Vice President of Manufacturing & Engineering - Los Angeles (CA) - Food Contract Manufacturing

Vice President of Manufacturing & Engineering

Based: Greater Los Angeles, CA (USA)

Salary: $200,000 - $250,000

About Our Client: Kinetica are partnered with a privately owned Food & Beverage CMO based in Greater Los Angeles, CA on a VP of Manufacturing & Engineering opening. We are in the search of an expert in Food Manufacturing and Multi-Site Management, and our client is looking for a hands-on, servant leader, who is ready to lead the deployment of operational excellence, continuous improvement, and product optimization. 

Duties & Responsibilities

• Responsible for ensuring multi-site and employee safety with a focus on zero injuries, multi-site security, and environmental compliance.
• Leads zero defect quality performance in manufacturing, meeting the high standards required of our consumers.
• Drives food safety best practices in the manufacturing operations and ensures plant senior leadership team capability and adherence to policies, practices, and procedures.
• Leads 800+ personnel operation to deliver People, Safety, Quality, Service, and Cost balanced objectives.
• Mentors operations leadership teams and builds development plans for leadership growth and succession in the organization.
• Ensures capability in the organization to perform at all levels – Shop floor through executive leadership and ownership.
• Leads sites to manage, report, and improve Key Performance Indicators.
• Leads teams to achieve Operational KPI performance through daily management systems.
• Oversees the communication and relationship with local site jurisdictions, services, and municipalities.
• Responsible for the P&L of the Manufacturing function, as well as budget development.  Establishes improvement plans to optimize operational productivity and financial performance.
• Champions and leads the delivery of operational excellence through daily management systems, and shop floor tools to drive operator, maintainer, quality assurance, material handler, and other support role coaching and development.
• Leads the development of the annual and long range capital plans to ensure asset viability through Repair and Upkeep projects, financial and productivity improvement through ROI projects, and topline growth through Growth projects.
• Leads Engineering development and execution of the annual capital plan to meet Repair and Upkeep, Return on Investment, and Growth capital plan targets.
• Sets targets, measures improvements, and manages overall KPI’s for capital program delivery.
• Collaborates with central Operational Excellence, and Continuous Improvement teams to review current processes and develop improvements in throughput and labor reduction.
• Leads the implementation of Operational Excellence to drive overall performance improvement and achieve top quartile operational performance.
• Provide direction and assist in the development of the manufacturing senior leadership team and defines succession plans for top talent leader promotion and career development.
• Work with R&D, Technical Services, and Culinary Research & Development on new product development.
• Develops Manufacturing long range plans for the sites to meet aspirational growth and optimization objectives.
• Leads the manufacturing quarterly, annual and long range budget, forecasting, reporting, and improvement, including capital requirements, budgeting and staffing development for future growth of the business.
• Work with Human Resources on performance evaluations, development plans, and progressive discipline when warranted for shop floor and leadership teams.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Business Administration or within a technical field preferred.
• Minimum of 10+ years of Food Manufacturing experience or experience in progressively responsible management in the food processing industry, preferably in the poultry, beef, pork business preferred.
• Experience leading the deployment of operational excellence, continuous improvement, and production optimization, and long range planning.
• Experience developing and delivering long range capital plans and annual capital program execution.
• Experience managing large project deployment is preferred.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to use statistical tools and data-driven methods to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement.
• Demonstrated financial understanding to include budgeting, staffing, and cost analysis.