Manager, Food Manufacturing

UPSIDE Foods • Emeryville, CA

7d • $145,000 - $165,000 • Onsite

About The Position

The Food Manufacturing Manager owns conversion and formulation at EPIC — the point where cultured cells and tissue become ready-to-eat meat products in a USDA-regulated establishment. This role involves both continued establishment of the process as well as driving efficiency of the existing process. You will be commissioning complex processing equipment alongside fabricators and design engineers, verifying the processes that run on it, and building the operating framework that makes output reliable and repeatable. At the same time you will be running production to schedule, in a facility with a federal inspector on the floor. The technical bar is high because the product is Ready to Cook. Post-lethality exposure means Salmonella and Listeria control are the governing hazards, and every decision about equipment design, sanitation, line flow, and product handling either supports that or undermines it. You need to understand why, not just follow the SOP. You will work directly with senior leadership, our integrated supply chain, and every operational function in EPIC. You will also be a principal point of contact in our partnership with USDA-FSIS.

Requirements

• B.S. in food process engineering, industrial engineering/operations, or a related field
• Demonstrated high-volume production experience in a food manufacturing environment, ideally with 5+ years in a regulatory environment
• Direct experience in a USDA-FSIS inspected establishment, including working alongside on-site inspection personnel
• Hands-on experience commissioning and qualifying processing equipment, not just operating it
• Working knowledge of HACCP, GMP, and sanitation requirements in a regulated facility
• Experience with ERP systems; Microsoft Dynamics preferred
• Able to dissect complex manufacturing operations and direct a team to achieve specific end results on tight schedules
• Great organizational and project management skills, and consistent communication that ensures reliability with a safety, efficiency, and quality mindset
• Ability to recognize opportunities for improvement and influence others to make change

Nice To Haves

• Meat or poultry product experience
• Hygienic and sanitary design expertise
• Aseptic processing, cell culture, or fermentation background
• Lean, Six Sigma, or statistical process control capability
• HACCP certification
• Experience taking a facility from pilot through commercial launch

Responsibilities

• Lead daily operations of the Food Manufacturing space, including labor and materials planning, run strategy, and throughput against schedule
• Design and lead the production processes required to create Finished Good meat products made of cultured cells and plant ingredients in a regulated facility
• Own manufacturing KPIs — OEE, yield, throughput, first-pass quality, cost per pound — and the operating reviews where they are discussed
• Build run strategies that sequence product, sanitation, and changeover to maximize hygienic run time rather than raw uptime
• Own the manufacturing operating budget and contribute to capital planning for the space
• Interface directly with fabricators and providers of complex industrial meat processing machines on reliability requirements, qualification requirements, hygienic design, and cost
• Evaluate equipment against hygienic design principles (3-A, EHEDG) and reject designs that cannot be sanitized to the standard the process requires
• Partner with Engineering and Facilities on preventive maintenance strategy, spare parts, and reliability-centered improvement
• Operate complex machines and instruments used for the production and storage of harvested meat in a USDA-regulated facility
• Serve as a principal operational contact for in-plant FSIS personnel, accompany inspection walks, and answer to what is happening on the floor
• Execute to the HACCP plan, SSOPs, and preventive controls, ensuring every CCP monitoring activity is performed and recorded at the time of the activity
• Own the operational side of Noncompliance Record response — investigate root cause, implement corrective action, and produce the evidence that closes it
• Own lot control and traceability such that a hold can be scoped accurately and quickly
• Maintain readiness for unannounced inspection at all times, including off-shift and weekend runs
• Partner with Food R&D on technology transfer, translating bench and pilot processes into manufacturable, validated, inspection-ready operations
• Lead process capability work — identify sources of variation, quantify them, and close them
• Own change control from the manufacturing side, assessing food safety, regulatory, and operational impact before implementation
• Collaborate with EPIC functional departments to solve problems with a data-driven approach and create improvements that ensure process and mechanical reliability
• Partner with Supply Chain and work with ERP tools to forecast workflows so throughput requirements are met without interruption
• Participate in S&OP, translating demand signals into labor, materials, and capacity plans
• Own production scheduling against maintenance windows, sanitation cycles, and minimum staffing requirements
• Drive material yield and waste reduction across the conversion process
• Support drafting and review of SOPs, SSOPs, and GMP programs, and own the accuracy and timeliness of batch records and production documentation
• Support the SQF rollout from the manufacturing side, including process mapping, nonconformance handling, and internal audit readiness
• Build and develop the Food Manufacturing team, including operator training, qualification, and trainer designation with records that demonstrate competency
• Build a best-in-class culture of safety, and facilitate efficiency modeling for the Food Manufacturing team
• Ensure accurate timekeeping for non-exempt employees, that meal and rest periods are provided and taken, and that concerns raised on the floor are escalated immediately rather than held
• Build a working relationship with USDA-FSIS officials grounded in transparency, and establish the operational cadence that supports it
• Partner with engineering teams and suppliers to fully commission and qualify complex meat processing machines, then tune the systems for reliability and throughput
• Establish the verification and documentation package behind our Finished Good processes so that critical limits are scientifically supported and defensible on inspection
• Develop and execute manufacturing KPIs aligned to internal OKRs, and install the operating rhythm that reviews them
• Improve the existing operational framework for safety, quality, efficiency, and reliability — and leave behind a documented system rather than personal knowledge

Benefits

• Equal opportunity employer

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager