Plant Manager - Cooked Meats/Smokehouse (1139423)

Location: Beaumont, TX

Pay

$100,000.00 USD Annually - $130,000.00 USD Annually

About the role

Food manufacturer in the Beaumont, TX area is seeking a highly skilled Plant Manager to lead end-to-end manufacturing, thermal processing, and packaging operations at their cooked meats facility. This role is responsible for driving operational excellence, maximizing product yields, and mentoring a high-performing team. The ideal candidate brings deep technical expertise in meat science, smokehouse operations, formulation, and strict regulatory compliance (USDA/HACCP) for ready-to-eat (RTE) products to ensure the highest standards of food safety and efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Daily Operations: Direct and optimize all daily plant operations, including raw material receiving, formulation/injection, stuffing, thermal processing (smokehouse), chilling, slicing, and final packaging.
• Thermal Processing Management: Oversee thermal processing cycles, ensuring precision in smokehouse cook schedules, relative humidity, internal core temperatures, and rapid chilling phases to control microbiological activity.
• Yield Optimization: Manage formulation and yield tracking (injection percentages, shrink control, cook loss) to optimize margins without sacrificing product texture or flavor.
• Regulatory Compliance: Maintain an audit-ready facility, ensuring flawless compliance with USDA-FSIS, HACCP, SQF/GFSI, and GMP regulations. Act as the primary plant liaison with on-site USDA inspectors.
• Food Safety & Sanitation: Enforce strict sanitary zoning principles, particularly in raw vs. cooked/RTE high-care areas, to eliminate cross-contamination and pathogen risks.
• Team Leadership: Direct, coach, and develop Production Supervisors, Maintenance Managers, and Sanitation leads, while fostering a proactive "Safety First" culture across all shifts.
• Financial & Asset Management: Own the plant’s operational budget and P&L variables. Partner with Maintenance to ensure preventative care for high-capital equipment like smokehouses, continuous chillers, and high-speed slicers.

Qualifications

• Experience: 5 to 8 years of progressive operations leadership experience in a meat processing facility, with at least 3 years directly managing smokehouse, thermal processing, or cooked/ready-to-eat (RTE) meat operations.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Meat Science, Agribusiness, or a related engineering field is preferred; equivalent extensive meat-processing leadership experience will be heavily considered.
• Regulatory Expertise: Deep, demonstrable knowledge of HACCP, USDA regulations, and GFSI/SQF standards specific to cooked proteins.
• Technical Knowledge: Robust understanding of smokehouse mechanics (e.g., airflow, smoke generation methods), meat chemistry (brine calculation, protein binding), and high-speed packaging equipment.
• Leadership Skills: Proven track record of managing plant budgets (P&L), implementing Lean or Continuous Improvement methodologies, and building a strong, accountable workplace culture.