Production Manager — Vegan Food Manufacturing

Summary

What if you could make a real difference, every day, for people’s health, animals, and the planet — working with a passionate vegan team?

You certainly can, at LeafSide! We are a fast growing company, offering innovative 100% whole-food plant-based (WFPB) vegan meals. Our mission is to make optimally healthy, whole vegan eating so easy and enjoyable, that it becomes a societal norm.

We’re looking for a growth-oriented department manager, coach, and leader. A mission-driven, super-organized, clear-communicating, reliable & resourceful, tech-savvy, and get-it-done fellow vegan — to join us in our Tempe, AZ office as our Production Manager.

As our team’s Production Manager (PM), you’ll be responsible for overseeing and improving the department making LeafSide's life-changing magic meals, with consistently high productivity and quality. You'll develop and lead Ops' strategic plans and drive their execution — while staying aligned with LeafSide’s vision and values. Being a great manager and coach is central to this role too. It’ll all be happening in the fast-paced environment of a growing, mission-driven company — so we’re looking for someone who will see this role as not just another job, but key to their career and aligned with their life’s calling.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years professional experience in a manufacturing, production, and/or management role in a small or mid-sized company, with increasing responsibilities and progression in roles you’ve filled. You should have clear management, coaching, and project management skills and experience. APICS certification a plus. OSHA certification will be needed if not already in your repertoire. Strong understanding of lean manufacturing, quality assurance, and continuous improvement principles are major pluses.
• Schooling & Education: Your formal schooling should include a Bachelor’s degree or higher, preferably in a STEM or closely related field. Lifetime education should be one of your ingrained habits, along with a Growth Mindset (a core value at LeafSide), and being curious & challenge-seeking. Per Twain: “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” Quantitative and analytical skills should be evident, e.g. college-level mathematics courses including basic statistics.
• Managerial & Coaching Skills: You are keen to develop a team, ensuring everyone in your department is aligned, trained, clear on expectations, and treated fairly. You're experienced leading a diverse team, and your experience (and reflecting on such) keeps you focused on the basics and essentials of leading and managing people, while avoiding fads that don’t actually work.
• Character & Interpersonal Skills, i.e. you are authentic, highly reliable & capable, super-organized, adaptable, humble, diplomatic, persistent, resourceful, and last, but certainly not least, high energy.
• Proactive Problem-solving & Opportunity-finding: You are able to quickly anticipate the needs of your department and effects on other departments, avoiding and solving problems with care and resourcefulness—before they become major issues. You also have a quick sense of opportunities worth pursuing further.
• Communication Skills: You have excellent verbal and written communication skills, and to others you’re engaging, empathetic, clear, and assertive in your writing and speaking. You pair that with strong listening skills so that everyone you deal with feels heard and understood. Public speaking should be in your skillset.
• Technology & IT Skills: You’ve used many forms of software, and you quickly pick up new tools, and can teach other teammates in such. You are more than proficient in Google Suite/Workspace, e.g. creating well-organized Docs & doing calculations in Sheets. Paired with your proactive problem-solving above, you solve most tech problems on your own.
• You’re passionate about LeafSide’s mission to help people, animals, and Earth; and you’re committed to being a stellar example to others by living the whole foods vegan lifestyle.

Responsibilities/Duties

The PM oversees and improves the team making LeafSide's life-changing magic meals, with consistently high productivity and quality.

• Strategy & Goals-Setting + Driving: Help develop and maintain department strategy, expectations, and clear goals including KPIs. Then align and drive the Ops team to the promised land with regular reviews and accountability for results. Find and allocate resources as needed.
• Culture-Building: Exemplify, communicate, promote, and reinforce LeafSide’s values, purpose, and mission throughout Ops. Help rally individuals and teams within and across departments, soliciting and using good ideas from any teammate, for mission success.
• Staffing & Development: Plan and help manage staffing, recruiting, and onboarding to meet company goals. Develop teammates and ensure follow-through therein. Handle staff/HR issues as needed.
• Department-Building: Organize, simplify, and systematize superb execution in Ops. Find and/or build tools, systems, and processes that are lean and adaptable, training teammates as needed.
• Ad-hoc Awesomeness: Do whatever it takes for mission success! Solve problems and create opportunities befitting your leadership role.

Salary & Benefits

We offer a competitive salary starting at $70,000 per year, depending on experience and qualifications. We believe in rewarding expertise and dedication, and compensation is negotiable based on the candidate's professional background and the skills they bring to the team.

Our comprehensive compensation package also includes various benefits and opportunities for professional growth.

• This is a full-time on-site role, minimum 40-45 hours/week. To succeed in this role, hard work, reliability, people skills, and proficiency or fluency in numbers should be your strong suits. Career success and mission impact should be a top priority in your life.
• Total time off per year starts at over 4 weeks per year. (8 paid holidays, 5 sick days, and 12 PTO days) with sick and PTO time usable interchangeably, and accrued per fully employed pay period.
• Health, dental, vision, and lifeinsurance plans are offered, with full or partial coverage by the company depending on the plan chosen.
• Complimentary LeafSide meals every workday (a $2,500+ yearly value), and employee discount on LeafSide products. Unlike most food companies, we eat our own products every day, and high quality food drives us to perform our best!

Pssst...If you've read this far and want to stand out from the majority of candidates: Be sure to tell us very clearly where you are in your vegan journey, why you want to work with us, AND be sure to complete the Indeed Assessments, so that your application is not left incomplete. :-)

Also, we use Indeed messaging for all initial communications. To be sure to receive important messages about interviews and on-site visits, turn on SMS alerts for Indeed, and/or for this particular job.

Due to many applications, if we message you and don't hear back, we'll assume you're no longer interested, which could be unfortunate if Indeed messages are just sitting in your junk email folder. Thanks!

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: From $70,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Employee discount
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Professional development assistance
• Vision insurance

Schedule:

• Day shift
• Monday to Friday

Application Question(s):

• How long have you been vegan, and what motivates your vegan journey? Please answer in your cover letter (PDF file). [REQUIRED]
• Hi, please tell us about you: What are your top strengths and experiences, that make you a great fit for this position? Why do you want to work with us? What is your expected salary range? Please include the answers to these questions in a separate cover letter (PDF file), in addition to your resumé. [REQUIRED]

Education:

• Bachelor's (Required)

Experience:

• Management: 5 years (Required)

Ability to Relocate:

• Tempe, AZ: Relocate before starting work (Required)

Work Location: In person