Plant Director
Traditional Medicinals
Rocky Mount, VA
SUMMARY:
We seek a dynamic and experienced Plant Director to lead our brand-new, state-of-the-art production facility specializing in botanical supplemental tea. This greenfield plant will be at the forefront of manufacturing innovation, leveraging advanced automation and robotics, including AGVs, Industry 4.0 methodologies, and a unified namespace solution to drive efficiency, quality, and sustainability. The Plant Director will build and lead a high-performance team, redefine shop floor roles, and upskill employees to align with a digitally connected, data-driven environment. This leader will also serve as the plant's primary representative with local city and county officials, business leaders, and industry stakeholders to establish strong community and regulatory relationships. The Plant Director will lead all day-to-day operations of our Rocky Mount, Virginia production facility to ensure the safe, efficient, and cost-effective creation and execution of the production plan. Responsibilities include direct accountability and indirect responsibility for all production, maintenance, and warehouse employees across three manufacturing shifts in the Rocky Mount facility. They will work strategically and cross-functionally with leadership and lead their management team to ensure employee engagement, safety, quality, customer service, continuous improvement, cost containment, and production objectives are achieved or exceeded. Essential Functions
Culture
Qualifications & Experience:
An employee must meet the physical demands described here to perform the essential functions of this job successfully. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.
We seek a dynamic and experienced Plant Director to lead our brand-new, state-of-the-art production facility specializing in botanical supplemental tea. This greenfield plant will be at the forefront of manufacturing innovation, leveraging advanced automation and robotics, including AGVs, Industry 4.0 methodologies, and a unified namespace solution to drive efficiency, quality, and sustainability. The Plant Director will build and lead a high-performance team, redefine shop floor roles, and upskill employees to align with a digitally connected, data-driven environment. This leader will also serve as the plant's primary representative with local city and county officials, business leaders, and industry stakeholders to establish strong community and regulatory relationships. The Plant Director will lead all day-to-day operations of our Rocky Mount, Virginia production facility to ensure the safe, efficient, and cost-effective creation and execution of the production plan. Responsibilities include direct accountability and indirect responsibility for all production, maintenance, and warehouse employees across three manufacturing shifts in the Rocky Mount facility. They will work strategically and cross-functionally with leadership and lead their management team to ensure employee engagement, safety, quality, customer service, continuous improvement, cost containment, and production objectives are achieved or exceeded. Essential Functions
Culture
- Understand and support the organization's mission, purpose, vision, and core values; educate the plant leadership team and frequently refer to them by incorporating them into daily activities.
- Establish a continuous improvement, safety, and employee engagement culture, fostering a collaborative and high-performing team.
- Oversee plant KPIs, ensuring alignment with corporate objectives and operational excellence.
- Actively participate in the overall employee experience of all plant employees (including hiring, performance management, employee coaching, conflict resolution, compensation, and career pathing).
- Execute, monitor, and adjust the weekly production schedule to ensure delivery of production targets. Work cross-functionally with leadership in planning, procurement, engineering, human resources, and quality to assure clear prioritization and organizational alignment to deliver on key performance indicators.
- Lead the new plant's startup, commissioning, and operational ramp-up, ensuring seamless integration of advanced automation and data-driven processes.
- Develop and execute operational strategies to optimize efficiency, product quality, and cost-effectiveness while meeting regulatory and compliance requirements.
- Ensure the safety of all team members and contractors working within the manufacturing facility. This includes partnering in developing and implementing company-wide manufacturing safety programs, SOPs, hazard elimination, and enforcement of all safety rules.
- Drive Industry 4.0 initiatives, leveraging real-time data and insights to enhance plant performance and agility.
- Integrate automation solutions, including robotics, AGVs, and intelligent manufacturing systems, to streamline production and logistics.
- Lead the redefinition of shop floor roles, ensuring workforce adaptation through training, upskilling, and talent development in a highly automated environment.
- Represent operations in developing a multi-site master manufacturing plan, strategic workforce planning, 7-year strategic plan, 3-year operating plan, and annual expense budgeting and capital budgeting processes.
- Act as the plant's public representative, building strong relationships with local city and county officials and business leaders to support economic development and community engagement.
- Ensure compliance with local regulations, permitting, and environmental standards while advocating for industry-leading practices.
- Collaborate with industry groups and represent the company in community events and business forums.
- Uphold the highest quality standards, regulatory compliance (FDA, GMP), and product integrity in supplement manufacturing.
- Drive a zero-defect, safety-first culture, ensuring adherence to OSHA, and GMP standards.
- Utilize data-driven quality control systems to monitor and improve product consistency.
- Ensure compliance with all regulatory and quality standards and programs, including supporting audits and other regulatory activities as needed.
- Identify continuous improvement opportunities and gaps to meet or exceed industry best practices. Prioritize and implement continuous improvement changes to achieve short-term and long-term strategic objectives.
- Directly manage the production leadership team, including a technical manufacturing manager and a master production planner.
- Directly manage support functions, including production planning and inventory control.
- Indirectly lead a team of production, quality, safety, and warehouse personnel across three manufacturing shifts.
Qualifications & Experience:
- 7+ years of leading cross-functional manufacturing leadership teams in a Food or Dietary supplement production facility, preferably at the director level.
- A proven track record of successfully leading a manufacturing startup or plant transformation with advanced automation.
- Experience in Industry 4.0, smart factory solutions, and workforce digitalization is highly desirable.
- Strong background in lean manufacturing, operational excellence (OEE), and continuous improvement methodologies.
- Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, with experience engaging local government, business leaders, and regulatory agencies.
- Experience designing a continuous improvement program and implementing industry best practices
- Extensive knowledge of Food or Dietary Supplement manufacturing industry best practices
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, or a related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
- Preferred but not required experience in manufacturing leadership in a Food or Dietary Supplement manufacturing facility
- Ability to operate within a fast-paced, dynamic environment
- Ability to design and implement organizational change with a diverse workforce
- Ability to lead and develop a high-functioning team
- Ability to act with calmness and decisiveness
- Ability to analyze business problems from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective
- Ability to think innovatively
- Ability to think and act with the future in plan, including making decisions within the framework of the organization's strategic intent
- Ability to maintain appropriate focus on outcomes and accomplishments, respecting the need to balance short-term and long-term goals
- Ability to establish, understand, and monitor appropriate financial measures and use them to make informed business decisions.
- Demonstrates flexibility and adaptability
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Passionate believer in visual metrics and focused KPI's
- Extremely well-organized and accurate with details
- Highly creative and out-of-the-box thinking
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to motivate people
- Proven project management skills to ensure on-time, high-quality deliverables
- Strong leadership skills with proven ability to facilitate cross-functional teams
- Able to work under deadlines and handle multiple and detail-oriented tasks
- Ability to meet minimum physical requirements to work in a production or warehouse environment
- Ability to communicate persuasively in English, both written and oral (Spanish language is a plus)
- Intermediate or advanced computer skills (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint), including working knowledge of manufacturing execution systems (MES), enterprise resource planning (ERP- Microsoft Dynamics preferred), and computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS).
- Extensive travel to the corporate office in California will be required in the first few months for training purposes
An employee must meet the physical demands described here to perform the essential functions of this job successfully. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.
- While performing the duties of this job, the employee must be comfortable working in a production environment with exposure to noise, machinery, and manufacturing processes.
- The employee is regularly required to sit and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to reach with hands and arms, and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision.
- This position is based in Rocky Mount, VA and is onsite Monday through Friday supporting a three-shift operation.
- Remote candidates will not be considered for this role.
Posted 2025-07-28
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