Senior Plant Operations Manager

Bradley Professional is currently seeking a Director of Operations for their client in Forest City, NC.

The Director of Operations will oversee our manufacturing plant operations of their brand new 80K square foot facility.

This experienced Operations Leader will bridge the execution goals with floor level execution, handling P&L, capital projects, and talent development in a high quality driven environment. This role is ideal for someone who is ready to create clarity, stability and continuity as the business grows.

This position reports directly to the CEO.

Essential Function

• Oversee all phases of continued facility construction and plant expansion, including planning, budgeting, design review, contractor coordination, and timeline management. Direct the commissioning process, equipment installation, validation, and readiness testing to ensure seamless operational launch.
• Collaborate with the Home Office team and on-site team to execute start up plans, staffing models, training programs, production workflows and SOPs to prepare the new plant for full operational capability.
• Serve as the primary operational leader for new site readiness, ensuring projects are delivered on time, within budget and aligned with the corporate strategic growth objectives.
• Develop and execute operational strategies, support growth, manage budgets and oversee financial performance.
• Optimize workflows, manage inventory, lead automation and drive process improvement initiatives.
• Champion strict adherence to FDA, USDA, OSHA< HACCP, GMP and SQF standards.
• Partner closely with cross-functional corporate teams-including Supply Chain, Culinary, Quality Assurance, and Executive Leadership-to align plant operations with company-wide objectives. This includes translating strategic goals into actionable operational plans, ensuring seamless coordination on production needs, driving innovation in new product development and commercialization, maintaining the highest food safety and quality standards, and supporting long-range capacity, growth and efficiency initiatives.
• Serve as the operational liaison between the plant and corporate leadership to ensure clarity collaboration and flawless execution of organizational priorities.
• Establish, track and continuously refine key performance indicators (KPIs) across all major operational areas-including safety, quality, cost, and service. Lead the team in interpreting performance data, identifying gaps, and developing targeted action plans to drive measurable improvements.
• Collaborate with human resources to recruit, train and mentor team to foster culture of quality, safety, and high performance.
• Perform calmly and effectively in an extremely busy and fast -paced work environment
• Perform calmly and effectively in an extremely busy and fast-paced work environment
• Knowledge of 5 whys and understanding of developing and managing an action plan and roadmap for success.
• Ability to travel as needed to the corporate office in Chicago, IL on a regulas basis
• Others tasks and projects assigned on an as needed basis.

• Minimum of 10+ years of experience in food manufacturing management with demonstrated success at the Plant Manager or Director of Manufacturing/Operational level.
• Deep understanding of food manufacturing regulations in a USDA, FDA, SQF and GMP environment.
• Preferably someone with a strong understanding of plant startup, stabilization and scalability
• Sense of urgency and focus on results
• Partake in a professional and positive work environment
• Proficiency with MS Office suite