Plant Director - Phoenix Arizona

Overview

Shearer's Foods, founded in 1974 and headquartered in Massillon, OH, is a leading manufacturer of salty snacks, cookies, and crackers. Specializing in private label and co-manufacturing, Shearer's is the largest supplier of private brand salty snacks and second-largest supplier of private brand cookies and crackers.


With a strong focus on innovation, service, quality, and sustainability, Shearer's has been awarded the food industry's highest award for environmental sustainability, as well as multiple Supplier of the Year awards.


Operating 16 locations across North America and employing more than 5000 team members, Shearer's is driven by its core values of People, Grow, Impact and Win. The company mission is to deliver exceptional products and services that make snacking a time to celebrate for our customers, colleagues, and community.


At Shearer's Foods, we believe in a skills-first approach to recruitment and employment. This means focusing on what you can do and how you can grow, rather than traditional metrics alone. We are committed to adhering to anti-exclusion practices, removing barriers to access, and enhancing opportunities for all individuals based on merit and potential. Your skills, experience, and perspective are valuable-and we want to empower you to make your mark here with us.


Responsibilities

Plant Director

Phoenix Arizona - Relocation Available

We are a high growth, values driven organization looking for a Plant Director to lead manufacturing and functional operations at our Phoenix facility. You'll shape and execute the plant's manufacturing strategy and play a critical role in delivering outstanding customer satisfaction, achieving key business objectives, and building a high-performing, empowered team.

This role calls for a hands-on, visible leader who thrives in dynamic manufacturing environments and knows how to lead through change. You will partner with corporate maintenance, safety, and quality teams to ensure consistent, best-in-class systems that protect the consumer, the brand, and the business while driving growth across a diverse portfolio of salty snacks.

Your seat at the table:

• Build, develop, and inspire a team of over 400 employees while driving a culture of high performance and collaboration
• Develop and execute manufacturing strategies that drive sustainable improvement and growth
• Own preventative maintenance execution and downtime reduction strategies
• Champion continuous improvement and Lean initiatives to optimize performance and reliability
• Serve as a key customer interface, ensuring product quality, service, and delivery expectations are consistently met
• Lead change management initiatives that strengthen culture, processes, and results

Qualifications

What you bring to the table:

• Bachelor's degree in business, engineering, operations management, or related field
• 10+ years of experience in plant management or senior production operations management roles in food, beverage or CPG manufacturing environment
• Experience with large-scale manufacturing environments including multiple lines and plus warehouse and distribution operations
• Excellent leadership and interpersonal skills with the ability to motivate, engage, inspire and develop a team.
• Demonstrated success leading manufacturing operations, including production planning, safety initiatives, production scheduling, line setup and change out, production control, and production optimization.
• Strategic experience applying standards and metrics (e.g., KPIs) to safety, quality, production, labor and material variances, and employee relations and retention
• Hands-on experience with Lean/CI tools and systems, including: Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Centerlines, CILs (Clean, Inspect, Lubricate), Defect handling, 5S, Quick changeover / SMED
• Experience in private label, co-manufacturing or PE backed companies is a plus

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.