Chief Operating Officer

The successful candidate will be a hands-on, collaborative leader and trusted business partner to the executive team. This individual must build cross-functional alignment, develop strong leaders, establish accountability through meaningful performance measures, and create a consistent culture of continuous improvement across all facilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead daily manufacturing performance across raw and ready-to-eat production, packaging, warehousing, and distribution operations.
• Drive improvements in throughput, yield, OEE, labor productivity, scrap, downtime, schedule adherence, and conversion cost.
• Champion a culture of safety, food quality, accountability, employee engagement, and continuous improvement throughout the operating network.
• Ensure compliance with GMP, sanitation, allergen-control, OSHA, EPA, and company environmental health and safety requirements.
• Implement and mature Lean and Total Productive Maintenance practices, including 5S, Kaizen, SMED, standard work, visual management, and structured problem-solving.
• Maintain executive accountability for USDA/FSIS compliance, HACCP, SSOPs, audit readiness, and third-party food-safety certifications such as SQF/GFSI.
• Partner with Quality and FSQA leaders to strengthen preventive controls, sanitation performance, regulatory compliance, and customer quality results.
• Lead effective corrective and preventive action, root-cause analysis, and resolution of regulatory, audit, and customer issues.
• Lead the S&OP process to align demand, capacity, production, inventory, and service expectations across the organization.
• Deliver OTIF/DIFOT, case-fill, inventory, and working-capital objectives while maintaining production flexibility and customer service.
• Oversee procurement of meat, ingredients, packaging, and other critical materials, along with inbound quality and supplier performance.
• Ensure cold-chain integrity and optimize warehousing, transportation, and logistics-network performance.
• Improve ERP/MRP utilization, master-data integrity, performance reporting, and operational decision-making.
• Serve as a trusted partner to the President and executive leadership team, translating strategic priorities into measurable operating plans.
• Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, and R&D on portfolio mix, customer programs, cost-to-serve, capacity planning, and new product introductions.
• Align workforce strategy with business needs, including organizational design, skills development, succession planning, engagement, retention, and labor relations.
• Build, coach, and retain high-performing leaders while creating clear expectations and accountability across functions and facilities.
• Own operational P&L levers and deliver EBITDA improvement through productivity, yield, labor efficiency, waste reduction, cost control, and mix optimization.
• Develop annual operating plans, budgets, capital plans, and long-range capacity strategies aligned with company objectives.
• Evaluate and justify equipment, automation, technology, and facility investments based on operational need, risk, and return on investment.
• Establish and cascade meaningful KPIs, performance-review routines, and action plans across the operating network.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Food Science, Supply Chain, Business, or a related field required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 15+ years of progressive operations and manufacturing leadership experience, including senior responsibility for multi-site operations and cross-functional teams.
• 5+ years of leadership experience within meat, protein, or another perishable food manufacturing environment strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated success leading Plant Operations, Supply Chain, and Quality/FSQA functions across multiple facilities.
• Deep knowledge of USDA/FSIS requirements, HACCP, GMPs, sanitation, allergen control, and GFSI-recognized certification programs such as SQF.
• Proven record of applying Lean, continuous-improvement, and Lean Six Sigma tools to improve OEE, yield, labor productivity, quality, and cost performance.
• Strong experience with S&OP, demand and supply planning, inventory optimization, procurement, logistics, and ERP/MRP systems.
• Strong financial acumen, including P&L management, standard costing, variance analysis, capital planning, and EBITDA improvement.
• Excellent leadership, communication, decision-making, and stakeholder-management skills with a highly collaborative approach.
• Union and labor-relations experience preferred.
• Ability to maintain a regular on-site presence at manufacturing facilities in the southwest Chicago suburbs, Northwest Indiana, and Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
• Willingness to travel periodically to other facilities, suppliers, and customers; expected travel is approximately 25%.