Corporate Training & Development Manager

Snack Innovations•Piscataway Township, NJ

12d•$125,000 - $135,000

About The Position

Snack Innovations is a fast-growing consumer packaged goods company with a passion for better-for-you snacking and the parent brand behind Drizzilicious, Natural Endurance, Smart Fries, and Sunday Snacks. Operating as both a private label manufacturer and direct-to-consumer snack brand innovator, we’re rapidly expanding and looking for driven, entrepreneurial people to grow with us. We are looking for builders and doers who thrive in agile, entrepreneurial environments and are comfortable creating structure where it does not yet exist. The ideal candidate has seen best-in-class operations and knows how to adapt that experience in a fast-moving setting. The Corporate Training & Development Manager serves as the company-wide owner of learning, training, employee qualification, and workforce development across Snack Innovations. This position will establish a consistent training system, standards, and infrastructure across all company locations while partnering with each facility and department to address its unique operational needs. This is a strategic and hands-on role responsible for building and continuously improving the company’s training and development function. The Manager will oversee the Learning Management System, establish job qualification and skills-development programs, develop leadership and professional development initiatives, and create consistent onboarding and workforce-development processes. The ideal candidate has significant experience in food manufacturing, CPG, or a similarly regulated manufacturing environment and understands the unique training needs of hourly production employees, technical employees, supervisors, managers, and professional staff. This individual will be comfortable working with employees on the production floor while also partnering with executive leadership to develop a long-term workforce development strategy. The Corporate Training & Development Manager will partner closely with Operations, Quality, Food Safety, Safety, Maintenance, Human Resources, and other functional leaders. Subject-matter experts will own the technical accuracy of their content; this position will own the training process, standards, delivery, documentation, tracking, qualification, and effectiveness.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Education, Business Administration, or a related field required; advanced degree or relevant certification preferred.
7+ years of progressive experience in Training & Development, Learning & Development, Organizational Development, or a related discipline.
Significant experience within food manufacturing, CPG manufacturing, or a closely related regulated manufacturing environment required.
Demonstrated experience developing and implementing training programs for hourly manufacturing employees.
Experience building or significantly improving a company-wide or multi-site training function.
Strong working knowledge of GMP, food safety, HACCP, quality, safety, and regulatory training requirements.
Experience developing technical training, job qualification programs, skills matrices, cross-training programs, and employee development pathways.
Demonstrated experience designing and facilitating leadership development programs.
Experience administering an LMS or similar training platform.
Strong understanding of adult learning principles and instructional design.
Experience developing train-the-trainer programs and working with subject-matter experts.
Strong analytical, project-management, presentation, facilitation, and communication skills.
Ability to build relationships and influence employees and leaders at all levels.
Strong business acumen and the ability to connect learning initiatives to operational and business outcomes.
Comfortable working directly with employees on the manufacturing floor.
Ability to create structure and scalable processes in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.
Bilingual English/Spanish required.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute a company-wide learning and development strategy aligned with business goals and workforce needs.
Establish consistent training standards, procedures, templates, and documentation requirements across all locations.
Conduct regular training-needs assessments with plant, department, and functional leadership.
Develop and manage an annual training plan covering production, technical, professional, compliance, and leadership development.
Establish processes for reviewing and updating training programs as business, equipment, processes, regulations, or customer requirements change.
Facilitate a cross-functional training committee with representatives from Operations, Quality, Food Safety, Safety, Maintenance, Human Resources, and other departments.
Develop standardized job-training plans for production, maintenance, warehouse, quality, sanitation, and other technical positions.
Establish position-specific competency and qualification requirements, including written and practical methods for verifying employee proficiency.
Develop and maintain skills matrices showing employee qualifications, cross-training status, and coverage gaps.
Coordinate training for new equipment, processes, technology, and systems.
Partner with subject-matter experts to convert technical knowledge into structured training materials.
Establish recertification requirements for critical tasks and qualifications.
Establish and manage a company-wide train-the-trainer program.
Identify and qualify departmental trainers and subject-matter experts.
Train and coach internal trainers on instruction, presentation, documentation, and employee evaluation.
Observe trainers and provide feedback to ensure consistent and effective training across locations.
Lead the selection, implementation, administration, and continuous improvement of the company’s Learning Management System.
Assign and monitor required training by employee, position, department, and location.
Maintain accurate electronic training records and employee qualification histories.
Develop automated reminders and escalation processes for overdue training.
Produce compliance and training reports for plant leaders, Human Resources, and senior management.
Maintain documentation to support regulatory, customer, certification, and internal audits.
Own the company-wide onboarding framework and continuously improve the new-hire experience.
Create role-specific onboarding plans extending through the employee’s first 30, 60, and 90 days.
Ensure onboarding includes company orientation, safety, GMP, food safety, job-specific training, and performance expectations.
Monitor new-hire progress and use retention, performance, attendance, and employee-feedback data to improve onboarding effectiveness.
Develop career pathways and upskilling opportunities for production, technical, warehouse, and professional employees.
Design and implement leadership development programs for leads, supervisors, managers, and emerging leaders.
Develop training focused on coaching, performance management, communication, conflict resolution, accountability, and employee engagement.
Support employees transitioning into leadership roles and develop the internal leadership pipeline.
Partner with Human Resources and leadership on individual development plans, high-potential employee development, and succession planning.
Develop professional-skills training for office and corporate employees as appropriate.
Partner with Quality, Food Safety, Safety, Human Resources, and Operations to maintain a master training-requirements matrix covering GMP, food safety, quality, OSHA/safety, customer requirements, and company policies.
Monitor required initial and recurring training and ensure appropriate retraining when policies, procedures, or processes change.
Prepare training documentation for customer, regulatory, certification, and internal audits.
Participate in audit responses and corrective actions involving training.
Evaluate whether training is the appropriate solution when performance, quality, safety, or compliance issues arise.
Partner with leaders to determine whether performance issues are related to training, procedures, supervision, equipment, staffing, or employee conduct.
Develop targeted learning solutions when legitimate training gaps exist and measure whether training produces improved performance.
Identify positions with insufficient trained backup coverage and coordinate cross-training initiatives.
Support career pathways and succession planning for critical positions.
Track employee progression from entry-level roles through technical, lead, supervisory, and management positions.
Establish and report meaningful training metrics, including training completion, overdue training, new-hire qualification time, turnover, skills-matrix coverage, cross-training, audit findings, leadership-development participation, employee proficiency, and training expenses.
Develop and manage the company-wide training and development budget.
Evaluate and manage external instructors, consultants, training platforms, and educational providers.
Coordinate apprenticeship, certification, community college, workforce-development, and educational partnerships.
Identify grants and other workforce-development opportunities and evaluate the effectiveness of external training resources.