Plant Manager

We're looking for someone who:

• Is an enthusiastic leader who develops their team members, while creating opportunities for growth and development.
• Has experience in production operations, in a food manufacturing environment.
• Is an excellent communicator with team members, executives, vendors, and other partners.
• Maintains a positive can-do attitude.
• Bilingual, English, and Spanish is required

We offer:

• Great Compensation (DOE)
• Paid Time Off (PTO) & (PSL) Paid Sick Leave
• Company offered insurance benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision Plans)
• Company Paid Life Insurance
• 401(k) Plan with up to 4% Company Match

Position Summary:

The Plant Manager leads the centralized commissary and food manufacturing facility supporting Restaurants. This role is responsible for overseeing daily operations, ensuring food safety and quality, and driving continuous improvement across the facility.

Position Responsibilities:

PLANT MANAGER TASKS:

· Budget and Cost Control: Manage budgets and control plant expenses, while reducing inefficiencies and waste. Be able to perform cost analyses to determine labor, materials, consumables, and utilities to determine cost per pound for each type of product produced in the facility. Ability to adapt this information to determine optimal sizes or minimum batch quantities and when to schedule production time for certain products.

· Management: Overall management of operations, including supervisory responsibilities for managers, assistant managers, and team members.

· Production Planning: Oversee daily operations to ensure safety, quality and production standards are met and maintain quality standards with team and food suppliers.

· Process Monitoring: Monitor and test various plant processes including ingredient receiving inspection, recipe verification, batch records and quality control of finished product.

· Process Improvements: Continuously identify and improve inefficient operations, suggest new ideas and create concepts to solve them by means of new infrastructure or processing equipment

· Purchasing: Oversee team members that purchase products and advise on how to bring costs down. Example, order larger quantities, primary/secondary vendors, or set up contracts on an annual purchase basis with scheduled deliveries.

· Hands On Engagement: Provide hands-on support for team members to fill in when needed. Perform all preparation, cooking, cleaning, or packaging operations on short notice.

· Construction Coordination: General knowledge and experience with construction related tasks. Be able to coordinate with contractors for maintenance and capital projects while dealing with scheduled shutdowns in a food production environment.

· Maintenance Coordination: Evaluate equipment and determine preventative maintenance requirements to make sure that the “up time” of the equipment is achieved to reduce downtime during production.

· QA Experience: Be aware of proper procedures from a QA perspective. Guide team members to ensure food quality standards are met.

· Delivery Vehicles: Management of the company owned delivery vehicles, route coordination and schedules.

ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS:

· Inventory control: Manage and maintain inventory.

· Data Analysis: Collect and analyze data to optimize production processes and improve efficiency.

· Policy development: Develop and execute plant policies and procedures that align with the company's goals. Manage company policies, HACCP structure for team members. These responsibilities help maintain high standards in food production and ensure the plant operates efficiently and safely.

· Team Building & Leadership: Create weekly schedule, payroll procedures and promote safety as part of the hiring, training, and mentor staff, and ensure company policies and procedures are followed; HACCP leader in kitchen and delivery vehicles.

· Other Leadership Duties: Train new employees. Attend various meetings: Leadership meetings, Project planning, 1:1 meeting with Manager.

HACCP EXPERIENCE:

· Monitoring and verification: Regular review of HACCP activities and data to ensure compliance with safety standards.

· Training and Communication: Oversee training and follow up with all team members to establish the importance of food safety protocols

· Oversee HACCP protocols for delivery vehicles: Oversee programs for vehicles and delivery process.

· Documentation and Record -Keeping: Ensure all HACCP documentation is accurate and up to date.

FOOD KNOWLEDGE:

· Food Knowledge: Ensure thorough knowledge of food products, ingredients, and processes to maintain compliance with company standards and regulatory requirements.

· Production Processes: Oversee production processes to maintain the authentic taste, texture, and presentation of various food items, preferrable experience with traditional Mexican food items (e.g., tortillas, salsas, marinades, proteins).

· Recipe Standards: Ensure all products meet authentic recipe standards while complying with food safety and regulatory requirements.

· Suppliers: Monitor suppliers to ensure quality and consistency of traditional ingredients.

· Food Preparation Techniques: Leverage knowledge of food preparation techniques (e.g., marination, roasting, frying, sauce blending) to troubleshoot production issues and maintain product authenticity.

· Culinary Skills: Balance culinary authenticity with scalable manufacturing practices, ensuring efficiency without compromising product quality.

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EXPERIENCE & EDUCATION:

· Bachelor’s in food science, Ops Management, Business, or equivalent experience.

· 5 years in food production/manufacturing.

· 3 years in leadership or supervisory roles.

· Bilingual, English, and Spanish is required

TECHNICAL PROFICIENCY:

· Knowledge of Food Safety Regulatory departments which could include:

o Food & Drug Administration (FDA)

o United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

o California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)

o California Department of Public Health (CDPH)

o Hazardous Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)

o Safe Quality Food (SQF Code 9)

o Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)

o Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)

o Advanced food safety training

o Local City Departments (Wastewater, Fire Department, Chemical Fire Suppression, Building Dept)

· Strong problem-solving and decision-making in high-pressure environments.

· Proactive maintenance and crisis response skills.

CORE COMPETENCIES:

· Problem solving and decision-making skills

· Team management skills / ability to co-ordinate and coach a team

· Effective communication skills and responsibilities

· Technical knowledge and skills (Microsoft Office, HARRI, Paylocity, Asana or other PM software