Are you a visionary leader with a passion for operational excellence and building something new? We are seeking a highly skilled and dynamic Sauce Operations Manager to lead the development of our operating plan and oversee the successful startup of new sauce production lines. In this key operational role, you will support the development and implementation of scalable processes, contribute to the establishment of foundational standards, and help execute strategic initiatives that enable the long-term growth of our new sauce operations.

As a leader, you will play a pivotal role in enhancing efficiency, ensuring the highest standards of quality and safety, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration. You’ll be instrumental in scaling our operations to meet growing demand, with a strong focus on cross-functional alignment and team empowerment.

As Sauce Operations Manager, you are responsible for overseeing the entire sauce manufacturing process—including plan development, hiring strategy, and the startup of Processing, Sanitation, and Packaging across three shifts. You are an experienced leader who thrives in startup and transformation environments, driving organizational change through team member engagement, coaching & development, and a commitment to process improvement and operational excellence. As a key member of the manufacturing leadership team, you will work closely with stakeholders across departments to ensure our new sauce production launches with strength, clarity, and alignment to company goals.

If you are a strategic thinker with a hands-on approach to leadership and a builder’s mindset, we invite you to join our team and make a meaningful impact.

Success Factors (12–24 Months)

• Leadership and Team Development Champion: Your leadership activates and inspires team members! You have mentored and developed the sauce manufacturing team through a thoughtful approach that demonstrates care for all team members. You’ve assured that the sauce operations supervisors have the skills and training they need to effectively manage the operational demands in all 3 shifts. The investment you make in regular development of your leadership team has accelerated their leadership skills to build up their team member capabilities in each shift, keeping sauce manufacturing at pace with the increasing demand and maintaining our people-first culture.
• Start-up Specialist: You leveraged your manufacturing expertise to create a tactical plan that supports the implementation of sauce production capability at our Flavor Factory. You have engaged the manufacturing team and enlisted the support of all cross-functional stakeholders to secure the successful start-up of our sauce production. You’ve ensured all partners understand the role they play in achieving our long-term success.
• Collaborative Partner: Your proactive communications with other leaders in the flavor operations group create amazing partnerships. You are counted on to keep key stakeholders informed about business results and status updates. When managing the sauce manufacturing operating budget, you partner closely with your peer-flavor operations leaders to monitor expenditure, labor costs, and capital projects to ensure adherence to department budgets. By ensuring staffing and skill levels are properly aligned each shift, the team can support efficient and reliable production.
• Continuous Improvement Guru: You’ve approached the startup of the new sauce production with a scalable and sustainable design mindset that reduces waste at every opportunity. You’ve successfully motivated every team member across all shifts to get on board with this. With this new unlocked capability, they can independently identify and activate measures to reduce waste and increase accuracy to meet or exceed these Key Performance Indicators!
• Service Delivery Guardian: You know the goal is to wow internal and external customers with the excellent and consistent output your team provides on a day-to-day basis. The key flavor operations service level KPI is attained across all shifts through strong collaboration with your peers as well as with Planning, Procurement, Maintenance, Warehouse, and Customer Service. You’ve provided a detailed focus on internal quality standards that ensured that all finished products were defect-free, every time, and that our inventory accuracy targets were achieved. You’ve proactively approached other leaders and partners to collaborate because you consistently identify possible manufacturing output issues before they happen. By flagging issues in advance, you can pull the right people together to address what needs to happen from coordination through implementation. You have been a people AND technical leader that is relied on for operations expertise to the organization. The superior service delivery from your team contributes to our ability to Grow Baby Grow!
• Safety & Sustainability Activist: You always see things through a lens of safety. Our Flavor Factory is built on a foundation of compliant, consistent, and effective safety practices. Collaborating with other flavor operations leaders and with your direction, the sauce operations team is known for their collective safety mindset. Safety risks have been mitigated through the training delivery you’ve ensured to your team and the processes you have implemented that assess potential hazards, develop & implement solutions, and evaluate their effectiveness.
• Have Fun!
  
  

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Engineering, or a related field (MBA or advanced degree preferred).
• Minimum of 5+ years of experience in manufacturing or operations management
• 5+ years of people leadership experience & team builder
• Proven track record of leading large-scale production operations and delivering measurable results.
• Expertise in continuous improvement methodologies (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma) and operational best practices.
• Strong financial acumen, with experience managing budgets and optimizing costs.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and manage competing priorities.
• Knowledge of ERP systems and advanced manufacturing technologies.
  
  

Salary Range: $140,930 - $156,589