Plant Director

Plant Director - Food or Beverage Manufacturing

Reading, PA

Base, bonus and strong equity package

A growing, well-established beverage manufacturer is seeking a Plant Manager to lead its Eastern Pennsylvania site.

This is a high-impact leadership role for someone who wants more than responsibility for day-to-day production. The Director will have the opportunity to shape the site’s next chapter by developing the leadership team, strengthening operating discipline, improving performance, and building a culture where safety, quality, accountability, and continuous improvement are visible throughout the organization.

The right leader will be equally comfortable walking the production floor, reviewing performance data, developing supervisors, supporting capital projects, and working with senior leadership on the long-term direction of the facility.

What you will lead

The Plant Manager will have overall responsibility for the safety, quality, service, cost, and people performance of the operation. This individual will lead the site leadership team and create alignment across production, maintenance, quality, sanitation, warehousing, supply chain, and other supporting functions.

Key responsibilities

• Provide visible, hands-on leadership across the entire manufacturing operation.
• Build a safety-first culture in which employees understand expectations, identify risks, and take ownership of safe working practices.
• Ensure food safety, product quality, sanitation, and regulatory requirements remain non-negotiable.
• Lead daily production activities to meet customer commitments while improving throughput, labor efficiency, yield, and schedule attainment.
• Establish clear performance expectations and use operating metrics to drive accountability at every level of the plant.
• Develop supervisors and managers into stronger, more capable leaders.
• Strengthen preventive maintenance, equipment reliability, and coordination between operations and maintenance.
• Champion continuous improvement efforts focused on reducing downtime, waste, rework, and unnecessary complexity.
• Partner with engineering and corporate leadership on capital projects, equipment upgrades, and capacity planning.
• Manage plant expenses, labor planning, capital priorities, and overall financial performance.
• Work cross-functionally with quality, supply chain, procurement, research and development, sales, and senior leadership.
• Create an environment where problems are addressed quickly, employees are heard, and teams focus on solutions rather than excuses.
• Support the continued implementation and effective use of ERP systems, reporting tools, and standardized operating processes.

What we are looking for

• Significant manufacturing leadership experience within food, beverage, consumer products, or another highly regulated production environment.
• Previous responsibility for leading a plant, major manufacturing department, or similarly complex operation.
• Experience with liquid processing, aseptic manufacturing, filling, blending, packaging, or bag-in-box operations is strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of food safety, GMPs, sanitation, quality systems, and regulatory compliance.
• Demonstrated success improving safety, quality, service, cost, labor efficiency, equipment reliability, or overall plant performance.
• Experience building and developing front-line supervisors and functional leaders.
• Working knowledge of Lean manufacturing, root-cause problem solving, and continuous improvement methods.
• Comfort using operational and financial data to make decisions and hold teams accountable.
• Experience with ERP systems and structured performance management processes.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, operations, business, food science, or a related field is preferred.

This role requires a leader who is present, direct, and approachable. The successful candidate will set high expectations without losing the trust of the workforce. They will communicate clearly, follow through on commitments, and bring structure to the operation without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

They will also understand that sustainable plant performance is built through people. This leader must be willing to coach, recognize strong performance, address difficult issues, and create opportunities for employees to grow.

Why consider this opportunity?

This is an opportunity to lead an important facility within a growing, multi-site beverage manufacturing organization. The company offers the resources and reach of a national platform while maintaining the speed, accessibility, and entrepreneurial mindset of a mid-sized business.

For a Plant Manager who enjoys building teams, improving operations, and leaving a measurable mark on a facility, this role offers the visibility and influence to do exactly that.