Plant Manager - AeroFarms

Plant Manager

AeroFarms is looking to hire a Plant Manager for our Danville facility.   

The world needs our help. Today 8 billion people live on the planet with less arable land than ever before. We need a solution to cultivate more using less and define the future of farming for generations to come.    

AeroFarms is part of that solution, transforming agriculture with people and the planet in mind. As a Certified B Corporation and pioneer in indoor vertical farming, we use our proprietary technology to grow produce using up to 95% less water and no pesticides ever. The result is a portfolio of products that burst with flavor, taste, and nutritional value. Leading the industry, AeroFarms has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies five years in a row, topped Fortune Magazine’s 2022 Change the World Company List, and was recognized as one of the 95 “Brands the Matter” by Fast Company.    

Reports to:  

Senior Vice President, Operations 

Primary Stakeholders:  

Plant leadership Team, including Operations Managers, Safety, Production Supervisors, Human Resources, Maintenance, Finance, Food Safety & Quality Assurance, Customer Logistics and Engineering  

About this role:   

The Plant Manager will lead and inspire our diverse local team of 100+ Aero Farmers. As Plant Manager you will be hands-on, leading all aspects of daily operations while building and developing a strong Plant Leadership Team around you.   

What you’ll do  

• Plan, organize, lead, and run optimum day-to-day operations to exceed our customers’ expectations.  

• Foster a trusting relationship with the production team and help recruit, manage, and develop plant staff of all levels.  

• Lead Lean/CI Initiatives: Develop and implement Lean/CI strategies to enhance operational efficiency, reduce waste, and improve overall plant performance. 

• Cultivate a Lean Culture: Instill a Lean mindset across all levels of the organization, promoting a culture of continuous improvement, problem-solving, and employee engagement. 

• Implement Best Practices: Identify and deploy best practices in Lean manufacturing and CI methodologies to drive measurable improvements in key performance indicators. 

• Lead and inspire employees to ensure high employee engagement and avoidance of issues or grievances, with responsibility to resolve disagreements.

• Solve problems at their root, recommending solutions for equipment, people, and process and working with cross functional teams to deploy them.   

• Effectively communicate company level updates to production and engineering team huddles weekly.    

• Lead and foster a strong Quality and Safety culture across all areas of the plant while achieving financial performance.

• Develop systems and processes that track and optimize productivity and standards, metrics, and performance targets.  

• Serve as the subject matter expert on all production equipment and processes within the facility, including dependencies between departments to drive success.  

• In partnership with the Training team, help deliver training and guidance to grow our team and help develop new production employees.   

• Communicate issues to maintenance and engineering teams to support the goal of 100% operational uptime and communicate hazards to safety leader, and quality issues to FSQA department.  

• Ensure team adheres to OSHA, GMP, USDA, and FSQA policies and guidelines.   

• Locally interacts with local community building and establishing AeroFarms as a Corporate Partner in the area.  

• Communicate issues to maintenance and engineering teams to support the goal of 100% operational uptime and communicate hazards to safety leader, and quality issues to FSQA department.  

• Help in the development of new SOPs and training materials, sharing information with the training and Operations leadership team.   

• Resolve daily personnel issues professionally, escalating to Human Resources as needed.  

What you’ll bring  

• BS degree in Business Management, Engineering, Operations Management, or related field  

• Proven work experience as a Plant Manager, Operations Manager, or General Manager for at least 5 years with direct responsibility for all personnel, financial performance, safety performance, and quality performance in a 100+ team member operationally focused business.  

• Proven managerial experience.  

• Adequate knowledge of business and management principles (budgeting, strategic planning, resource allocation, and human resources)  

• Familiarity with industry-standard equipment and technical expertise for food safety, high volume manufacturing, ability to manage 24/7/365 days per year shift operation.  

• Be knowledgeable of safety, quality, productivity, demand creation, inventory, and stewardship processes.  

• Ability to create accountability and to lead by example.  

• Ability to motivate and engage a diverse hourly associate team to build a positive, diverse, and collaborative work environment.   

• Experience working with and managing a diverse, salaried, and hourly, skilled-labor workforce in an operational capacity (manufacturing, production, food, etc.)  

• Able to work in 34 to 38F, and 78 to 80F work environments (our plants need to be a nice warm temp to grow, but once harvested we need them to be cold for product shelf life)  

• A leader that is willing and able to spend significant time on the plant floor walking and communicating with the plant team to help build motivation and collaboration amongst teams.  

Bonus Requirements/Skills 

• Experience in food or pharmaceutical manufacturing.   

• Experience in a plant start up and experience with novel equipment being implemented.  

• Experience developing SOPs and training material.