Founded in 2013, Home Chef is the leading meal solutions company with both a retail and online presence. Available online at homechef.com and in retail at more than 2,100 Kroger grocery stores, Home Chef is committed to inspiring and enabling more people to cook simple, delicious meals, no matter how busy they are.

Similar to our recipes, we recognize that variety is the spice of life, and therefore, our employees also bring their uniqueness and color to our fantastic team. We’re eager to work with humble team players and pragmatic next-level thinkers to innovate on Home Chef’s offerings.

The Director of Plant Operations provides the vision, leadership, and coaching needed to develop and maintain the competencies, performance, and collaboration of all departmental employees within the plant. The Director of Plant Operations directs and manages all plant operations with overall responsibilities for production and all production-related activities. He or she is an exemplary people leader who provides direction and fosters the professional development of departmental managers and supervisors. The Director of Plant Operations also drives continuous improvement, executes change management, and ensures plant and employee safety standards are met.

Daily Production Management

• Directly oversees and monitors the day-to-day operations of the entire production, procurement, inventory, warehouse, and maintenance teams (to include work flow, management of work in process, job assignments, staffing, etc.) and ensures a smooth flow and efficient production.
• Establishes and maintains effective relationships with all support departments including sanitation, quality assurance, Human Resources, and other departments that support the anticipation, communication and resolution of issues related to plant production and performance.
• Reviews production reports and requirements to ensure proactive preparation for daily and future order fulfillment challenges.
• Actively anticipates issues impacting on time order fulfillment and troubleshoots in advance
• Ensures the quality, quantity and integrity of all raw materials; works with applicable corporate staff to ensure the same.
• Maintains a strong on time fulfillment rate daily and weekly

Facility Organization & Management

• Sets a high standard for facility organization and holds team accountable for maintaining a “clean, clear, and organized plan” per the Home Chef values
• Champions the Home Chef Operating System and holds the team accountable for ongoing improvements against the system standards
• Promotes a strong and healthy employee safety and food safety culture via compliance with policies, procedures and regulations which ensures that a safe work environment is maintained for all employees/customers. (This includes participation in safety and food safety-related training, audits, incident reviews and corrective actions and supporting continuous improvement through safety audits and suggestions for improvement.)
• Oversees WMS implementation within the plant, serves as a champion for the system, and drives rigorous inventory management to avoid unnecessary shorts and mitigate food costs.
• Dives adoption of new tools and technologies across all departments and levels

Management to KPIs

• Responsible for the development and administration of plant-related budgets and authorization of associated expenditures.
• Owns the financial performance of the plant week over week and exhibits detailed understanding of cost drivers
• Manages to weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual KPI targets, and is accountable for the development, implementation, and success of action plans for KPI improvement

Continuous Improvement & Change Management

• Implements plans to correct and resolve any problems that are identified, determines the “root cause”, and oversees specific corrective action(s) for continuous improvement.
• Partners with the Home Chef Continuous improvement team to ensure successful rollout of continuous improvement initiatives and is accountable for the use of automation in the facility.
• Holds team to a high standard for adherence to standard operating procedures and demonstrates initiative in identifying and implementing changes to improve workflow and standard processes

People Development & Culture

• Lives out Home Chef’s “Best In Class Team” by providing exceptional coaching, mentoring, and development that enables and optimizes the team’s effectiveness. Establishes, monitors and reviews individual and team performance against established goals, KPI’s, and expectations.
• Fosters a fun, collaborative environment amongst the managers and broader leadership team that encourages a continued pursuit of excellence while praising for success and coaching for improvement.
• Behaves in accordance with Home Chef’s “Customer First” core value and drives “Customer First” behavior on the floor
• Schedules and leads weekly meetings with both leadership and larger plant team to communicate previous performance, upcoming goals, other relevant information, conduct root cause analysis, as necessary.
• Supports and enables positive employee relations (i.e. fair treatment and respect for all employees) and holds the leadership team to high standards for creating and maintaining a positive work culture where all employees feel safe to be themselves. Works with HR to address employee concerns/requests in a timely manner.
• With guidance from HR, initiates employee discipline and corrective actions, when necessary, in a manner consistent with company policies and in compliance with federal, state and local laws.
• Actively engages in and sets expectations for the hiring and promoting of strong people leaders (for department managers, plant salaried leaders, and other company positions), and maintains rigorous talent management processes for all roles (performance reviews, recommendation of merit increases, promotions, etc.)

General Responsibilities

• Follow the facility GMPs and help enforce them throughout the facility
• Support the efforts of the company to maintain our food safety system (SQF) and quality programs

• Completion of a four-year degree program in a related field
• 5+ years of plant experience (preferably within the food industry), preferred. Start-up experience or experience with a fast-growing company, desired.
• Demonstrated ability to lead a large, complex team while building and maintaining a positive work culture
• Proven track record of rigorous talent management and exceptional ability to identify strong talent, both internally and externally.
• Experience owning and maintaining favorable metric performance, including improving KPIs, where necessary

Perks and benefits:

• Candidates can experience Home Chef as a customer - enter promo code PEOPLE30 for $30 off your first order!
• Medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance available
• Paid holidays, sick time and vacation time
• 401k program
• Flexible spending accounts for qualified medical, dependent care, parking, or transit expenses

How We Work Together

We are humble team players.
We are warm and gracious with team members and customers. We seek feedback to improve ourselves - and respectfully listen to and accept input.

We are pragmatic next-level thinkers.
We come up with novel and unique ideas. We explore new strategies to avoid being constrained by conventional thinking.

We take ownership.
We approach ambiguous problems, prepared to dive in, get curious, and learn more. We are results-driven, always challenging ourselves to exceed goals.

Be at Home at Home Chef

We all show up authentically at Home Chef. Our team includes individuals with a variety of identities, backgrounds, and perspectives. You can trust that you’ll be able to bring your whole self to an inclusive and enjoyable workplace.

We welcome people of all races, colors, religions, national origin or ancestry, sex (including sexual identity), age, physical or mental disabilities, pregnancy, veteran or military status, unfavorable discharge from military service, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital status, order of protection status, citizenship status, arrest record or expunged/sealed convictions, or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state, or local law.

Home Chef is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Home Chef will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact our People team at hr@homechef.com.

Home Chef is an equal opportunity employer.

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