Plant Manager
Richmond, British Columbia
Build Capability, Improve Performance, Scale Success
We are looking for an experienced, people-focused Plant Manager to lead our coffee roasting and manufacturing operations in Richmond, BC, driving quality, operational excellence, and a customer-focused culture. You will own plant performance across manufacturing, maintenance, and internal logistics while building a culture of safety, accountability, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.
What You’ll Do
Lead Safety & Food Safety Excellence:
- Set the standards for a safe, food-safe, quality-focused operation where people, products, and customers come first.
- Build internal accountability, systems, and leadership discipline that keep the plant compliant, audit-ready, and operating to high standards.
Drive Operational Performance:
- Lead the plant to deliver the right product, quality, and timing while balancing people, capacity, cost, and customer demand.
- Translate business priorities into clear goals, performance measures, and decisions that drive results within the plant.
Build a Culture of Continuous Improvement:
- Champion Lean manufacturing thinking and challenge how work gets done to improve flow, productivity, reliability, quality, and cost.
- Turn ideas into measurable results and embed improvements into everyday operations.
Develop High-Performing Teams:
- Create clarity around expectations, accountability, and performance while giving leaders and employees the tools to succeed.
- Develop future plant leaders through coaching, capability building, and meaningful opportunities to lead.
Lead Reliability & Asset Performance:
- Strengthen the reliability and performance of equipment, systems, and infrastructure.
- Shape investment priorities in equipment, automation, technology, and capacity to support current performance and future growth.
Partner Across the Business:
- Bring an operational perspective to business decisions and collaborate across Sales, Quality, Supply Chain, Production, Maintenance, Warehousing, and other functions.
- Turn customer needs, new products, packaging opportunities, and growth plans into successful plant execution.
Scope of Leadership
Manufacturing Operations:
- Own overall plant performance across roasting, packaging, maintenance, and internal logistics.
- Set operating direction and priorities, balancing Safety, Quality, Cost, Delivery, People, and Environment to deliver business and customer commitments.
Safety, Food Safety & Compliance:
- Set the leadership expectations and operating discipline required for a safe, compliant, high-quality food manufacturing environment.
- Uphold plant accountability for OHS, SQF, HACCP, GMP, customer, and other applicable standards.
Operational Excellence:
- Shape the plant’s continuous improvement agenda, embedding Lean manufacturing thinking, structured problem-solving, and sustainable performance improvement.
- Influence how work is designed, measured, and improved across the operation.
Maintenance & Reliability:
- Set priorities for preventive maintenance, equipment reliability, downtime reduction, and asset performance.
- Influence capital, automation, infrastructure, and technology decisions that strengthen plant capability and future capacity.
People Leadership:
- Lead and develop the plant leadership team, creating clarity, accountability, engagement, and a strong pipeline of future leaders.
- Shape workforce capability through staffing, development, performance, succession, and partnership with People & Culture.
Financial Stewardship:
- Own plant financial performance through responsible management of the operating budget and controllable manufacturing costs.
- Balance investment and cost decisions with safety, quality, reliability, customer service, and long-term business value.
Who You Are
You’re an experienced manufacturing leader who combines operational discipline with a people-first leadership approach. You know how to turn business priorities into plant performance, build capable teams, and create a culture where safety, quality, reliability, and continuous improvement are how work gets done.
You bring:
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Food Science, Operations Management, Business, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
- 7–10 years of progressive manufacturing experience, including at least 5 years leading teams in a supervisory or management capacity, ideally in food, beverage, coffee, or CPG manufacturing.
- Demonstrated experience leading plant operations, budgets, people, performance, and continuous improvement.
- Strong understanding of food manufacturing and OHS requirements, including SQF or another GFSI-recognized program, HACCP, GMPs, sanitation, and preventive controls.
- Strong knowledge of Lean manufacturing, structured problem-solving, operational performance, and continuous improvement; Lean Six Sigma training is an advantage.
- Experience with maintenance and reliability, capital projects, automated manufacturing or packaging equipment, and ERP/MRP or manufacturing performance systems.
- Strong financial, analytical, planning, decision-making, and communication skills, with the ability to balance operational priorities and business outcomes.
- Coffee roasting, blending, and packaging experience, or an MBA/advanced business education, is an advantage.
We Offer:
- Base salary range of $130,000 - $140,000. Salary will be commensurate with experience, skills, and qualifications.
- Comprehensive health and dental benefits.
- 4 weeks of paid vacation.
- Immediate eligibility to participate in our Group Benefits Program.
- Vacation Purchase Program
- Paid Volunteer Day
- Employee pricing on our product line-up
- Free, on-site parking
- A fun and supportive environment with opportunities for learning and development.
- And…a workplace filled with the aroma of coffee….all day…every day
