The Company

Our client is a market leading food manufacturing business seeking a highly motivated and experienced Plant Manager to lead and manage all aspects of Manufacturing, Maintenance, Capital Engineering, raw material procurement, Warehousing/Logistics, Finance & HR. As a key member of our leadership team, you will focus on compliance, continuous improvement, and Workplace Health & Safety, driving best practices to optimize operational performance, safety, and product quality. Your leadership will also empower and support the entire business through a further exciting growth phase.
 
The Role

Reporting to the National Operations Manager, your role will be responsible for:

• Develop and implement strategies to scale operations in line with company growth, empowering and supporting direct reports to meet operational demands.
• Anticipate future needs and develop plans to address growing site installation projects.
• Lead, motivate, and engage teams across manufacturing, maintenance, logstics, safety, finance and HR to achieve individual, team, and site objectives.
• Foster a culture of business improvement and accountability to ensure continuous results and performance enhancement.
• Implement leadership development programs to build a strong succession pipeline for long-term leadership stability.
• Promote a safety-first culture across the site, ensuring that WH&S processes are in place, including induction, training, and safety programs.
• Drive excellence in safety performance, risk awareness, and compliance with safety regulations.
• Regularly review and improve operational processes to maintain high-quality standards and compliance.

Your Background

In order to be successful in this role you will have:

• Operations leadership experience, responsible for leading manufacturing teams in a food / agricultural manufacturing environment. 
• Senior level manufacturing operations leadership experience – Ideally 5-10 years+ at Site Manager level.
• Proven experience in developing and building strong leadership groups within a manufacturing plant leading to positive change.
• Must have the ability and track record of delivering the longer-term strategic vision.
• Experience working with engineering and being either involved from an Operations perspective on the delivery of large capital projects, ideally those that have included automated warehousing equipment & processes.
• Strong continuous improvement background with a good grasp of sophisticated continuous improvement methodologies such as LEAN / Six Sigma and 5Y problem-solving tools.
• Good commercial acumen, able to understand and manage finances / P&L with the ability to identify the key cost drivers in a fast-paced manufacturing plant.
• Strong communication, coaching, consultation and negotiation skills with an ability to engage and influence internal stakeholders.

 
What’s On Offer

This is a rare opportunity to step into a pivotal leadership role within a market-leading business poised for continued growth. You’ll be empowered to shape operational strategy, deliver real impact, and position yourself for future executive-level opportunities. An attractive salary package is on offer, including base salary, superannuation, and performance-based bonus.

If you would like to discuss this opportunity further you can contact Maurice Tranchina at Blackbook Executive on 03 9823 7413.

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