Product Owner, Smart Factory

Rich Products Corporation•Buffalo, NY

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Rich’s, also known as Rich Products Corporation, is a family-owned food company dedicated to inspiring possibilities. From cakes and icings to pizza, appetizers and specialty toppings, our products are used in homes, restaurants and bakeries around the world. Beyond great food, our customers also gain insights to help them stay competitive, no matter their size. Our portfolio includes creative solutions geared at helping food industry professionals compete in foodservice, retail, in-store bakery, deli, and prepared foods, among others. Working in 100 locations globally, with annual sales exceeding $4 billion, Rich’s is a global leader with a focus on everything that family makes possible. Rich’s®—Infinite Possibilities. One Family. Purpose Statement The Product Owner, Smart Factory serves as the critical connector between manufacturing operations and digital innovation — translating plant-floor realities into high-value technology products that advance Rich Products' Smart Factory vision. This role drives both the discovery of new capabilities (Innovate) and their reliable, scaled deployment across US and Canada manufacturing sites (Deploy), ensuring each initiative delivers measurable operational value (Deliver Value) in alignment with Total Productive Manufacturing (TPM) principles. Working within the Agile Scrum methodology as part of the Smart Factory Agile Team, the Product Owner holds accountability for the full product lifecycle - from requirements definition through stakeholder alignment, sprint execution, site rollout, adoption, and value realization. This individual must balance the agility to pursue emerging technology opportunities with the discipline to drive consistent, sustainable deployment across a complex, cross-functional manufacturing environment. This is a hybrid position but must be able to travel to manufacturing sites and offices up to 50% as needed.

Requirements

Strong cross-cultural agility, business acumen, and strong leadership/ influencing skills - proven track record of acting as a valued partner to senior leadership
Experience in manufacturing Operations required
Experience with Lean/Six-Sigma or TPM required
Experience implementing manufacturing technology solutions (MES, SCADA, IIoT) required
Must have excellent communication skills as they are primarily responsible for sharing the product vision with the development team
Strong presentation skills both in developing presentation slides and content, and sharing product progress and purpose
Able to influence the scope and direction of initiatives across multiple levels of leadership
Ability to understand technical challenges and make educated trade-offs with the team
Able to foster collaboration and act as a team member

Nice To Haves

Experience with planning software (Jira, Planner, etc). preferred
Bachelor’s degree in engineering, business, or related preferred
Working knowledge of the Agile Scrum methodology preferred

Responsibilities

Partners with stakeholders across Operations, Engineering, and IT to identify unmet business needs and emerging technology opportunities that support the Smart Factory roadmap.
Stays current on industry trends, best practices, and vendor capabilities to bring forward-thinking recommendations to leadership.
Leads evaluation of priority Smart Factory use cases, assessing feasibility, value, and alignment with TPM and manufacturing strategy.
Builds data-driven business cases to align cross-functional stakeholders before committing to solutions.
Facilitates collaborative requirements sessions with Engineering, Operations, and plant users to create shared ownership of product vision and align short-term needs with long-term capability investments.
Develops clear, solution-focused user stories with acceptance criteria tied to value drivers and TPM objectives, ensuring feasibility and alignment with plant-floor realities.
Accountable for the quality and pace of deployment across U.S. and Canada manufacturing sites.
Develops rollout plans, communication strategies, and change management approaches that support both technical readiness and user adoption.
Leads sprint reviews, product demos, and stakeholder updates to build confidence and alignment.
Proactively identifies risks and tradeoffs impacting timelines or cross-site consistency and drives timely resolution.
Evaluates sprint progress and makes decisions on readiness to advance versus revisit, holding teams accountable to deployment-quality standards and escalating blockers as needed.
Develops training materials, job aids, and coaching resources to support adoption.
Identifies sites needing additional support and partners with leadership to close gaps early.
Oversees vendors and third-party partners to ensure delivery against requirements, timelines, and quality expectations, escalating issues when necessary.
Defines success metrics upfront to ensure value realization is measurablefor each Smart Factory use case.
Tracks and reports operational improvements tied to Smart Factory implementations and TPM KPIs and business case outcomes.
Communicates product purpose, progress, and value to stakeholders at all levels.
Contributes to Agile planning and continuous improvement forums to reinforce alignment between investments and plant outcomes.
Maintains a prioritized product backlog reflecting business value, risk, and stakeholder input.
Partners cross-functionally to sequence work for faster value delivery while supporting long-term capability building.
Acts as the primary liaison between manufacturing stakeholders and the development team, ensuring clear communication of priorities and maintaining alignment on the “why” behind decisions.