Plant Manager

Our client, a leading manufacturing and retailer in the food and beverage manufacturing space, is seeking a Plant Manager to lead all aspects of operations at a dairy manufacturing facility. This individual will be responsible for driving site performance across safety, quality, production, maintenance, continuous improvement, and employee engagement while developing a high-performing leadership team. The ideal candidate will bring a strong background in dairy manufacturing (preferably fluid dairy), demonstrated people leadership experience, and a track record of implementing TPM and operational excellence initiatives within a manufacturing environment. This role requires a hands-on leader who can balance day-to-day execution with long-term strategic planning.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide overall leadership for plant operations, including production, quality, engineering, maintenance, HR, and continuous improvement functions.
• Develop, coach, and mentor plant leadership while building a culture of accountability, engagement, and performance.
• Drive results across safety, quality, productivity, cost, customer service, and employee development metrics.
• Champion TPM, Lean Manufacturing, and continuous improvement initiatives to improve efficiency and reliability.
• Lead annual operating plans, capital projects, and budget management efforts.
• Ensure compliance with all food safety, quality, environmental, and regulatory requirements.
• Monitor plant performance through KPIs and implement corrective actions to achieve targeted business results.
• Partner with senior leadership to execute strategic initiatives and support long-term business objectives.
• Foster strong relationships with employees, suppliers, and external stakeholders.
• Promote a culture focused on operational excellence, teamwork, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Operations, or relevant field required.
• 10+ years of manufacturing leadership experience with increasing levels of responsibility.
• 4+ years of experience leading teams (75+ employees) in a dairy manufacturing environment.
• TPM, Lean, Six Sigma, or other continuous improvement leadership experience.
• Strong understanding of plant operations, quality systems, food safety, maintenance, and supply chain processes.
• Proven leadership and talent development capabilities.
• Strong financial acumen and experience managing budgets and operational performance.
• Excellent communication, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Union manufacturing experience is a plus.

DSJ Global is a revolutionary search firm, specializing in the bespoke delivery of executive search solutions to clients.
Working across a number of niche industries and sectors across the US, UK, and Europe.
With offices in New York, Charlotte, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, London, Zurich, Berlin, Hong Kong and Singapore, DSJ Global operates on an international scale providing bespoke search packages which are unrivaled in the widespread recruitment market. Our aim is simple, to provide executive search level services which are flexible and tailored to the individual requirement of each client, on an unrivaled cost structure. We currently specialize in the areas of Procurement, Supply Chain, Logistics, OPEX, Finance and Human Resources.

We believe that every client should receive the benefit and accuracy of a search approach, whilst being able to dictate how, when and where it occurs, all on a fee structure to suit. Our revolutionary approach allows us to structure each assignment according to the requirements, time scales and budget available. We believe that for too long executive search firms have been too rigid in their approach and have been able to dictate how the search is conducted, leaving the client relatively powerless on the outcome.

Our service allows our clients to have increased control, direction and interaction in the search conducted on their behalf and has resulted in successful, on going relationships as search firm of choice with an ever expanding client group.