General Manager

Director of Operations (General Manager)Our client is a leading food and agricultural products company committed to delivering responsible food solutions, animal welfare excellence, and premium organic protein products.The Director of Operations (General Manager) serves as the senior operational leader for a protein processing facility. This role provides overall operational, tactical, and strategic management for harvest, debone, further processing, packaging, shipping, sanitation, and maintenance. The ideal candidate possesses deep protein industry expertise, strong financial acumen, and a commitment to USDA standards, food safety, animal welfare, and lean continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

Direct end-to-end processing facility operations to meet yield, throughput, cost-per-pound, and volume targets.Ensure strict adherence to USDA Organic, USDA-FSIS, NOP (National Organic Program), and HACCP regulatory standards.Lead cross-functional site teams across First Processing, Second Processing, Packaging, Warehousing, Quality Assurance, Maintenance, and Environmental Health & Safety (EHS).Optimize yield recovery, line speeds, weight distribution, and raw material utilization specific to organic poultry/protein processing constraints.Manage plant P&L, operational expense budgets, capital expenditure (CapEx) investments, and labor allocation strategies.Analyze operational metrics (KPIs) daily, including pounds produced per hour, labor cost per unit, yield loss, and downtime analyses.Collaborate with Supply Chain, Live Operations, and Procurement to manage live bird scheduling and flock availability.Maintain top-tier food safety standards, driving zero-tolerance policies for food contamination and product holds.Uphold humane handling and animal welfare standards (certified organic and animal care audit guidelines).Lead root-cause problem-solving for customer specs, yield deviations, and quality assurance non-conformances.Drive continuous improvement initiatives (Lean, Six Sigma, TPM) to eliminate waste and optimize throughput.Foster a positive safety culture aimed at achieving zero recordable incidents.Mentor and develop department managers, superintendents, and operational leaders to ensure robust succession planning.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Animal Science, Engineering, or Business Administration (MBA preferred).8+ years of progressive leadership in protein processing operations (poultry/meat/fish processing strongly preferred), with 3+ years at a senior plant leadership level.Direct experience with USDA Organic / NOP regulations and organic chain-of-custody protocols.Deep expertise in primary harvest, debone, chilling (air chill/water chill), automated tray-pack, and fresh/frozen protein packaging.Proven mastery of USDA-FSIS, HACCP, SQF/BRC food safety audits, and OSHA compliance.Hands-on application of Lean Manufacturing principles, Kaizen events, and operational efficiency tools.