Join an exciting opportunity to be part of a brand new, highly automated facility for Hill's Pet Nutrition!  The Operations Team Leader [OTL] position will participate in start-up activities, setting systems, developing materials and supporting onboarding processes for future recruitments. This position impacts and influences the overall culture, employee relations, and performance of a manufacturing facility and its ability to align with the company’s core values and initiatives. The incumbent is responsible for demonstrating personal leadership, effectively managing production activities and resources for a specified manufacturing area, to deliver business results and drive continuous improvement, while maintaining positive employee relations. 
The primary accountabilities of the role include driving (individual/ employee and) team development and performance, daily production schedule adherence, customer service, area financial performance, implementation of Operational Excellence initiatives (EHS, Quality, FP&R), and Employee Relations.
The OTL achieves success through collaborative partnerships with Supply Chain and leveraging FEED principles. 

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Communicates and implements the local Supply Chain vision, mission, strategy, and objectives
• Empower teams by way of training, information sharing, coaching, feedback, appraisals and delegation, to ensure the development of people, skills, teams and organizational capabilities.
• Accountable for adhering to Colgate-Palmolive/ Hill’s standards and governmental regulations related to the area of responsibility for EOHS and Quality
• Accountable for Operational Excellence (EOHS, Quality, FP&R) activities of the production area to deliver high levels of service to internal and external customers 
• Manages the people, materials, and equipment by the active presence on the shop floor to achieve the daily production schedule and deliver area KPI's 
• Reads and analyzes KPI’s, charts, work orders, production schedules, and other records and reports to determine production requirements and to evaluate current production estimates and outputs.
• Responsible for time management and data entry for team members into Kronos payroll system
• Provides indirect leadership for plant supporting roles (Maintenance, Quality, Automation) to ensure successful daily operation. Also ensures collaborative relationships with Leaders of employees in supporting roles.
• Leads and coordinates the activities of Operation Staff engaged in the production to increase innovation, technical expertise, analysis, and problem solving skills
• Identify actions to minimize financial variances associated with materials, finished products and other components of the plant’s conversion cost including labor cost and operating supplies 
• Support execution of new technology within the production area 
• This is not an exhaustive list of duties or functions. 

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Industrial Technology or Business related field 
• Minimum of 2 years of experience managing and leading teams in a manufacturing environment 
• Demonstrated strong written and verbal communications skills,
• Coaching and feedback skills 

Preferred:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering
• 5+ years’ experience in manufacturing Food Related Production
• Working knowledge of production and process equipment, preferably in a processing industry such as food, chemicals or pharmaceuticals
• Ability to establish a specific course of action to accomplish goals through appropriate allocation of time and resources 
• Project Management Skills
• 2+ years experience in performance analysis and reporting including Statistical Process Control
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize multiple initiatives and manage in ambiguous situations
• Proficiency with Google Suite collaboration tools (G-doc, sheets, slides, etc) or Microsoft Suite (Work, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.)
• Knowledge of SAP systems