Chief Operating Officer

High-Level Must-Haves for application:

• Shop-Floor Foundation: Built a career from hands-on plant/operations leadership through progressively broader roles into SVP or COO-level responsibility .
• Private Equity Experience: Proven experience operating in a private equity-backed environment , with a strong understanding of value creation, accountability, and performance expectations.
• Mid-Market Leadership: Demonstrated success leading dynamic, mid-sized organizations through growth, transformation, and operational improvement.
• Food/CPG Manufacturing: Deep experience in food, beverage or consumer packaged goods.

Private Equity-Backed Food Manufacturer | ~$350M+ Revenue | Multisite Manufacturing Facilities

We are seeking a hands-on, results-driven Chief Operating Officer to lead operations for a rapidly evolving food manufacturer with approximately $350M+ in revenue.

This is a high-impact leadership role for an executive who can translate strategy into execution, build operational discipline, and drive measurable improvements in safety, quality, productivity, reliability, and profitability.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead manufacturing operations across multiple facilities with a strong shop-floor presence and hands-on leadership style .
• Develop and execute both short-term operational improvement plans and a long-term manufacturing strategy .
• Drive operational transformation, ensuring strategic initiatives are translated into clear actions, accountability, and measurable results.
• Establish consistent operating metrics and performance management across all facilities, including OEE, throughput, labor productivity, yield, downtime, quality, and cost.
• Develop and execute a 3-year capital investment strategy , ensuring disciplined capital allocation, project execution, and ROI.
• Establish a structured preventive and predictive maintenance program to improve equipment reliability and reduce downtime.
• Build a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and execution across the organization.
• Assess and strengthen plant leadership, organizational structure, and talent.
• Partner closely with the CEO, CFO, Board, and private equity sponsor on the operational value-creation plan.
• Identify and execute opportunities to improve EBITDA, capacity, productivity, working capital, and manufacturing efficiency .

What We're Looking For

• 15+ years of progressive manufacturing/operations leadership experience.
• Proven success leading multiple manufacturing facilities .
• Demonstrated track record of operational transformation and delivering measurable results .
• Strong capital planning and deployment experience, including multi-year investment strategies and ROI accountability.
• Experience implementing preventive/predictive maintenance and reliability programs.
• Strong food, beverage, CPG, or other high-volume manufacturing experience preferred.
• Experience working with private equity-backed businesses and Boards is must for this role.
• A hands-on leader who is comfortable on the shop floor and excels at turning strategy into execution.
• Strong financial acumen with the ability to connect operational performance to EBITDA and cash flow.

The Opportunity

The company is entering an important phase of growth and operational transformation. The COO will have the opportunity to build a stronger operating system, develop the leadership team, improve plant performance, deploy significant capital, and create sustainable value for the business and its stakeholders to drive to an exit.