Smokehouse Supervisor

Job Details:

Job Location:

MEXICO MO - Mexico, MO 65265, Salary Range: $28.00 Hourly, Join the TEAM at Western Smokehouse Partners!

We’re more than just a leader in the better-for-you meat snack industry-we’re a team driven by quality, innovation and a passion for great meat sticks and jerky. With eight facilities across five states, we’re setting the standard in excellence for our co-manufacturing and private label customers. As we continue to grow, we’re looking for highly motivated individuals who want to be part of an industry-leading company that values contribution, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Western Smokehouse Partners is looking for a fulltime Smokehouse Supervisor.

Position Summary

The Smokehouse Supervisor is responsible for the overall operation, performance, and results of the smokehouse department within a meat-processing facility manufacturing cooked meat products. This position provides leadership and direction for all smokehouse activities to ensure products are processed safely, meet established quality specifications, achieve production schedules, and comply with company policies and applicable regulatory requirements.

The Smokehouse Supervisor has full departmental ownership and is accountable for food safety, cooking and cooling compliance where applicable, production efficiency, labor utilization, yield and shrink, product quality, sanitation, equipment reliability, employee development, and accurate production documentation.

This position works closely with Quality Assurance, Maintenance, Sanitation, Scheduling, Warehouse, and other Production departments to maintain efficient product flow, prevent processing deviations, minimize waste and downtime, and achieve operational goals.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

A. Food Safety and Thermal Processing Compliance

• Ensure all cooked meat products are processed according to approved recipes, product specifications, validated processing procedures, and applicable food safety requirements.
• Ensure required cooking, smoking, drying, cooling, and other thermal processing parameters are consistently achieved and documented, as applicable to each product.
• Monitor critical processing parameters, including time, temperature, humidity, airflow, and other established process controls.
• Ensure employees understand and follow applicable HACCP procedures, critical control point monitoring requirements, prerequisite programs, and corrective action procedures.
• Verify that required process records, charts, electronic data, and production logs are accurate, complete, and maintained according to company procedures.
• Immediately communicate deviations, missed process limits, equipment failures, and potential food safety concerns to Quality Assurance and the Production Manager.
• Ensure potentially affected product is identified, segregated, placed on hold, and evaluated by authorized personnel in accordance with established procedures.
• Never permit products to be released or processed outside approved requirements without the appropriate review and authorization.
• Support food safety investigations, root-cause analysis, corrective actions, internal audits, customer audits, and regulatory inspections.
• Reinforce employee responsibility for reporting food safety concerns and stopping or escalating operations when an unsafe condition is identified.

B. Production Planning and Department Performance

• Own the daily execution of the smokehouse production schedule and ensure established production targets are achieved.
• Plan and coordinate staffing, product sequencing, smokehouse loading, processing cycles, unloading, and transfer of product to subsequent operations.
• Ensure the correct products, recipes, processing programs, product lots, and…