Senior Production Manager Senior Production Manager

Nestle Operational Services Worldwide SA • Schaumburg, IL

7d • $130,000 - $165,000

About The Position

The Senior Production Manager partners with the Plant Manager to lead site operations and deliver department objectives including Safety, Quality, Cost, Delivery, and Environmental performance (SQCD(E)). This role is accountable for ensuring the production plan is achieved on time, developing empowered teams, standard ways of working, and meeting all internal and external compliance requirements. The Senior Production Manager drives World Class Manufacturing performance by leading continuous improvement, eliminating waste, and enabling TPM/Autonomy development across production, maintenance, and sanitation.

Requirements

• BA or BS degree in Food Technology, Engineering, Operations, Business, or Sciences.
• Minimum of 7 years experience in a high speed food manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated capability to lead a group of people
• Experience in manufacturing operations
• Successful in leading projects involving different departments or functions
• Exposure to implementing continuous improvement and employee involvement techniques
• Implementation experience with TPM/WCM and leading change management to sustain new ways of working.
• Working knowledge of Autonomous Maintenance (AM) / operator autonomy development, including coaching and capability building.
• Experience driving digital transformation and change adoption in a manufacturing environment (systems implementation, training, communication).
• Demonstrated ability to assess operational risk, prioritize effectively, and drive timely decisions and escalation.

Responsibilities

• Lead site/area operations to deliver SQCD(E) targets by ensuring safe work practices, product quality, and compliance with all applicable food safety and regulatory requirements.
• Escalate operational risks and obstacles promptly to the Plant Manager with recommended countermeasures; drive timely decisions to protect safety, quality, and service.
• Ensure the production plan is fully achieved on time through effective scheduling, labor and material utilization, and real-time issue escalation and resolution.
• Set and communicate a World Class Manufacturing (WCM) vision, leveraging benchmarking, and translate expectations into shop-floor standards, behaviors, and results.
• Establish and sustain effective leadership and management routines (daily management, reviews, and escalation) for the local leadership team to enable agile decision-making and accountability.
• Lead TPM/Autonomy implementation across Integrated Work Groups (IWGs), developing capability, standard work, and engagement to sustain performance improvements.
• Drive the Autonomous Maintenance (AM) journey by defining the pace of autonomy evolution, embedding AM activities into daily routines, building AM competencies, and coaching leaders on expected behaviors by AM step.
• Lead continuous improvement and loss elimination using structured problem solving (PDCA/DMAIC) and foster a risk-aware culture by considering risk in decisions, sharing learnings, and driving clear ownership for results.
• Drive a digital/connected worker strategy for operations in partnership with corporate teams, including implementation planning, risk/cost evaluation, communication, and change adoption.
• Advance future-ready operations by supporting automation and piloting new tools/systems (e.g., remote monitoring) that improve safety, quality, flexibility, and cost competitiveness.
• Lead manufacturing execution for innovation and renovation projects, ensuring cross-functional alignment, production readiness, and successful start-up and ramp-up performance.
• Collaborate cross-functionally (Quality, Maintenance, Engineering/ME, Supply Chain, R&D) to simplify processes, strengthen use of integrated business systems, and ensure designs are manufacturable, testable, and maintainable at target cost.
• Develop and coach management staff and hourly teams to build technical, leadership, and autonomy capabilities; reinforce standard work and accountability.
• Routine off shift visibility. (second and third)
• Maintain required operational documentation (production, sanitation, and compliance records) to meet departmental and audit requirements.
• Prepare and deliver period-end operations summaries (including inputs from production and maintenance leadership) to the Plant Manager, highlighting performance, risks, and countermeasures.
• Lead and manage Sanitation operations to ensure effective cleaning and sanitation of all equipment and facility areas in support of food safety, quality, and operational readiness.
• Own sanitation programs (e.g., SSOPs, master sanitation schedule, allergen changeover/cleaning validation as applicable) and ensure execution and verification meet internal standards and regulatory requirements.
• Ensure pre-operational inspections and start-up readiness are completed on time; partner with Quality to address findings and prevent recurrence.
• Manage sanitation chemical, tool, and PPE controls (storage, labeling, concentrations, training, and safe handling) to protect employee safety and prevent product contamination.
• Plan and manage sanitation labor (staffing, scheduling, training, and development) to meet cleaning windows, optimize costs, and build sanitation capability across shifts.
• Drive sanitation performance through KPIs (e.g., pre-op pass rate, ATP/environmental results where applicable, sanitation downtime) and lead corrective actions to support audit readiness and continuous improvement.

Benefits

• Nestle offers performance-based incentives and a competitive total rewards package, which includes a 401k with company match, healthcare coverage and a broad range of other benefits.
• Incentives and/or benefits packages may vary depending on the position.

What This Job Offers

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