Director, Plant Operations

Home Chef • San Bernardino, CA

4d

About The Position

Founded in 2013, Home Chef is the leading meal solutions company with both a retail and online presence. Available online at homechef.com and in retail at more than 2,100 Kroger grocery stores, Home Chef is committed to inspiring and enabling more people to cook simple, delicious meals, no matter how busy they are. In 2023, Home Chef introduced a new brand, Tempo ! Tempo features a rotating selection of ready-to-heat meals delivered directly to your door. These meals are better-for-you versions of familiar favorites, designed to save you time and reduce stress while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Our Tempo menu includes options that are protein-packed, fiber-rich, calorie and carb conscious, keto-friendly, and dietitian-approved. Similar to our recipes, we recognize that variety is the spice of life, and therefore, our employees also bring their uniqueness and color to our fantastic team. We’re eager to work with humble team players and pragmatic next-level thinkers to innovate on Home Chef’s offerings. The Director of Plant Operations provides the vision, leadership, and coaching needed to develop and maintain the competencies, performance, and collaboration of all departmental employees within the plant. The plant manager directs and manages all plant operations with overall responsibilities for production and production-related activities. He or she provides direction and fosters the professional development of departmental managers and supervisors. The plant manager also drives continuous improvement, executes change management, and ensures plant and employee safety standards are met.

Requirements

• Completion of a two-year program such as an Associate degree in business, organizational management, operations, supply chain, or related field, preferred
• 5+ years of plant experience (preferably within the food industry)
• Experience owning and improving KPIs
• Excellent relationship building and collaborative leadership skills
• Experience creating a strong, positive work environment
• Demonstrated ability to effectively lead teams
• Ability to create accountability and lead by example
• Strong oral and written communication skills
• Strong decision-making and people management skills
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Computer proficiency (i.e. Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and large scale applications)
• Ability to manage multiple expectations
• Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills

Nice To Haves

• Start- up experience or experience with a fast- growing company, desired.

Responsibilities

• Establishes Plant Strategy for Quality, On Time Fulfillment
• Establishes and communicates the vision and strategy for on time fulfillment of all meals as forecasted
• Oversees plant department managers as they monitor the day-to-day operations in the pursuit of on time fulfillment.
• Signs off on staffing needs to support the execution of all plant functions.
• Establishes and maintains effective, trusting relationships with all departments including production, warehouse, continuous improvement, procurement, quality, sanitation, maintenance, safety, and inventory.
• Reviews department strategy with department leaders to ensure proactive preparation for daily and future production challenges.
• Actively anticipates issues impacting on time fulfillment and troubleshoots in advance
• Partners closely with the corporate support teams to troubleshoot barriers to ongoing fulfillment success.
• People Development & Culture
• Provides coaching, mentoring and development that enables and optimizes the team’s effectiveness.
• Establishes, monitors and reviews individual and team performance.
• Behaves in accordance with Home Chef’s “Customer First” core value and drives “Customer First” behavior on the floor
• Schedules and leads weekly meetings with both leadership and larger plant team to communicate previous performance, upcoming goals, and other relevant information
• Supports and enables positive employee relations-i.e. fair treatment and respect for all employees.
• Works with HR to address employee concerns/requests in a timely manner.
• With guidance from HR, initiates employee discipline and corrective actions, as required and consistent with company policies and in compliance with federal, state and local laws.
• Assists in talent management processes (i.e. recruitment for department leads and other company positions (as deemed applicable), recommendation of merit increases, promotions, etc.)
• Responsible for developing a positive work environment through servant leadership and holds management team accountable for fostering and living out that culture
• Management to KPIs
• Responsible for guiding the development and administration of plant-related budgets, KPI targets, and authorization of associated expenditures.
• Owns the financial performance of the plant week over week and exhibits detailed understanding of cost drivers
• Manages to weekly and quarterly KPI targets, exhibiting an ability to develop and implement a plan of action to improve KPIs
• Facility Organization & Management
• Embodies and holds the team accountable to living out our “Safety First, Quality Always” operating principle.
• Sets a high standard for facility organization and holds team accountable for maintaining a “clean, clear, and organized plant” per the Home Chef values
• Promotes a strong and healthy/safety culture via compliance with policies, procedures and regulations which ensures that a safe work environment is maintained for all employees/customers. (This includes participation in safety-related training, incident reviews and corrective actions and continuous improvement through safety audits and suggestions for improvement.)
• Demonstrates working knowledge of inventory management best practices
• Oversees WMS implementation within the plant and serves as a champion for the system
• Drives adoption of new tools and technologies across all departments and levels
• Continuous Improvement & Change Management
• Implements plans to correct and resolve any problems that are identified, determine the “root cause” and oversee specific corrective action(s) for continuous improvement.
• Partners with Home Chef Continuous improvement team to ensure successful rollout of continuous improvement initiatives
• Holds team to a high standard for adherence to standard operating procedures and demonstrates initiative in identifying and implementing changes to improve workflow and standard processes
• Supports the implementation of and holds the team accountable to the effective and continuous use of operator technology
• General Responsibilities
• Follows the facility safety policies and GMP’s and help enforce them throughout the facility
• Supports the efforts of the company to maintain our food safety system (SQF) and quality programs

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance available
• Paid holidays, sick time and vacation time
• 401k program
• Flexible spending accounts for qualified medical, dependent care, parking, or transit expenses

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: Associate degree
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees