Director of Operations

Position Type: Fractional / Part-Time

Reports To: Executive Leadership

Location: Belvidere, New Jersey

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Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Fractional Operations Manager / Director with a strong background in food manufacturing, warehouse operations, inventory management, and organizational development. This individual will provide hands-on operational leadership and help establish the systems, processes, accountability, and structure necessary to improve day-to-day performance.

The ideal candidate is a practical, results-oriented operator who can quickly assess an operation, identify gaps, develop solutions, and work directly with management and frontline teams to implement improvements. This is not a purely strategic role—the successful candidate will be comfortable getting into the operation, observing processes firsthand, coaching employees and managers, and holding teams accountable for results.

The role is particularly focused on creating consistency and discipline around production, quality, inventory accuracy, warehouse organization, labor utilization, fulfillment, and operational communication.

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Key Responsibilities

Operations & Production

• Evaluate current manufacturing and operational processes and identify opportunities to improve efficiency, productivity, quality, and throughput.
• Establish clear operating procedures, workflows, and performance expectations.
• Improve daily production planning, scheduling, staffing, and workflow management.
• Identify bottlenecks, recurring problems, and operational inefficiencies and develop practical solutions.
• Establish daily management routines, including production meetings, shift handoffs, performance reviews, and issue escalation.
• Ensure operational standards are consistently followed across shifts and departments.
• Work with leadership to establish measurable operational KPIs and reporting.

Food Manufacturing & Quality

• Provide operational oversight within food manufacturing and packing environments.
• Develop and reinforce standards for product quality, handling, packing, sanitation, and overall production practices.
• Identify root causes of quality issues, customer complaints, product damage, waste, and rejected shipments.
• Implement corrective actions and preventative measures to reduce recurring quality problems.
• Ensure employees are properly trained on product standards, handling procedures, packing requirements, and quality expectations.
• Establish accountability for quality at the point where the work is performed.

Warehouse & Inventory Management

• Assess and improve warehouse layout, organization, storage practices, product flow, and material handling.
• Establish accurate and consistent inventory control procedures.
• Improve receiving, put-away, picking, staging, packing, and shipping processes.
• Identify inventory discrepancies and establish procedures to improve inventory accuracy.
• Develop cycle-counting and inventory reconciliation processes.
• Improve product traceability, lot control, FIFO/FEFO practices, and inventory rotation where applicable.
• Reduce product loss, spoilage, damage, shrink, and unnecessary inventory.
• Establish clear ownership and accountability for inventory across departments.

Labor & Organizational Management

• Evaluate staffing levels, roles, responsibilities, and labor utilization.
• Help establish appropriate organizational structure, reporting relationships, and departmental accountability.
• Clarify roles and expectations for managers, supervisors, team leads, and frontline employees.
• Identify training gaps and develop practical training and onboarding processes.
• Coach managers and supervisors on effective team management and operational accountability.
• Help create a culture of ownership, urgency, communication, and continuous improvement.

Process Improvement & Systems

• Document current processes and develop standardized operating procedures (SOPs).
• Implement practical systems that make it easier for employees and managers to consistently execute expectations.
• Identify opportunities to leverage technology, reporting, and operational data.
• Develop dashboards or reporting tools to monitor key operational metrics.
• Establish processes that allow leadership to quickly identify problems and take corrective action.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives across production, warehouse, inventory, and fulfillment.

Leadership & Accountability

• Serve as a hands-on operational resource to executive leadership.
• Provide objective assessment of operational strengths, weaknesses, and risks.
• Establish clear ownership for operational issues and follow through to resolution.
• Monitor execution and ensure agreed-upon improvements are actually implemented.
• Communicate operational issues, trends, and recommendations clearly to leadership.
• Provide regular updates on progress, KPIs, challenges, and priorities.

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Key Performance Indicators

The Fractional Operations Manager / Director will help establish and improve measurable performance in areas such as:

• Production output and throughput
• Labor productivity and labor utilization
• On-time production and fulfillment
• Product quality and customer complaints
• Shipment rejections and quality-related deductions
• Product waste, spoilage, and shrink
• Inventory accuracy
• Inventory turnover
• Warehouse organization and utilization
• Order accuracy
• Picking and packing accuracy
• Employee productivity and attendance
• Training completion and operational compliance
• Cost per unit / cost per case
• Safety and operational compliance

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Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate will have:

• 7+ years of progressive operations leadership experience, preferably within food manufacturing, fresh food, produce, consumer packaged goods, distribution, or a related environment.
• Demonstrated experience managing manufacturing, packing, warehouse, inventory, and fulfillment operations.
• Experience working in fast-paced, high-volume environments.
• Strong understanding of inventory control and warehouse management.
• Proven ability to identify operational problems and implement sustainable solutions.
• Experience developing SOPs, KPIs, processes, and accountability systems.
• Strong knowledge of labor planning, staffing, scheduling, and productivity management.
• Experience leading supervisors, managers, team leads, and hourly employees.
• Strong understanding of food quality, product handling, and food manufacturing requirements.
• Excellent organizational and problem-solving skills.
• Strong communication and leadership abilities.
• A hands-on management style with the ability to work effectively with both executives and frontline employees.
• Ability to quickly establish credibility and gain the trust of an existing organization.

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Preferred Experience

• Food manufacturing or fresh produce operations
• Packhouse or packing-house operations
• Perishable inventory management
• Distribution center or warehouse management
• ERP/WMS/inventory management systems
• Lean manufacturing or continuous improvement
• HACCP, GMP, SQF, BRCGS, or similar food safety/quality systems
• Multi-shift operations
• High-growth or rapidly changing organizations
• Experience reorganizing or stabilizing underperforming operations

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What Success Looks Like

Within the first 30–90 days, the successful candidate should be able to:

1. Assess the operation and clearly identify the highest-priority operational issues.
2. Establish accountability for production, quality, inventory, warehouse, and labor performance.
3. Create structure and consistency around daily operations.
4. Identify and address root causes rather than continually reacting to problems.
5. Improve inventory accuracy and warehouse organization.
6. Reduce quality issues, waste, damage, and operational errors.
7. Improve communication between leadership, managers, supervisors, and frontline teams.
8. Implement measurable KPIs that provide leadership with visibility into performance.
9. Develop managers and supervisors so operational improvements are sustainable.
10. Leave the organization with repeatable systems and processes, rather than creating dependency on the fractional leader.

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Engagement

This is a fractional leadership position, with the expected time commitment determined based on the organization's operational needs. There is a strong emphasis on being physically present in the operation when assessing processes, implementing changes, training management, and establishing accountability.

The engagement may evolve over time as operational systems and leadership capabilities improve.

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Compensation

Compensation will be commensurate with experience and the scope of the engagement and may be structured as an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly fractional management arrangement.

This is an opportunity for an experienced operations leader to make a measurable impact by bringing structure, accountability, and operational discipline to a growing food manufacturing and distribution organization.

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How to Apply

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