Director of Operations & Supply Chain

We are seeking an experienced food and CPG operations leader to oversee Prospector Popcorn's day-to-day operations. This leader will be responsible for connecting sales, manufacturing, supply chain, inventory, quality, food safety, fulfillment, and logistics into one coordinated operation.
The Director of Operations & Supply Chain will provide leadership and accountability to ensure that customer demand can be translated into safe, efficient, profitable, and timely production and delivery. This role will build the systems, processes, and accountability needed to support Prospector Popcorn's continued growth.
The ideal candidate is a hands-on operator with substantial food manufacturing or CPG experience who understands both the details of running a food operation and the broader business implications of inventory, margins, customer commitments, production capacity, and supply chain decisions.
This role reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer.
RESPONSIBILITIES:

Oversee the overall day-to-day operations of Prospector Popcorn, ensuring sales, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, inventory, fulfillment, and logistics operate as one coordinated business.
Establish clear operational priorities, ownership, timelines, and performance expectations across departments.
Identify and resolve operational gaps, bottlenecks, and breakdowns before they impact customers, employees, or the business.
Develop scalable systems, processes, SOPs, and reporting structures that support growth while maintaining operational discipline.
Serve as the primary operational partner to the CEO, providing visibility into business performance, risks, capacity, inventory, costs, and resource requirements.
In conjunction with the Director of Manufacturing, share accountability for food safety, quality, and regulatory compliance across Prospector Popcorn operations.
Ensure compliance with applicable FDA, FSMA, GMP, HACCP, allergen control, labeling, sanitation, traceability, and other food safety requirements.
Establish systems and controls designed to prevent product mislabeling, undeclared allergens, contamination, and other food safety risks.
Ensure ingredients, packaging, formulations, labels, and finished products are properly reviewed, documented, approved, and controlled.
Oversee corrective and preventive action processes and ensure identified issues are addressed at their root cause.
Maintain readiness for regulatory inspections, customer audits, third-party audits, and other compliance requirements.
Ensure effective lot tracking and traceability systems are in place and that the organization is prepared to execute a product recall if necessary.
Build a culture where food safety and quality are treated as shared organizational responsibilities.
Work with the Director of Sales to lead an effective strategy that connects customer demand, sales forecasts, production capacity, inventory levels, purchasing, staffing, and fulfillment.
Translate sales forecasts and customer commitments into realistic production and inventory plans.
Ensure Sales and Manufacturing are aligned on customer commitments, lead times, production capacity, new product launches, and inventory requirements.
Work with the Director of Manufacturing to help oversee the end-to-end supply chain for ingredients, packaging, finished goods, and other production materials.
Develop and maintain strong relationships with ingredients, packaging, equipment, and other key suppliers.
Establish appropriate purchasing processes, vendor standards, lead times, reorder points, and contingency plans.
Monitor supplier performance, pricing, availability, quality, and delivery reliability.
Identify supply chain risks and develop contingency plans for critical ingredients, packaging, and other materials.
Work with vendors, sponsors, and partners to establish relationships where ingredients and other products can be donated to the parent 501(c)(3).
Support inventory accuracy and inventory management across raw materials, packaging, work-in-process, and finished goods.
Establish appropriate inventory levels based on demand, lead times, shelf life, production requirements, and customer commitments.
Implement systems and controls for cycle counts, lot tracking, expiration dates, inventory adjustments, and inventory reconciliation.
Reduce excess, obsolete, expired, and slow-moving inventory.
Ensure inventory data is accurate and reliable enough to support purchasing, production planning, financial reporting, and customer commitments.
Partner with the Director of Manufacturing to ensure production schedules, staffing, capacity, quality, and output are aligned with business needs.
Monitor production performance, throughput, labor efficiency, waste, yield, and on-time fulfillment.
Ensure fulfillment operations maintain high standards for order accuracy, inventory control, shipping, and customer service.
Identify capacity constraints and proactively plan for equipment, staffing, facility, or process requirements.
Partner with the CEO and leadership team to manage the financial performance of the operation.
Monitor COGS, labor, waste, yield, freight, inventory investment, and other key operating expenses.
Identify opportunities to improve gross margin and operational efficiency without compromising food safety, quality, or customer experience.
Establish and monitor key performance indicators for operations, supply chain, inventory, manufacturing, fulfillment, and quality.
Use operational data to identify trends, make informed decisions, and hold teams accountable for results.
Build the infrastructure required to scale Prospector Popcorn's operations as sales grow.
Evaluate production capacity, staffing requirements, equipment needs, facility requirements, technology, and supply chain capabilities.
Develop processes that allow new customers, products, flavors, packaging formats, and sales channels to be introduced without creating operational disruption.
Partner with Sales & Strategy and Manufacturing on new product launches, promotions, seasonal products, and major customer opportunities.
Ensure growth decisions are evaluated for their impact on capacity, inventory, labor, margins, quality, and food safety.
Ensure operations align with Prospector's mission of creating meaningful employment opportunities for adults with disabilities.
Establish clear expectations, accountability, and performance metrics for direct reports.
Foster a safe, organized, collaborative, and positive work environment.
Support training systems that promote skill development and advancement throughout the organization.
Build systems that allow the organization to scale responsibly while maintaining inclusive workplace standards.
QUALIFICATIONS:

Significant experience in food manufacturing, food CPG, or a closely related consumer packaged goods environment.
Demonstrated experience leading multiple operational functions, preferably including manufacturing, supply chain, inventory, quality, fulfillment, and/or logistics.
Strong working knowledge of FDA and FSMA requirements, HACCP, GMPs, allergen control, labeling requirements, traceability, sanitation, and food safety systems.
Demonstrated success building or improving food safety and quality systems that prevent errors, recalls, and compliance issues.
Proven experience managing inventory across raw materials, packaging, work-in-process, and finished goods.
Demonstrated ability to connect commercial demand with operational capacity and translate customer commitments into executable production and fulfillment plans.
Experience managing COGS, labor, waste, yield, inventory investment, and other operational financial metrics.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to use operational data to identify issues and drive corrective action.
Experience building SOPs, processes, systems, and accountability structures in a growing organization.
Strong leadership and team development capabilities, including experience managing managers and cross-functional teams.
Hands-on, highly organized, detail-oriented leadership style with the ability to move between strategic business decisions and day-to-day operational issues.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to create alignment between sales, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and other functions.
Experience in a growing or entrepreneurial CPG environment is strongly preferred.
Alignment with Prospector Popcorn's mission, demonstrating a commitment to inclusive leadership and building systems that support meaningful employment for adults with disabilities.

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