensure we are producing high quality products and that current SOP’s are being followed.

Collaborates with quality control technicians to ensure that customer quality specifications are being met.

Ensures that products are made in sanitary conditions and GMP practices are being followed.

Assign GMP audit to employees for all areas.

Initiate CAPA investigations for out of specification production.

Communicate to supervisor or manager concerns with quality.

Productivity / Service:

Review priorities with supervisor or manager to ensure we are on task.

Assign responsibilities to shift employees as needed.

Communicate to supervisor or manager concerns with meeting tasks.

Monitors and signs off on production paperwork to ensure accurate records are being recorded.

Look ahead at ingredients staged to ensure we have enough materials to produce the order requirements.

Forecast and calculate needs to complete order requirements.

Be able to operate and understand all job tasks of the operations from blending to finished packaging.

Support and coach employees in their job tasks, train as needed.

Help develop new SOP’s as needed.

With guidance from the manager, help prepare and train employees on new procedures and changing processes.

Communicate to supervisor or manager concerns with employees being able to perform their assigned tasks.

Work as an active operator covering breaks, vacations and personal time as well as covering additional lead tasks.

Document and collect all daily production information.

DPR data for #’s produced (waste & good), hours towards job, # employees.

Pass down report; detailed of events during course of shift.

Collect all production paperwork from course of shift, review and reconcile raw materials used / finished product produced, turn into shift manager.

Sanitation / Cleaning

Lead the team through cleaning process during your shift.

Communicate with QC Techs to get approval of cleaned equipment.

Ensure items have been completed and signed off on.

Solicit continuous improvement ideas from employees.

Help develop action plans to support improvement ideas.

Evaluate personnel / employee needs and recommend development requirements.

Minimum Qualifications

Must have a high school diploma or GED.

Must be able to tolerate the physical and environmental demands of this position with or without accommodations.

Must be able to trouble shoot and identify issues within the process and use available resources to remedy these issues.

Ability to communicate verbally and in written form.

Familiarity with manufacturing systems & Good Manufacturing Practices.

Basic computer skills; team building skills.

Beneficial Qualifications

Food processing experience: previous manufacturing experience preferred.

Experience in quality control; strong mechanical aptitude/ability.

The pay range for this position is $20 - $32 per hour. Kerry typically does not hire an individual at the top or near the top of the range, as we are a pay-for-performance company, and this range is set to continue to reward performance annually while in role. Compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. The specific compensation offered to a candidate within the above range may be influenced by a variety of factors including skills, qualifications, experience, and internal equity. Kerry offers a competitive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, paid time off, a 401(k) plan with employee and company contribution opportunities, Employee Share Plan, Life, disability, and accident insurance, and tuition reimbursement. This job posting is anticipated to expire on 9/30/26