Director of Contract Manufacturing

***This is not a job at ForceBrands***

Location: East Rutherford or Long Island (60% in office/40% travel to coman partners)

Responsibilities:

• Develop and manage the co-manufacturing network to support growth, capacity needs, customer commitments and business continuity, particularly for beef production.
• Identify, evaluate, qualify and onboard co-packers that can support both branded and private-label products.
• Build strategic relationships with external manufacturing partners and hold them accountable for service, quality, food safety, capacity and cost performance.
• Coordinate raw material supply and external capacity with internal manufacturing, Procurement, Supply Planning, Operations, FSQA and other cross-functional teams.
• Lead commercialization, product transfers, production trials and scale-up activities across co-manufacturing partners.
• Help develop a multi-site 3PL network across the East, Midwest and West to strengthen business continuity.
• Establish KPIs, scorecards and business reviews to improve delivery, inventory, production efficiency, waste and margins.
• Remain hands-on while building internal alignment and influencing experienced stakeholders across the legacy business.

Candidate Profile:

• Food manufacturing experience is required; meat, refrigerated foods and prepared-food experience are especially relevant. Meat experience is a plus
• 10+ years of progressive manufacturing, supply chain, operations or co-manufacturing leadership experience, including at least 5 years managing external manufacturers,
• Experience developing external manufacturing capacity and business continuity plans to support a growing business.
• Strong co-manufacturer relationship management, negotiation, food safety and financial skills, with the ability to lead cross-functional initiatives.