Plant Manager - Poultry

We are partnering with a leading poultry processor to identify an experienced Plant Manager to take full operational responsibility for a high-volume poultry processing facility.

This is a senior leadership position responsible for driving overall plant performance across safety, food safety, quality, production, yield, labor, maintenance, efficiency, and financial performance. The successful candidate will provide strategic direction while maintaining a strong presence on the plant floor and developing a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide overall leadership and operational direction for the poultry processing facility, ensuring performance against company objectives.
• Take full accountability for plant performance across safety, food safety, quality, production, yield, labor, maintenance, cost, and profitability.
• Lead and develop the plant's leadership team across Production, Operations, FSQA, Maintenance, Engineering, HR, and other key functions.
• Establish clear operational objectives, KPIs, and performance expectations across all departments.
• Ensure production schedules and customer requirements are consistently achieved while maintaining product quality and food safety standards.
• Drive improvements in throughput, yield, labor efficiency, downtime, OEE, line utilization, and overall plant productivity.
• Partner closely with FSQA to maintain compliance with USDA, HACCP, GMP, SSOP, and customer food safety requirements.
• Develop and execute strategic plans to improve plant profitability and operational performance.
• Manage plant operating budgets, labor costs, overtime, waste, and other controllable expenses.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives focused on cost reduction, process optimization, efficiency, and operational excellence.
• Work closely with Engineering and Maintenance to improve equipment reliability, preventative maintenance, uptime, and asset utilization.
• Oversee major CAPEX projects, facility improvements, equipment installations, and expansion initiatives.
• Maintain high standards of employee safety, environmental compliance, sanitation, housekeeping, and regulatory performance.
• Analyze plant performance data and establish corrective action plans to address operational gaps.
• Build strong relationships across Supply Chain, Sales, Procurement, Finance, HR, and senior corporate leadership.
• Develop workforce strategies to attract, retain, train, and develop high-performing production and leadership teams.
• Lead investigations into significant safety, quality, production, and employee issues, ensuring appropriate corrective actions are implemented.
• Foster a culture built around safety, accountability, employee engagement, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.
• Provide regular performance updates and strategic recommendations to senior leadership.

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will be an accomplished plant or operations leader with significant experience within poultry processing, meat processing, protein manufacturing, or another high-volume food manufacturing environment.

You will ideally bring:

• Bachelor's degree in Operations, Business, Engineering, Food Science, or a related discipline is preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience, with significant responsibility within a poultry or protein processing environment.
• Proven experience leading a large-scale poultry processing facility with responsibility for production, financial performance, safety, quality, and people.
• Strong understanding of poultry processing operations, yields, labor management, production flow, and plant KPIs.
• Experience leading large hourly workforces and multi-disciplinary management teams.
• Strong knowledge of USDA, HACCP, GMP, SSOP, OSHA, and food safety requirements.
• Demonstrated success improving throughput, yield, labor efficiency, downtime, cost, and overall plant performance.
• Proven financial and commercial acumen, including experience managing plant budgets, labor costs, and operating expenses.
• Experience overseeing CAPEX, engineering, maintenance, automation, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Strong understanding of lean manufacturing and operational excellence methodologies.
• Excellent leadership, communication, decision-making, and problem-solving capabilities.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, high-volume, highly regulated manufacturing environment.
• Strong track record of developing leadership teams and creating a culture of accountability and employee engagement.

What the Role Offers

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced Plant Manager or senior Operations leader to take full ownership of a major poultry processing facility within a leading and growing protein manufacturer.

The successful candidate will have significant influence over the plant's operational performance, profitability, workforce, food safety, capital strategy, and long-term growth, with the opportunity to make a measurable impact across the entire operation.