Operations Manager - Nights

Summary

The Night Shift Operations Manager leads daily manufacturing operations with a strong focus on operational excellence, team leadership, continuous improvement, and cost-effective performance. This role owns the safety, quality, productivity, reliability, and financial performance of the night-shift operation.
The Operations Manager is a visible leader on the floor who develops the team, drives accountability, removes barriers, and creates a culture of ownership, problem solving, and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

•    Own night-shift performance across safety, quality, service, productivity, equipment utilization, labor, and cost.
•    Deliver production KPIs and maximize throughput while controlling labor, waste, downtime, and operating costs.
•    Use data to identify losses, prioritize opportunities, and make decisions that improve overall financial productivity.
•    Ensure effective use of people, equipment, materials, and resources.
•    Lead a culture of continuous improvement and Lean thinking across the night shift.
•    Identify and eliminate waste, inefficiencies, downtime, quality losses, and process variation.
•    Lead root-cause problem solving and ensure corrective actions deliver sustainable results.
•    Partner with Continuous Improvement, Maintenance, Quality, and Technical Services to improve process capability, reliability, and efficiency.
•    Provide strong, visible leadership to the night-shift production team.
•    Coach and develop supervisors and employees to build a high-performing, accountable team.
•    Establish clear expectations, goals, and priorities while holding the team accountable for results.
•    Empower employees to identify problems, improve processes, and take ownership of performance.
•    Build leadership capability and succession strength within the team.
•    Lead by example and ensure a safe, compliant operating environment.
•    Maintain strong food safety and quality standards through partnership with Quality and Food Safety.
•    Ensure employees are trained and consistently follow safety, GMP, quality, and operating standards.
•    Address issues quickly and drive root-cause solutions.
•    Maintain strong communication and effective shift handoffs with all operating teams.
•    Coordinate with Maintenance, Quality, Technical Services, Safety, HR, Supply Chain, and Operations leadership to remove barriers and improve performance.
•    Ensure night-shift priorities are aligned with overall plant and business objectives.

Requirements

•    Bachelor's degree from an accredited university, preferably in Engineering, Operations Management or Business Administration
•    5-7 years progressive leadership in a manufacturing environment
•    Food/dairy processing experience preferred
•    Experience with thermal processing, retorts and canned product preferred 
•    Demonstrated Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement skills
•    Project management experience
•    Strong business and financial competence
•    Excellent interpersonal skills and collaborative management style
•    Effective leadership skills to build a shared vision, energize, challenge, and engage team members to drive positive change
•    Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
•    Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications and ERP systems