Assistant Plant Manager

Assistant Bakery Manager

The Assistant Bakery Manager will partner with the Bakery Director in overseeing and driving the daily operations of the manufacturing facility and will serve as a senior operational leader and delegate as needed. This role provides leadership across production and operations, with responsibility for safe, efficient, cost-effective, and high-quality manufacturing performance. The Assistant Bakery Manager will lead and develop Value Stream Managers and Production Supervisors, align priorities across value streams and support functions, and establish systems and processes that improve productivity, reliability, quality, service, and overall bakery performance.

The role will champion Lean, Six Sigma, and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) methodologies while leveraging Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), including platforms such as Redzone, to improve operational visibility, identify losses, optimize labor and equipment performance, and sustain improvements. The Assistant Bakery Manager will own key production operating routines and help translate bakery objectives into disciplined execution through the Value Stream Managers, fostering a culture of accountability, engagement, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.

Essential duties and responsibilities include:

• Leading, coaching, developing, and directing Value Stream Managers and Production Supervisors to achieve safety, quality, service, productivity, cost, and employee engagement objectives.
• Building leadership capability within the operations organization through ongoing coaching, performance management, succession planning, and development of Value Stream Managers and Supervisors.
• Providing operational leadership across the bakery and leading assigned production operations to deliver products safely, on schedule, at required quality and service levels, and in a cost-effective manner.
• Monitoring production schedules and adjusting resources, staffing, and priorities as necessary to meet customer demand while protecting safety, quality, service, and cost objectives.
• Owning production labor performance, including staffing models, labor standards, overtime controls, workforce utilization, and corrective actions required to achieve budget and productivity objectives.
• Championing the development, implementation, and sustainability of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) programs, including autonomous maintenance, preventative maintenance, equipment reliability, and loss elimination.
• Leveraging Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), including Redzone or similar platforms, to monitor production performance, analyze downtime and losses, improve labor and equipment utilization, and drive data-based decision-making.
• Establishing and managing the bakery production daily management system, including operating routines, KPI reviews, escalation processes, shift handoffs, and follow-up mechanisms that drive accountability to bakery goals.
• Identifying opportunities to improve OEE, throughput, labor productivity, yield, downtime, waste, and overall equipment reliability.
• Leading continuous improvement initiatives using Lean and Six Sigma methodologies and ensuring improvements are sustained over time.
• Integrating and aligning Production with Maintenance, Engineering, FSQA, Sanitation, Supply Chain, Finance, Human Resources, and other cross-functional partners to improve manufacturing processes, remove barriers, and eliminate operational losses.
• Ensuring Production delivers against safety, food safety, quality, regulatory, customer, and SQF requirements and maintains readiness for internal, customer, and third-party audits.
• Driving timely closure of production-related audit findings, food safety and quality corrective actions, and operational compliance gaps in partnership with FSQA and the appropriate functional owners.
• Creating a culture of commitment to quality, safety, accountability, teamwork, and continuous improvement across all functional areas.
• Developing and delivering production and operating expense budgets; translating operational performance into financial impact; and identifying sustainable opportunities to improve labor, material usage, productivity, and cost.
• Contributing to capital planning, developing business justification for operational investments, and leading capital and continuous improvement projects that improve capacity, reliability, safety, quality, service, and efficiency.
• Managing ingredients, materials, labor, and other resources in accordance with established standards and business objectives.
• Preparing and presenting operational performance, financial impacts, risks, and recommendations to the Bakery Director and other business leaders.
• Building a culture of accountability and teamwork by developing Value Stream Managers to own their businesses, lead their teams, resolve issues at the appropriate level, and rigorously execute core manufacturing systems.
• Demonstrating strong problem-solving capabilities and a bias for action to rapidly identify and eliminate operational losses.
• Proactively leading cost savings and productivity improvement projects to meet plant and company objectives.

The position responsibilities outlined above are not to be construed as all encompassing. Other duties and responsibilities may be required and/or assigned as necessary.

Education, knowledge, and skill requirements include:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Technology, Operations, or a related field highly preferred.
• 7–10+ years of progressive experience in manufacturing/operations, with significant experience leading production teams and managing people leaders.
• Experience leading and developing Value Stream Managers, Production Managers, Supervisors, or other frontline manufacturing leaders.
• Demonstrated experience developing and implementing TPM, autonomous maintenance, preventative maintenance, or other equipment reliability programs.
• Experience utilizing Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), such as Redzone or similar platforms, to drive production performance, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Strong knowledge of Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma methodologies, with a demonstrated track record of implementing sustainable process improvements.
• Proven ability to drive change, transform culture, and improve operational performance in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
• Experience managing budgets, labor, productivity, material usage, operating costs, and translating operational performance into financial impact.
• Strong organizational, leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to effectively influence and collaborate across multiple levels of an organization and across cross-functional departments.
• Proven ability to lead, motivate, coach, and develop high-performing teams.
• Ability to work with limited supervision and demonstrate a high degree of personal accountability and ownership.
• Prior bakery and/or food manufacturing experience preferred.

Personal attributes include:

• Role Models Integrity - Creates a culture of respect and inclusion, where all team members are empowered to contribute.
• Masters their Craft - Continually develops their skills and expertise to drive self, team, and company forward. Is intellectually curious, asking questions to inspire a better way.
• Values Partnerships - Frames the tough issues and works productively through them. Paves the way for their team to build relationships and collaborate effectively.
• Behaves Like a Business Owner - Perseveres toward a goal, despite obstacles and distraction.
• Navigates Change - Adapts quickly to address the most critical business needs. Leads the charge around capabilities, processes, and systems.

Sara Lee Frozen Bakery provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.