As employees of a farmer-owned cooperative, we come to work every day trying to honor the tireless effort and care these farming families put in every day, all day, 365 days a year. Our farmer-owners tend to think in generations, with some of our farms being run by the same families for over a century. We carry this approach into our business, knowing that each and every one of us makes a difference in allowing these generational traditions to continue, taking pride in knowing that we nourish our friends, neighbors, nation, and even the world with healthy and delicious dairy products. Our products include milk, flavored milk, yogurt, dip, sour cream, cottage cheese, Italian cheese, and ice cream mix marketed under the Upstate Farms^®, Bison^®, Milk for Life^®, and Intense Milk^® brands. 

Job Summary:

The Operations Supervisor is responsible for supervising the daily activities of a manufacturing shift to ensure safe, efficient, secure operations and meet production, quality and regulatory requirements.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Responsible for other Operations Supervisor position in their absence.

• Ensures a safe work environment exists and that personnel work in a safe manner.
• Supervise and assist employees including; assigning and directing work, investigating incidents & issues, effectively resolving conflict.
• Train and ensure employees follow job and safe work requirements.
• Use root cause analysis tools to identify preventative and corrective actions to eliminate problems.
• Assists in developing and maintaining departmental work instructions and SOP’s.
• Recommends measures to improve quality of service, increase efficiency of department, work crews and equipment performance.
• Pro-actively confers with other supervisors to coordinate activities between departments and serve internal customers.
• Maintains standards of health, safety, food and security including GMP, HACCP, SQF, as per Company policies and applicable regulations.
• Meet functional responsibilities by effectively interacting with Maintenance, Quality Assurance, Human Resources, Material Handling and Finance departments.
• Communicate and work with Employees to resolve issues/problems
• Support all regulations, policies, procedures, work rules and the Collective Bargaining Agreement

• Performs other related duties as required and assigned.

Experience & Education:

Required:

• Bachelor's degree plus 5 years direct manufacturing supervisory related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience working with high volume, automated processing equipment.

Preferred:

• Supervisory experience in unionized environment
• Dairy and/or food processing knowledge

Knowledge & Skills - Required

• Demonstrated Leadership skills and ability to manage and coach team members
• Good people skills
• Proven ability to implement and enforce process improvement initiatives.
• Strong decision making skills
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Detail oriented and highly organized with excellent follow-up practices
• Ability to supervise hourly team members and interact with all levels of management to maintain a positive and productive work environment
• Proficient in Microsoft Excel, Word and Outlook
• Proven problem solving and organizational skills
• Ability to flourish in a fast-paced and diverse work environment.

Confidentiality

The Operations Supervisor is exposed to O-AT-KA customer and product information on a consistent basis. A high degree of discretion is required.

Management Responsibility

The Operations Supervisor directly manages union workforce employees. This position operates under the guidance and general direction of the Sr. Operations Supervisors and the Production Manager.

Work Environment

• This job operates in an office environment and in manufacturing plant. This role routinely uses standard office equipment. Ability to operate a computer, phone, photocopier, calculator, and fax machine required. Incumbent must be able to sit, stand, walk, bend, stretch and lift up to 35 pounds. Must be able to see and speak. The employee will be exposed to noise, wet floors, moving machinery, strong smells, etc. While performing the duties of this job, the employee frequently works near moving mechanical parts, high speed and processing equipment; is occasionally exposed to wet and/or humid conditions and hazardous chemicals; is frequently exposed to moderate to high noise levels in the work environment.
• Operations Supervisors work on a 8 hour shift to cover 24/7 manufacturing facility (either Days or Nights as assigned by Department Manager); Schedule will include some weekends.

Pay: $658,600 -$76,200 per year*

*The salary range indicated in this posting represents the minimum and maximum of the salary range for this position. Actual salary will vary depending on factors including, but not limited to, budget available, prior experience, knowledge, skill and education as they relate to the position’s qualifications, in addition to internal equity. The posted salary range reflects just one component of our total rewards package. Other components of the total rewards package may include participation in group health and/or dental insurance, retirement plan, wellness program, paid time away from work, and paid holidays.

Upstate Niagara Cooperative, Inc. is committed to equal employment opportunity for all, without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic.