production superintendent - poultry

The Production Superintendent is responsible for overseeing daily operations within a poultry processing facility, ensuring all production lines run safely, efficiently, and in compliance with food-safety and regulatory standards. This role provides leadership to supervisors and frontline employees, driving performance in yield, throughput, labor efficiency, and product quality. The Superintendent acts as a key operational leader, supporting plant goals while fostering a culture of safety, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities:

• Direct daily poultry production operations, ensuring staffing levels, workflow, and resources meet production schedules and performance targets.

• Monitor line performance, yields, labor utilization, and quality measures; implement corrective actions to improve results.

• Ensure strict compliance with USDA regulations, HACCP, SSOP, GMPs, and animal-welfare standards specific to poultry processing.

• Lead, train, and coach production supervisors and hourly team members, promoting strong teamwork, communication, and professional development.

• Partner with maintenance, quality assurance, safety, and live operations teams to maintain steady production flow and address operational issues promptly.

• Drive continuous improvement efforts focused on efficiency, waste reduction, throughput optimization, and downtime reduction.

• Maintain a strong safety culture through ongoing training, audits, incident investigations, and enforcement of company safety policies.

• Analyze production data, prepare reports, and identify trends to support operational decision-making and long-term improvement.

• Support plant leadership with planning related to labor needs, line configuration, process adjustments, and equipment upgrades.

• Ensure compliance with sanitation standards and maintain organized, clean production areas at all times.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Operations Management, Poultry Science, Business, or related field (or equivalent industry experience).

• 3-5+ years of production leadership experience in poultry processing or protein manufacturing.

• Strong understanding of poultry processing operations, including evisceration, debone, cut-up, marination, or further processing.

• Knowledge of USDA regulations, HACCP, SSOP, GMPs, and animal-welfare requirements.

• Demonstrated ability to lead teams in a fast-paced, high-volume environment.

• Strong communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills.

• Ability to interpret production data and drive performance improvements.

• Proficiency with production management systems, ERP platforms, and standard office software.