Packaging Lead

That Fonta Flora Overview

Located on the banks of beautiful Lake James and under the backdrop of the rugged Linville Gorge, we are an Appalachian farmhouse brewery situated on 15 acres of a historic dairy farm. Fonta Flora’s mission is to highlight the biodiversity and bounty of North Carolina agriculture through an endless array of contemplative libations. At Fonta Flora, we celebrate this concept by harnessing impactful relationships that contribute to localized agricultural economics.

From these intentional partnerships, we build our community by helping to sustain our local food systems and the people responsible for its success. This meaningful business model provides synergistic opportunities through collaboration and empowers us to continue pushing the boundaries of what it means to create beverages with a sense of place and agricultural purpose.

We are currently seeking a full‑time Packaging Lead to supervise all packaging operations of the brewery. This role will be the leading team member on canning, bottling and kegging, running lines and delegating responsibilities. This role will have support from the Production Supervisor and Production Manager to ensure packaging stays on schedule and to the highest quality.

The Packaging Lead is a vital part of the cellar team who is responsible for all final aspects of beer production resulting in beer going into appropriate packaging. This includes all matters surrounding hands on production including quality, inventory of packaging materials and leadership of the packaging team. The successful candidate for this role will be heavily focused on details and communication between production, distribution and management teams.

We are seeking a highly motivated, capable and goal‑oriented individual to help us put our highest quality liquids into packages for our distribution teams. Candidates must also share Fonta Flora’s commitments to quality, safety, business ethics, continuous innovation, local agriculture and our own unique culture.

• Leading the packaging team to have canning/bottling line set up, sanitized and run in a timely manner daily.
• Following strict SOPs for operating machines on a daily basis and staying up to date with preventative maintenance along with necessary cleanliness and organization of packaging areas.
• Documenting packaged data in quality logs, brewsheets and brewing software.
• Managing keg cooperage inventory, ensuring cleaned kegs are prepared for packaging dates and sharing when new purchases need to be made.
• Operating efficiently to assure brands are packaged on schedule and looking for opportunities to increase efficiency.
• Having a full understanding behind operation and maintenance of all packaging machines including Wild Goose canning line, Meheen bottler, Autolabe Labeler, SKA Depalletizer, Domino Ink Coder, Cascade Stainless keg washer.

• Being aware of quality status of every beer (CO₂, temp, DO, sensory) prior to packaging, making any adjustments if needed.
• Checking seams, DO, clarity and foam during every canning run.
• Filling cans to the optimal fill weight to ensure quality while reducing loss.

• Running CIP, sani, bacterial cycles daily while monitoring sanitation.
• Removing and organizing dunnage and keg cooperage on a weekly basis.
• Maintaining organization of all packaging areas and materials.
• Completing daily and weekly cleaning checklist.

• Communicating directly with other departments on packaging needs, shortages or time adjustments.
• Working very closely with warehouse teams to organize and consolidate packaged beer inventory.
• Directing your team before, during and after packaging runs of individual responsibilities.
• Keeping up with preventative maintenance on all packaging lines. Adhering to schedule of needed adjustments based on SOPs from Wild Goose/Meheen along with in‑house SOP.
• Taking ownership of team development by identifying knowledge gaps, providing hands‑on training, and ensuring packaging team members are equipped with the skills and resources needed to perform their roles successfully.
• Monitoring packaging performance, identifying…