Production Team Leader

Kerry; Blue Earth (MN); On-site; USD 57,308,000 - 85,962,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401(k) with employer match

Paid time off

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

Kerry is seeking a Production Lead to promote safety, drive high quality production, and maximize throughput across shift teams. You will coach staff, ensure GMP compliance, and manage daily production paperwork while supporting continuous improvement initiatives.

Ideal candidates have hands-on manufacturing experience, strong problem-solving skills, and the ability to operate from blending to finished packaging stages.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED required.
• Ability to troubleshoot process issues and use resources to remedy.
• Familiarity with manufacturing systems and GMP practices.
• Able to communicate verbally and in writing.
• Basic computer skills and team-building skills.

Responsibilities

• Promotes safety consciousness and coaches employees on policies.
• Ensures high quality product and adheres to SOPs; works with QC for specs.
• Monitors production priorities; assigns shift responsibilities; maintains records.
• Leads sanitation and cleaning; approves equipment sanitation with QC.
• Solicits continuous improvement ideas and helps implement action plans.

Skills

Verbal & written communication

Troubleshooting

Manufacturing systems

GMP practices

Basic computer skills

Team building

Education

High school diploma or GED

Tools

QC testing tools

MS Excel

Job description

Position Type (US)Full Time

Workplace Arrangement

About Kerry

Kerry is the world's leading taste and nutrition company for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Every day we partner with customers to create healthier, tastier and more sustainable products that are consumed by billions of people across the world. Our vision is to be our customers' most valued partner, creating a world of sustainable nutrition. A career with Kerry offers you an opportunity to shape the future of food while providing you opportunities to explore and grow in a truly global environment.

About the role

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.

Key responsibilities

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.

Continuous Improvement

• Solicit continuous improvement ideas from employees.
• Help develop action plans to support improvement ideas.
• Evaluate personnel / employee needs and recommend development requirements.

Qualifications and skills

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 - $30 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 8/31/26

We may use artificial intelligence tools to support the review and assessment of applications and assist with scheduling interviews. We do not use AI to make decisions during the interview process. All candidate assessments and hiring decisions are made by our recruitment and leadership teams.

Kerry is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by law. Kerry will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States for this opening. Any offer of employment is conditional upon the successful completion of a background investigation and drug screen. Additional information can be found at Know Your Rights Workplace Discrimination is Illegal (dol.gov).