Director of Plant Operations

Overview

Finding the right place to grow your career isn’t (over) easy, so we’re here to help by sharing a few reasons why the grass is greener at Vital Farms. We think you’ll appreciate our focus on Conscious Capitalism, which drives business decisions that benefit all our stakeholders (leading to even better business results). You might be drawn to our innovative approach and refusal to settle for the "way things have always been done."

Or you could find it exciting to grow your skills while working for an industry-leading brand. Whether you’re into our values, our brand, or our egg-cellent puns, we hope you’ll join our Crew and help us change the world 108 square feet at a time!

At Vital Farms, we’re proud of the diverse communities we serve and the stakeholders who help bring our purpose to life. We’re committed to fostering an inclusive and collaborative environment where every crew member feels valued. We see this as one of our greatest strengths - and your role is key to helping us build on it.

Reporting to the Vice President of Operations, the Plant Director leads our Seymour, Indiana facility, and manages all production operations in a safe, quality-focused, people-centric, cost-efficient manner supporting on time and accurate delivery. In this role you will embody Vital Farms’ values and collaborate with leaders at all levels of the organization as you manage a team that is accountable for getting quality products to our customers.

You will have a seat at the table, voice and input into our growth, and will be responsible for setting and ensuring the achievement of performance targets and strategic initiatives. You design and set operational goals that are consistent with the vision of the organization and are responsible for the department budgets in Seymour. You will foster a coaching culture that develops your leadership team, to equip them to provide purpose, role clarity and inspiration to the crew in their span of care.

You will provide clarity so each of your team knows and understands how their unique roles and experiences contribute to overall team success.

• Be a leader who excels through prioritizing and building a high performing team.
• Act like an owner, proactively setting a vision that clearly defines what current and future success looks like for all crew at the location.
• Instill a continuous improvement mindset and foster a culture of ownership, accountability and excitement around scaling the business.
• Support and empower the local leadership team to exceed results for Safety, FSQA, Reliability, Service and Cost.
• Track key performance indicators/costs, anticipating and correcting trends which would compromise achievement of facility targets.
• Provide oversight and assure facility equipment reliability to minimize downtime.
• Promote strong, collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders across our organization.
• Use your expertise to drive the holistic production process to meet demand in a flexible and agile manner.
• Contribute to our vision of being a destination employer by hiring, developing, and retaining a high performing, agile team that will meet the needs of the business today and become future leaders tomorrow.
• Continuously evaluate team needs and business needs, anticipate problems and drive improvements to our processes and ways of working.
• Build people capability through effective management, development, and training of our crew to cultivate a team-oriented, problem-solving culture.
• Partner with finance and business leaders to develop and manage our annual plant operating plan.

• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in production, operations, or manufacturing, preferably in food or other regulated business
• 5+ years in Lean Operations management
• Experience with an ERP system;
  Net Suite and Microsoft D365 experience is a plus
• Experience using data analysis to drive positive team and business outcomes
• Ability to work a flexible schedule to meet the needs of a 24/7 production environment
• Ability to travel approximately up to 50% for meetings and training for the first 6-8 months in role, and 20-30% after the first year
• An…