Plant Manager

Delicious Food and Meaningful CareersAt the heart of our company is a deep passion for creating fresh, healthy, and artisan-quality food that brings people together. We honor the craft of artisan cooking using scratch-made stocks, hand-chopped herbs, and only the highest-quality ingredients complemented by cutting-edge technology. This allows us to deliver consistently safe, exceptional products on a large scale.But it s not just about the food. Our culture is built on principles that shape how we grow, both as individuals and as a team. One of our core values, Honoring Development, guides us to actively seek out, celebrate, and nurture one another s talents, strengths, and interests. By fostering each other s growth, we strengthen our relationships and capabilities, driving both personal and professional success.We also believe in Honoring Each Other. We surround ourselves with passionate people who share our love for great food. Through mutual respect and collaboration, we create an environment where employees are empowered to thrive, building trusting, and rewarding relationships with our clients, partners, and one another.If you're looking for a place where your skills, passion, and ideas can flourish, we invite you to explore the opportunities available within our dynamic and supportive team, offering career paths in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, California, Washington, and Maryland.
Company SummaryKettle Cuisine is committed to making fresh, healthy, delicious, artisan quality soups, broths, sauces, sides, and center of plate meals, while delivering the highest quality, most consistent, and safest food possible at the pace and scale people need.Headquartered in Lynn, MA, the Company was founded in 1986 to fill a void in the market and change the soup status quo – making and bringing the freshest, highest quality soups to restaurants that had neither the time nor ability to do it themselves. That entrepreneurial, artisan, pioneering, can-do spirit is Kettle Cuisine’s DNA – and continues to inspire and guide the Company today. From their humble, start-up roots, Kettle Cuisine has grown strategically and exponentially to be more than makers of soup. Kettle Cuisine is a passionate, innovative food company committed to making fresh, healthy, delicious, artisan quality food for all. The Lynn site is a 260,000 Sq Ft facility with an SQF Level 3 rating and 500 employees. Today, Kettle Cuisine is proud to partner with a diverse mix of clients—retailers and clubs, restaurants, food service, and national brands who share a love for wholesome, nourishing food. From their five state-of-the-art production facilities in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, California, Maryland, and Washington, Kettle Cuisine’s talented teams proudly serve clients across the U.S.Position SummaryThe (Bilingual) Plant Manager position has the overall accountability to lead the production, distribution operations and facilities for the facility. Responsibilities include the leadership and involvement in daily operations, delivering key performance targets in safety, security, quality, environmental programs, productivity, consumer satisfaction, cost contribution management and organizational morale. The successful management of these responsibilities ultimately impacts the overall effectiveness of the plant, its people and organizational culture/morale, the products it produces, the businesses and consumers it services, and the surrounding community in which the plant resides.Reports to: Chief Operating OfficerKey ResponsibilitiesCommunicate and champion the Vision, Mission, Operating Principles, and Strategies of the Company to its team members and other internal/external clients.Leadership for implementing reports and controls to manage operations in compliance with established policies and procedures.Manage the achievement of key performance indicators by tracking results versus targets for safety, quality, labor efficiency, customer satisfaction, cost/case, productivity, and cost contribution management.Analyzes trends and develops opportunities or resolves inefficiencies.Lead Daily and weekly process to ensure that factory performance metrics are on track.Overall leadership for ensuring production schedules are established, which most effectively utilize people and equipment.Provide leadership for the development, implementation, and maintenance of the Continuous Improvement tools and techniques.Participate in the planning and management of Variable, Period and Capital Budgets.Analyze financial trends versus budgets through appropriate tracking measures to ensure results are achieved, issues are identified, and/or adjustments are made.Provide an environment for the lowest operating cost that does not affect the quality of goods and services provided.Implements corporate and local business projects to create efficiency and cost savings for the operation.Promote a good work environment through the development of effective employee engagement strategies including communication plans to lead monthly operational review meetings with staff and hourly employees.Identify and create individual development plans in collaboration with direct reports to enhance future career opportunities using Organizational Performance and Human Resource tools, training seminars, workshops and stretch assignments.Track the progress of direct reports and organization in general versus plan to ensure plans are on track and/or appropriate adjustments are made.Work with direct reports to develop stretch MAP goals for the achievement of corporate, divisional, local and personal goals.Be a leader of continuous improvement within the facility and embrace the Lean/TPM mindset that we are creating in the factoryDevelop plans and execute a number of capital projects that will improve productivity, quality and enhanced safety programs.Ideal Experience: The ideal candidate will have 10+ years of progressive experience in manufacturing operations and production supervision and process a solid understanding of CPG/food processing and lean manufacturing in a high-volume process environment. Additionally, skills learned from previous experience at a large CPG/Food company will be valuable. Other areas of importance are business acumen, finance and analytical skills, process management, workforce culture promotion. Other Key Requirements:Bilingual (Spanish speaking) candidate required Demonstrated leadership skills, a commitment to teamwork and a team-based environment, employee empowered work systems and a commitment to safe operations, both behavioral and process-related.Excellent interpersonal skills: proficient communication skills, both written and verbal with demonstrated ability to effectively interact with employees at all levels of the organization, including corporate and division, exempt, non-exempt, and hourly personnel.Must demonstrate an attitude of respect and professionalism when interacting with others.Demonstrated strong initiative; self-motivation with ability to work under minimal supervision.Ability to analyze, process high volumes of information and manage multiple priorities in a timely manner; with precise attention to detail, and a high degree of accuracy and follow through.Personal Traits:Ability to interpret and adjust to situations that involve conflicting goals, excellent facilitation, and conflict resolution skills.Managerial courage, timely decision-making, decision quality and drive for results. Should be a strategic thinker with a proven record of creating vision and driving change.Influencing skills, political savvy, strategic and organizational agility. Must be able to effectively interface with and influence people on both strategic and tactical issues.Strong leadership, interpersonal, and written and verbal communication skills.Ability to motivate others, create teamwork, integrity, and trust. Able to develop direct reports and size up people.Americans with Disabilities ActKettle Cuisine complies with all aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state disability laws. This means we will not discriminate against qualified individuals with a disability in any phase of the employment relationship including application for employment, hiring, promotions and/or advancement opportunities, termination, compensation, training and any other conditions or privileges of employment.Core ValuesKettle Cuisine takes the utmost pride in its people, products and reputation. Each employee is expected to understand and live our Core Values every day.Honor Food – We create and produce the best tasting, safest, all natural recipes that strive for perfection in every batch, from bench to kettleHonor Each Other – We seek to develop trusting, respectful and mutually rewarding relationships with all our team members and business partnersHonor Development – We recognize and nurture each other’s talents, strengths and interests in order to further strengthen and grow our teamHonor Innovation – We continually strive for creative and sustainable ways to achieve excellence