Plant Manager

What you will own at Wildtype

• Oversee plant operations, including hands on management of day-to-day operations on the production floor, ensuring consistent safe, high-quality production of our innovative seafood products
• Develop and lead plant safety programs and champion Wildtype's safety culture for scaled up operations, including both personal and food safety
• Hire, coach, develop, and support talent through consistent feedback, navigation of challenges, and celebration of wins, partnering with the People team and Wildtype leadership to enhance employee engagement and development opportunities
• Own production and manufacturing staff scheduling that is informed by production targets to meet customer demand, ensuring resources are effectively utilized
• Establish a culture of continuous improvement that engages all levels of the organization to identify and implement changes in support of Wildtype's company goals
• Build and maintain KPIs for production targets, team performance, and fiscal considerations
• Effectively solve for any production issues using proven root cause analysis tools
• Implement and maintain standard procedures, protocols, and related documentation as well as staff training programs. Ensure compliance with all state and federal regulations
• Establish and monitor plant operating budget, and identify and implement improvements to positively impact profitability
• Identify and manage risks to the business and take proactive measures to minimize them

How you'll interface with other teams

• Work with our quality and food safety lead to develop and implement all necessary regulatory systems and processes
• Collaborate routinely and effectively with Quality, Facilities, EH&S, Engineering, and R&D teams
• Work with Operations to ensure appropriate inventory of product raw materials and other consumables required to run the plant facility

What we'd like you to teach us / What you bring to the table:

• 7+ years of experience in overseeing operations at a bioprocessing or food/beverage manufacturing facility
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills, with a collaborative & empathetic leadership style
• Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, and root cause analysis experience
• Experiencing working with FDA / GMP requirements and regulations
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment, and navigate frequent new product/process introductions

What we'll teach you

• How cellular agriculture works and how it could completely change our food system by reducing our dependence on animal agriculture this century
• How to work with and lead in a fast-moving, interdisciplinary team working at the leading edge of several fields

Impact plan

• Within 1 month you will have adapted your experience in leading manufacturing organizations to Wildtype's unique context. You will have spent significant time shadowing your team to learn the details of our manufacturing processes, in addition to having worked with our VP of Operations and your manufacturing Team Leads to understand how we plan and forecast production. You will have spent time getting to know your key cross functional partners in EHS, Quality, RD&I, Commercialization, and Finance.
• Within 3 months you will have assumed responsibility for Wildtype's Manufacturing organization. Undoubtedly, you will have worked closely with a number of teams across the company as we bring our production capabilities fully online and encounter a number of operational and logistical challenges. You will have embraced these challenges as learning opportunities for the production team and will have implemented a robust Corrective Action/Preventative Action process. You will be closely managing the KPIs for the manufacturing team and establishing OKRs to help Wildtype achieve its company-wide objectives. You will have worked closely with our EH&S and food safety leads to continue building a best-in-class crewmate and product safety program. Finally, you will have worked with your mentor to set your professional development goals for the next twelve months.
• Within 6 months, you will be the go-to person in the company for expertise on scaled production of our products. Most importantly, your efforts over the preceding months will have culminated in the first commercial launch of a cultivated seafood product in the world, and you will be actively partnering with our leadership team as we push to continuously increase our production capacity.