Director of Manufacturing in Malden, Missouri at Weaver Popcorn Bulk, LLC
NewJob Function: Manufacturing
Weaver Popcorn Bulk, LLC
Malden, Missouri, 63863, United States
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Job Description
Director of Manufacturing
POSITION SUMMARYWeaver Popcorn is seeking an experienced manufacturing leader to direct the Malden, Missouri operation and strengthen safety, quality, service, cost performance, throughput, and associate development. The Director of Manufacturing provides strategic and hands-on leadership for plant operations, maintenance, sanitation, scheduling, grower partnership, and continuous improvement while ensuring reliable execution of annual operating priorities.
This leader will establish clear performance expectations, develop plant leadership and frontline capability, optimize equipment and labor effectiveness, and partner across Quality, Field Operations, Supply Chain, Human Resources, Finance, Information Technology, and Continuous Improvement to deliver sustainable operational and financial results.
HOW WILL YOU HELP US GROW?Manufacturing & Operational Leadership- Lead the Malden manufacturing operation with accountability for safety, quality, service, cost, throughput, schedule attainment, sanitation, labor effectiveness, and overall plant performance.
- Establish clear operational standards, performance goals, equipment expectations, and operating cost objectives aligned with the annual plan.
- Drive reliable production output and efficient growth by ensuring the right equipment, staffing, operating systems, and performance measures are in place.
- Lead regular operating reviews with plant leadership to evaluate productivity, downtime, quality, staffing, schedule attainment, and corrective actions.
- Ensure manufacturing systems, procedures, and policies are consistently deployed, understood, and followed across assigned operations.
- Align internal manufacturing capabilities with customer needs, production schedules, raw-material availability, and growth expectations.
- Provide visible leadership for a safe workplace and hold leaders accountable for proactive hazard identification, corrective action, training, and compliance.
- Partner closely with Quality leadership to ensure compliance with food safety and quality requirements, including HACCP, GMPs, sanitation standards, product controls, and applicable regulatory and customer requirements.
- Support disciplined investigation and sustainable corrective action for safety events, quality deviations, operational failures, customer concerns, and recurring performance issues.
- Ensure plant practices support audit readiness, traceability, sanitation effectiveness, and consistent production of safe, conforming product.
- Reinforce the authority and responsibility to stop or correct work when safety, food safety, quality, or regulatory requirements are not being met.
- Deploy Lean manufacturing, Statistical Process Control, and structured problem-solving methods to improve throughput, yield, reliability, labor efficiency, and cost performance.
- Identify operational failures and constraints, establish root causes, implement corrective actions, and verify sustained effectiveness.
- Develop and maintain meaningful manufacturing KPIs and equipment-efficiency measures that support timely, fact-based decisions.
- Partner with Maintenance and plant leaders to improve equipment reliability, preventive maintenance effectiveness, space utilization, and production capacity.
- Jointly establish capital expenditure priorities and lead effective execution of approved capital and process-improvement projects.
- Challenge existing practices, standardize successful improvements, and build continuous-improvement capability throughout the operation.
- Collaborate with Field Operations to support grower relationships, contracted acreage plans, raw-material supply, and growth objectives.
- Partner with Supply Chain and plant scheduling teams to balance customer requirements, inventory, capacity, labor, and raw-material availability.
- Work with Finance and Information Technology to strengthen business processes, operating data, management reporting, budgeting, and decision-support tools.
- Contribute the manufacturing perspective to companywide initiatives led by Human Resources, Finance, Information Technology, Quality, and other functional leaders.
- Communicate operational risks, priorities, tradeoffs, and performance clearly to senior leadership and cross-functional partners.
- Lead, coach, and develop plant leaders and assigned functional leaders; establish clear goals, accountabilities, performance expectations, and development plans.
- Build a culture of excellence, ownership, accountability, engagement, and continuous improvement at every level of the operation.
- Develop internal talent, strengthen succession readiness, and partner with Human Resources to recruit and retain a capable workforce.
- Build associate competency through effective training, qualification, coaching, and skills-development programs.
- Use a visible, participative leadership style that communicates direction, listens for understanding, addresses conflict directly, and earns followership.
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Technology, Business, Operations Management, or a related field.
- 15+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience, including at least 10 years in a Plant Manager or comparable senior manufacturing leadership role; food or agricultural processing experience strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated success applying Lean manufacturing, Statistical Process Control, root-cause analysis, and structured problem-solving methods to improve throughput, equipment efficiency, labor productivity, yield, and cost performance.
- Experience leading workplace safety, food manufacturing quality systems, sanitation, GMPs, HACCP-based programs, and compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.
- Proven financial acumen, including budgeting, P&L accountability, capital prioritization, and analysis of manufacturing KPIs and cost drivers.
- Demonstrated success developing leaders, strengthening organizational capability, managing change, and building accountability in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, sound judgment, and the ability to influence senior leaders and cross-functional partners.
- Ability to travel regionally approximately 15% and remain available outside normal business hours when operational needs require support.
- Leadership experience in popcorn, corn, grain, ingredient, food processing, or a related agricultural manufacturing environment.
- Experience leading capital projects, technical teams, maintenance-reliability programs, and high-engagement employee relations.
- Formal training or certification in Lean, Six Sigma, safety, continuous improvement, or project leadership.
- Experience partnering directly with growers or agricultural supply networks.
This role operates across office, agricultural, warehouse, and food manufacturing environments and requires regular presence in production areas. The typical schedule is Monday through Friday; however, the Director of Manufacturing must be available outside normal business hours, including occasional evenings or weekends, when safety, quality, customer, staffing, equipment, or other operational needs require support. Regional travel of approximately 15% is expected, with additional travel based on business needs.
WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE?- Strong, sustained performance in safety, quality, service, cost, throughput, schedule attainment, and customer satisfaction.
- Improved equipment reliability, operating efficiency, labor effectiveness, yield, and cost performance supported by clear KPIs.
- Consistent execution of manufacturing, sanitation, food safety, quality, and operating standards.
- Disciplined problem solving that reduces recurring failures and produces measurable, sustained improvement.
- A capable and accountable plant leadership team with clear goals, stronger bench strength, and active development plans.
- Effective partnership across Quality, Field Operations, Supply Chain, Human Resources, Finance, Information Technology, and Continuous Improvement.
- Credible, visible leadership that builds ownership, engagement, and confidence throughout the Malden operation.
- Competitive compensation.
- Three weeks of paid time off in the first year.
- 401(k) plan with a company match of 100% of employee deferrals up to 10%.
- Health, vision, dental, life, and disability insurance beginning the first day of the month following 30 days of employment.
- Education reimbursement of up to $15,000 per year.
Weaver Popcorn is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and associates. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit, and business needs, without regard to any status protected by applicable law.
The role responsibilities are many, various, and not limited to those written in this document.
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Job Location
Malden, Missouri, 63863, United States
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