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Position: Plant Manager
JobType: Direct Hire
Pay: 130,000–150,000 base salary, plus eligibility for an annual bonus.
Schedule: primarily days, with regular time on 2nd shift and flexibility for early starts, overtime and weekends when the plant needs it.
Location: Elgin, IL
Requirements: Resume, Interview, E-verify
Benefits: health, dental, vision, supplemental life, and short-term disability insurance, basic life insurance and AD&D coverage, PTO.
Role summary
The Plant Manager runs the whole plant day to day: about 100 employees across two shifts, covering production, maintenance, quality, safety and shipping/receiving. This is a hands-on role you'll lead from the floor, not from an office.
The Director of Operations sets the plan and priorities. You own executing that plan across every department, keeping the plant SQF-compliant and holding it to safety, food safety, quality, output and cost targets, and building a strong leadership team under you. You must be fluent in English and Spanish to lead a bilingual workforce directly.
Reports to: Director of Operations
Direct reports: Production Manager/Supervisors, Maintenance Lead, Quality Lead, Shipping & Receiving Lead
Type: Full-time, on-site
Key responsibilities
Plant performance
• Execute the production plan set by the Director of Operations across both shifts; hit output, on-time delivery and efficiency targets.
• Own plant KPIs safety, quality, output, scrap, downtime, labor cost and act on misses the same day.
• Be visible on the floor across both shifts: walk the plant, spot problems early and fix them in real time.
• Coordinate production, maintenance, quality and shipping/receiving so the whole plant moves as one.
• Manage the plant's operating budget, labor hours and overtime, and control spending.
People and leadership
• Lead, develop and hold accountable the plant's managers, supervisors and leads.
• Communicate directly with the whole workforce in both English and Spanish plant meetings, training, feedback and discipline.
• Set staffing levels for each shift and drive hiring, onboarding and cross-training.
• Handle employee relations, attendance and performance issues fairly and consistently with HR.
• Build a culture of accountability where problems get raised and fixed, not worked around.
Safety and compliance
• Own plant safety: enforce rules, PPE and lockout/tagout; stop work when it isn't safe.
• Keep the plant compliant with OSHA, FDA/FSMA, environmental, SQF and customer requirements.
• Lead incident investigations and make sure corrective actions get done.
• Maintain plant housekeeping and organization (5S or similar).
Food safety and quality (SQF)
• Own the plant's SQF food safety and quality system day to day; keep the plant compliant with the SQF Code and audit-ready at all times.
• Make sure GMPs, the HACCP/food safety plan and prerequisite programs (sanitation, allergen control, pest control, traceability, recall) are followed on every shift.
• Lead preparation for annual SQF certification audits and customer audits; close non-conformances and corrective actions on time.
• Support the SQF Practitioner and Quality lead on internal audits, food safety training and management reviews.
• Make sure the product ships to spec; stop, hold and contain when it doesn't, and drive root-cause fixes.
Equipment, facility and improvement
• Oversee maintenance of equipment and the building; push preventive maintenance to cut downtime.
• Lead hands-on improvement projects to remove waste, bottlenecks and cost.
• Recommend equipment, staffing and capital needs to the Director of Operations with clear business cases.
• Give the Director of Operations clear, honest updates on plant performance, risks and needs.
Qualifications
Required
• Fluent in English and Spanish (speaking and reading) you'll use both every day.
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