Sr. Director Operations

About Us

The Marzetti Company (Nasdaq: MZTI) manufactures and sells specialty food products. Our retail brands include Marzetti® dressings and dips, New York Bakery™ garlic breads, and Sister Schubert’s® dinner rolls, in addition to exclusive license agreements for Olive Garden® dressings, Chick-fil-A® sauces and dressings, Buffalo Wild Wings® sauces, Arby’s® sauces, Subway® sauces, and Texas Roadhouse® steak sauces and frozen rolls. Our food service business supplies sauces, dressings, breads, and pasta to many of the top restaurant chains in the United States.

At Marzetti, our mission is to make every meal better through high-quality, flavorful food. Led by our purpose, to nourish growth with all that we do, our team members are dedicated to creating great tasting food and cultivating deep and lasting relationships.

The Senior Director of Operations has direct leadership of the assigned manufacturing facilities with overall responsibilities for employee safety, quality/food safety, environmental, schedule attainment, raw material/package inventory, cost and innovation. This role will be responsible for driving value creation throughout the manufacturing organization and the supporting functions of Procurement, Finance, Quality and Safety. This improvement will require the application of proven leadership skills in building effective operations teams, establishing effective management practices and processes and coaching the team to greater levels of sophistication and performance.

This role will provide input to execute the network strategy (what should be made where and by whom). He/she will continue to deploy leading practices across the plant system, e.g., Lean/Six Sigma to improve safety, service, capacity, and total cost performance and ensuring that their teams are aligned to, engaged in, and driving a culture of continuous improvement. This role has significant impact on the volume and profitability of the business, leading operations of significant size, scope and complexity.

• Establishes and communicates a vision, purpose and strategic direction for manufacturing operations.
• Establishes and communicates a culture of employee engagement, safety and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) efforts for assigned facilities, leading their teams through this journey to deliver results.
• Champions and actively drives Marzetti Operational Excellence, process standardization and best practices.
• Develops standards, establishes expectations and maintains technical knowledge of plant manufacturing.
• Ensures manufacturing objectives and productivity commitments are achieved through each of the facilities within their area(s) of responsibility.
• Coordinates with the cross functional business teams to identify and implement enhancements to products and systems to maximize profitability and product quality goals.
• Develops cost-effective control systems over capital expenditures and assets, operating expenditures, manpower and labor, scaling initiatives based on future needs.
• Monitors system wide performance for compliance to production, quality and safety.
• Coaches and holds Plant Manager accountable for exhibiting fiscal responsibility. Controls and minimizes overtime labor costs, maintenance/repair costs, downtime and product re‑
• Provides leadership to achieve near and long‑term schedule attainment targets.
• Oversees capital investments, recommending replacement or refurbishment. Anticipates future capital needs based on projected business volumes.
• Ensures all locations are complying to all federal, state and local laws and company standards.
• Provides direction, development, evaluation, coaching and leadership to plant managers and management.
• Supports succession planning and maintains staff by recruiting, selecting, orienting, and training. Identifies and develops personal growth opportunities for plant managers and next level middle managers.
• Selects and retains qualified operations leaders/subordinates.
• Maintains strong employee engagement, corporate and community relationships.
• Ensures facilities/co‑packers maintain company standards for cleanliness, productivity, and quality.
• Ensures compliance to…