Production Supervisor - Food Manufacturing

Production Supervisor | Food Manufacturing

Hermiston, OR Area
1st Shift | Monday through Thursday | 5:00 AM to 3:00 PM
$80,000 to $85,000 + Bonus Opportunity

We are looking for an experienced Food Manufacturing Production Supervisor for a growing food processing operation in the Hermiston, Oregon area.

This isn't a position where you'll sit behind a desk, watch numbers on a computer and pass problems off to another department. We need someone who understands what is actually happening on the production floor and knows how to step in, ask the right questions, solve problems and keep the operation moving safely.

The operation is still growing, so we're looking for someone who gets excited about the opportunity to help build something, not someone who needs every process already established and handed to them.

What we're really looking for

You need to come from food manufacturing or food processing and have real experience supervising production employees.

More importantly, we want to know what you personally know how to do.

You should be comfortable walking the production floor, understanding where production is at, identifying problems and working directly with your employees, maintenance, sanitation and quality to get things handled.

In this role, you'll be responsible for:

• Leading the day-to-day production operation and holding employees accountable for safety, quality, food safety and production expectations
• Training, coaching and developing employees as the operation continues to grow
• Making sure production paperwork and required checks are being completed correctly, not simply checking boxes
• Monitoring product quality and recognizing when something doesn't look right
• Working with product specifications and quality checks, including moisture and color
• Understanding and enforcing GMPs, HACCP, sanitation requirements and food safety procedures
• Making sure sanitation and pre-operational requirements are completed before equipment is released back into production
• Troubleshooting production and process issues and knowing when you can solve something yourself versus when maintenance or quality needs to become involved
• Working closely with maintenance when equipment isn't performing correctly
• Helping interview, train and develop new production employees
• Operating or learning equipment as needed, including powered industrial equipment such as forklifts
• Jumping in and helping your team when needed

What does the right background look like?

We're not necessarily looking for someone who has supervised the biggest team or worked for the biggest company.

I'd rather talk to someone who has supervised 10 or 20 people in a food plant and truly understands their operation than someone who has managed 200 people but has always had another department available to handle the actual problems.

You should be able to talk comfortably about questions like:

• What happens when your product goes out of specification?
• What do you personally check?
• What have you personally done when sanitation wasn't acceptable?
• How have you handled an employee who wasn't following a GMP or food safety requirement?
• What production problem have you personally identified and fixed?
• What have you improved that wasn't already laid out for you?

That's the level of hands-on experience we're looking for.

Leadership matters too

We want someone who can hold people accountable without thinking leadership means yelling, writing people up or firing people every time something goes wrong.

There's a difference between an employee having a bad day, someone who needs additional training and someone who simply refuses to meet expectations. We want a supervisor who understands that difference.

You should be comfortable setting expectations, following up, coaching people and having the difficult conversation when necessary.

At the same time, you shouldn't be afraid to roll up your sleeves and work alongside your team. This is a working Production Supervisor position, especially as the facility continues to grow.

Experience we're looking for

Food manufacturing or food processing experience is required.

We're targeting someone with at least 2+ years of solid Production Supervisor experience, with additional experience certainly welcome.

• Experience with GMPs, HACCP, sanitation, food safety, production KPIs, process improvement and employee development is important.
• You should also be comfortable working in a smaller, growing operation where you may wear more than one hat and won't always have a separate department available to solve every problem for you.

Schedule and compensation

• This is a 1st shift position working Monday through Thursday, approximately 5:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Flexibility will be needed when production requires additional support.
• Target salary is $80,000 to $85,000 annually, with an opportunity for performance-based bonus compensation.

If you're currently working in food manufacturing and you're ready for an opportunity where you can have a real impact on the operation, the people and how the facility grows, I'd like to talk with you.