Plant Director (United States)

Location: Pacific Northwest / Western US | Site Based

Pod Talent is pleased to be the exclusive retained partner for this global food business at a pivotal moment for one of its largest production sites. An impressive business, backed by strong investment, with a culture built around its people, is now looking for a leader to help shape the next chapter.

This large-scale site is recognised internally as a benchmark for technical performance, integral to the success of the wider business, and there's a genuine opportunity here for the right leader to build on that foundation, deepening engagement and connection across the workforce. The business is looking for someone who can combine operational rigour with visible, floor-level people leadership, someone who builds culture as much as they drive performance.

With strong recent investment and more already committed for the future, this sits within a wider business that's performing strongly, with a solid customer base and excellent standing in its industry. It's an excellent opportunity with true ownership and autonomy with real exposure to senior leadership and career pathway progression already outlined for the right individual.

Your Role

You'll take full leadership of this large-scale, process manufacturing site, leading the strategic vision whilst building a strong culture. The opportunity here is to bring your technical credibility and hands-on leadership presence to energise the team. Drive retention and build lasting connection across the workforce, shaping how one of the business's most important sites performs for years to come.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and develop plant strategy and operational performance, across safety, quality, reliability and manufacturing
• Develop and support a newly formed leadership team, including future succession into the site's manufacturing leadership
• Drive a one team mentality and embed a continuous improvement culture, while deepening employee engagement
• Build and embed reliability and maintenance systems across multiple production lines
• Partner closely with leaders on site and across the business, driving cross-functional collaboration and leading change management

What You'll Bring

• Senior plant leadership experience at a large-scale, multi-line, high-volume food, ingredients, organic or agricultural processing site
• Demonstrated experience building engagement, culture, setting standards and engaging across all levels within a unionised environment
• A track record of implementing reliability and maintenance systems
• Strong change management and cross-functional leadership skills
• Comfort operating in a high-profile, high-volume, large-scale site environment

What We Offer

• The chance to lead a significant and strategically important manufacturing site through a pivotal, high-visibility turnaround
• Genuine influence over culture, structure and long-term site performance
• A competitive package with strong benefits, relocation allowance on offer for the right individual
• Strong progression opportunities and direct exposure to senior leadership

This is an opportunity to lead a site that's already respected for its performance, and to be the person who builds the culture to match it. If you're driven by turnaround, connection with people, and operational excellence, we'd like to hear from you.

Don't meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. Pod Talent is dedicated to building diverse and inclusive teams with our clients. So if you are excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every requirement, we encourage you to apply as we are always on the lookout for great talent!