Operations Manager - Feed Mill

About The Role

Own the safe, efficient, and profitable operation of the Jerome feed mill by leading the operations team, maintaining full accountability for site execution, and aligning plant performance with commercial strategy. This role is responsible for integrating operations, commercial priorities, and financial outcomes to maximize throughput, optimize product mix, and improve margin performance.

Site & Operations Leadership

• Provides overall operational leadership for the Jerome Feed Mill, directly managing production, maintenance, and logistics resources, with dotted-line leadership responsibility for quality and safety.
• Build and lead a high-performing site organization with clear accountability for safety, quality, reliability, and cost.
• Oversee and manage execution of 3rd party operations and logistics partners. Ensure all work is clearly scoped, performance-managed, and aligned to internal operating standards.
• Drive continuous improvement focused on throughput, yield, uptime, labor efficiency, and cost per ton.
• Identify operational bottlenecks and develop structured solutions using data driven decision making.
• Ensure compliance with all regulatory, food safety and Scoular standards.

Commercial Integration & Margin Optimization

• Serve as the primary bridge between commercial and operations teams to align customer commitments, inventory positions, and operational capabilities in support of asset utilization, customer service, and profitability.
• Cook and manage inbound and outbound product flows to maximize asset profitability and net earnings.
• Manage facility capacity, storage allocation, and inventory positioning to support commercial objectives.
• Understand and monitor elevation rates, handling costs, and asset economics to optimize margin performance.
• Partner with traders and sales teams to ensure customer requirements are met while balancing operational constraints.
• Coordinate closely with railroads, truck carriers, and logistics providers to maintain efficient product movement and service levels.
• Oversee shipment execution and loading schedules to maximize throughput and minimize delays.
• Ensure commercial pipelines align with operational capabilities, inventory availability, and customer demand.
• Identify bottlenecks in the supply chain and proactively recommend solutions to improve service, asset utilization, and profitability.
• Provide daily visibility to commercial and operations leadership regarding inventory, shipments, capacity, and customer service risks.

Financial & P&L Ownership

• Own site-level P&L with clear accountability for margin performance, cost control and capital efficiency.
• Understand and manage key cost drivers including labor, energy, maintenance, materials and third party contracts.
• Translate financial performance into actionable operational improvements.
• Build and manage budgets, forecasts, and capital investment justifications tied directly to operational and commercial outcomes.
• Evaluate tradeoffs between throughput, cost, and product mix to maximize profitability.

People Leadership and Organizational Capability

• Lead, develop, and retain Scoular employees with a focus on building internal operational capability and ownership.
• Establish clear roles, expectations, and performance metrics across the site team.
• Build a culture of accountability, safety, continuous improvement, and operational discipline.
• Identify capability gaps and implement staffing, training, or structural changes to reduce reliance on third-party labor.
• Coach frontline leaders to connect daily execution with financial and commercial outcomes.

Cross Functional Leadership and Execution Alignment

• Serve as the on-site leader coordinating Operations, Maintenance, EHS, FSQ, HR, Supply Chain, IT, and Engineering.
• Ensure alignment across functions to support both operational execution and commercial outcomes.
• Build and maintain productive, trust-based relationships across internal teams and external partners to drive execution, remove barriers, and accelerate decision-making.
• Influence stakeholders across Operations, Commercial, Finance, and external service providers to ensure priorities are aligned and outcomes are delivered.
• Provide clear, data-driven updates to senior leadership on performance, risks, and improvement opportunities.
• Lead site execution against company priorities including cost reduction, growth initiatives, and operational excellence.

About You

• Proven experience aligning operations with commercial strategy to drive revenue growth, cost control, and margin improvement.
• Experience managing both internal operations teams and external resources, with a demonstrated ability to build internal capability and reduce reliance on third-party labor over time.
• Experience building and leading high-performing teams with a focus on accountability, safety, and continuous improvement.
• Strong understanding of grain, feed ingredient, rail, and truck logistics, including inventory management, asset utilization, and commercial supply chain coordination.
• Proven ability to build productive, results-driven relationships across internal teams and external partners to drive execution.
• Working knowledge of FDA/FSMA, HACCP, and quality assurance programs for feed and grain manufacturing.
• Strong operational leadership combined with financial and commercial acumen; able to translate business priorities into operational execution.
• Independent and confident decision-maker willing to challenge when necessary.
• High integrity and trusted judgment.
• Clear communicator able to explain operational realities to non-operators.

Preferred

• Previous role as Plant Manager, Site Manager, Operations Manager, or Plant General Manager.
• Experience working directly with traders, merchandisers, sales teams, railroads, and transportation providers to optimize asset profitability and customer service.
• Hands-on experience with throughput optimization, yield management, shrink, energy, and maintenance cost control.
• Ability to challenge legacy practices using data-driven decision making.
• Experience translating P&L outcomes into operational changes.

Physical environment/working conditions

Scoular is a Drug-Free Workplace (for more information See the Drug Free Workplace Act of 1988 or your location’s Federal Workplace Poster). Scoular is an at-will employer. Employment is considered voluntary for employees and employers. This is a full-time job that may require occasional overtime.

About Scoular

We are a $7 billion company filled with problem solvers and compassionate leaders committed to revolutionizing the future of agriculture. With 1400 employees and over 100 offices and facilities across North America and Asia, you can count on Scoular people. We are committed to building a culture of real inclusion for all employees. We support customers and communities around the globe and believe our workforce should reflect that diversity. Scoular Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) connect, support, and empower our people. Learn more about diversity and inclusion commitments here.

Our Benefits

• Competitive health plans that begin on the employee's first day -- there's no waiting period so you can be your best from the very beginning.
• On top of your competitive base pay, you'll have an incentive opportunity, 401k safe harbor and additional company match.
• Your hard work and dedication deserve a break. In addition to our 12 paid holidays, you'll receive vacation, sick and wellbeing time off.
• We give you the opportunity to revolutionize your community. With 8 hours of paid volunteer time every year. We encourage team members to give back and make a social impact.
• This position is eligible for annual incentive opportunities based on business and individual performance.