Senior Director, Co-Manufacturing Network Development

Kinder's•Walnut Creek, CA

9d•$235,000 - $255,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Kinder’s is seeking a hands-on leader to source and develop the co-manufacturing partner network needed as its brands, categories, and customer demand grow. The Senior Director will develop the future-state manufacturing network by determining where capacity should be located, which partners to engage, how to assess their fit, and how to secure appropriate commercial and capacity commitments. The role leads network strategy, partner search and diligence, partner acceptance, and long-range capacity planning. The Senior Director works across Operations, Planning, Product Development, Quality, Sourcing, Finance, Legal, and Commercial teams to translate growth plans and innovation pipelines into a resilient, cost-effective manufacturing network. As the strategic counterpart to the VP, Co-Man Network Operations, this role identifies and establishes partners and capacity, while Network Operations leads ongoing execution, partner performance, and day-to-day issue resolution after a formal handoff. The Senior Director collaborates with the VP on network decisions informed by operating experience and brings recommendations to the SVP, Operations. The position is based onsite in Walnut Creek, California, with a hybrid work structure requiring four days in the office each week. Fridays are flexible, with the option to work in the office or from home. Travel may be up to 35%, predominantly within the United States. The expected starting salary range is $235,000–$255,000 per year, with actual pay dependent on factors including location, education, qualifications, performance, and business needs.

Requirements

Significant progressive experience in food or beverage manufacturing, co-manufacturing, supply chain strategy, strategic sourcing, or a related field, with direct responsibility for partner selection and network expansion.
Demonstrated experience finding, qualifying, onboarding, and negotiating with contract manufacturing partners across multiple products or production technologies.
Strong command of manufacturing capacity, production economics, commercialization, food safety and quality requirements, and operational risk.
Ability to build credible business cases and evaluate total cost, capital needs, capacity commitments, service, and resilience.
Experience leading negotiations and cross-functional decisions involving Operations, Quality, Product Development, Planning, Finance, Sourcing, and Legal.
Strong relationship-building skills.
Comfort building processes and teams in a fast-growing environment where requirements and priorities evolve.
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant experience.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree.
Experience or demonstrated attributes aligned with strategic building, commercial and analytical strength, collaborative leadership, decisiveness and adaptability, humility, and curiosity.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain a multi-year co-manufacturing network roadmap covering products, capabilities, geographies, capacity, economics, lead times, and risk.
Translate growth plans, demand scenarios, innovation, and acquisition activity into future manufacturing needs and network options.
Evaluate and source partner choices, network concentration, redundancy, speed to market, capital requirements, and total delivered cost; present recommendations and business cases to leadership.
Identify manufacturing network gaps and develop a pipeline of prospective partners and capacity solutions before constraints affect launches or service.
Build search strategies and partner pipelines for new categories, formats, technologies, and capacity requirements.
Lead structured partner evaluations with Quality, Food Safety, Product Development, Engineering, Sourcing, Finance, and Legal, assessing capabilities, financial health, operational maturity, regulatory readiness, scalability, and business continuity.
Coordinate initial site visits, cost modeling, references, risk reviews, and comparative assessments; present partner recommendations for approval.
Maintain records of selection criteria, tradeoffs, decisions, and outstanding risks.
Define partner acceptance criteria and stage gates for technical capability, product quality, food safety, commercial readiness, capacity, systems connectivity, and launch execution.
Lead the cross-functional onboarding plan through the partner selection process and ensure responsibilities, escalation paths, data exchange, forecasts, materials, and operating expectations are documented and ready for handoff.
Partner with Co-Man Network Operations to establish the transition point after partner selection and onboarding.
Develop rolling, scenario-based capacity views by category, line, format, and partner, incorporating demand, innovation, seasonality, and operating assumptions.
Identify capacity bottlenecks, single points of failure, expansion opportunities, and timing for partner searches, equipment investments, or reserved capacity.
Work with Planning and partner leadership to validate available and usable capacity, ramp schedules, changeover constraints, and contingency options.
Convert approved capacity plans into partner commitments that support growth while managing utilization, flexibility, working capital, and cost.
Create decision tools, partner scorecards, diligence standards, and approval processes to make network development repeatable as Kinder’s grows.
Lead network development as the function grows and coordinate cross-functional project teams to advance partner decisions and launches.
Present clear, fact-based recommendations to the SVP, Operations, and other senior leaders; communicate tradeoffs early when service, cost, speed, and risk compete.