Operations Manager - Nights

Operations Manager - Nights

The Night Shift Operations Manager leads daily manufacturing operations with a strong focus on operational excellence, team leadership, continuous improvement, and cost-effective performance. This role owns the safety, quality, productivity, reliability, and financial performance of the night-shift operation. The Operations Manager is a visible leader on the floor who develops the team, drives accountability, removes barriers, and creates a culture of ownership, problem solving, and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities:

• Own night-shift performance across safety, quality, service, productivity, equipment utilization, labor, and cost.
• Deliver production KPIs and maximize throughput while controlling labor, waste, downtime, and operating costs.
• Use data to identify losses, prioritize opportunities, and make decisions that improve overall financial productivity.
• Ensure effective use of people, equipment, materials, and resources.
• Lead a culture of continuous improvement and Lean thinking across the night shift.
• Identify and eliminate waste, inefficiencies, downtime, quality losses, and process variation.
• Lead root-cause problem solving and ensure corrective actions deliver sustainable results.
• Partner with Continuous Improvement, Maintenance, Quality, and Technical Services to improve process capability, reliability, and efficiency.
• Provide strong, visible leadership to the night-shift production team.
• Coach and develop supervisors and employees to build a high-performing, accountable team.
• Establish clear expectations, goals, and priorities while holding the team accountable for results.
• Empower employees to identify problems, improve processes, and take ownership of performance.
• Build leadership capability and succession strength within the team.
• Lead by example and ensure a safe, compliant operating environment.
• Maintain strong food safety and quality standards through partnership with Quality and Food Safety.
• Ensure employees are trained and consistently follow safety, GMP, quality, and operating standards.
• Address issues quickly and drive root-cause solutions.
• Maintain strong communication and effective shift handoffs with all operating teams.
• Coordinate with Maintenance, Quality, Technical Services, Safety, HR, Supply Chain, and Operations leadership to remove barriers and improve performance.
• Ensure night-shift priorities are aligned with overall plant and business objectives.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited university, preferably in Engineering, Operations Management or Business Administration
• 5-7 years progressive leadership in a manufacturing environment
• Food/dairy processing experience preferred
• Experience with thermal processing, retorts and canned product preferred
• Demonstrated Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement skills
• Project management experience
• Strong business and financial competence
• Excellent interpersonal skills and collaborative management style
• Effective leadership skills to build a shared vision, energize, challenge, and engage team members to drive positive change
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications and ERP systems

About Us: Chobani is a food maker with a mission of making high-quality and nutritious food accessible to more people, while elevating our communities and making the world a healthier place. In short: making good food for all.