Assistant Plant Manager

Divert•Lexington, NC

About The Position

Divert is a circular economy company that works to prevent food waste through nationwide infrastructure and technology. Its integrated approach prevents waste, recovers edible food for people in need, and transforms unsold food into renewable energy. At Divert’s Integrated Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) Plant, unsold food is analyzed and processed: packaging is separated from digestible organic material, which is then processed through an anaerobic digestion tank. The resulting RNG is sold to the local natural gas pipeline, reducing landfill waste. Reporting to the Plant Director and serving on the Site Leadership team, the Assistant Plant Manager leads the site production team and contributes to the company’s growth and success. The role provides direct mentorship and opportunities for career development. It oversees safety, quality, and plant operations, develops frontline leaders and staff, improves throughput and reliability, manages change and improvement work, and works with site and cross-functional partners. The position supports 24/7 operations and includes participation in an on-call rotation, including nights and weekends as needed.

Requirements

Five years of operations, engineering, or maintenance experience in industrial environments such as manufacturing, energy, chemical, or wastewater treatment.
Three to five years of people leadership experience, including direct oversight of one or more teams or shifts.
Ability to work as a hands-on leader in a 24/7 operating environment.
Ability to participate in an on-call rotation and support operations at night and on weekends as needed.
Experience operating complex, continuous, automated production systems.
Experience with pressurized liquid and gas systems, chemical handling and storage, and instrumentation and controls systems.
Strong leadership, independent thinking, organizational and planning abilities, analytical skills, and problem-solving skills.
Demonstrated ability to adapt to new challenges and learn quickly in a fast-paced environment.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or Operations Management is preferred.

Responsibilities

Create a safe work environment through culture, training, and identification and mitigation of risks.
Maintain a strong commitment to quality and a customer-focused approach to delivering products safely, on time, and above standard.
Engage regularly with regional safety and quality teams to improve local site programs.
Ensure plant production and sanitation practices comply with company standards and government regulations.
Develop firsthand expertise in operating all site processing equipment.
Partner with the Plant Director, Maintenance Manager, Continuous Improvement, and Engineering to increase plant throughput and efficiency.
Lead, hire, mentor, and develop frontline supervisors and hourly staff through training, coaching, and accountability.
Use systems-based approaches, including SOPs, standard work, and training and development.
Partner with cross-functional support teams to deploy facility best practices.
Lead change management through the site MOC process.
Develop and execute daily and weekly plans in coordination with the site Maintenance Manager and Transportation Supervisor.
Drive reliability best practices with the site Maintenance Manager.
Collect, measure, and analyze site reliability and run rates, and continuously improve them.
Identify opportunities to reduce plant operating costs.
Develop and lead improvement plans to capture value.
Manage contractor work for plant improvements.