Associate Director, Technical Services - Snacks

Location: USA - Remote; 75% travel required.

Salary: $131,700–$181,100 target base salary range for a full-time salaried position.

Company

hirify.global is a food manufacturing company with a portfolio of established snack and food brands, including Goldfish, Kettle Brand, Lance, Pepperidge Farm, and Snyder’s of Hanover.

What you will do

• Lead the development and deployment of technical capability programs that improve process health, product design, manufacturability, product quality, safety, and cost for Snacks brands.
• Lead technical service leads, industrialization leads, and/or Quality Engineers through innovation, business continuity, Lean Six Sigma, scale-up, and vertical start-up projects.
• Set project risk profiles, manage technical readiness, build contingency plans, and coordinate with Quality, Manufacturing, R&D, plant, commercialization, and senior management partners.
• Develop technical readiness playbooks, trial-readiness standards, post-launch scorecards, loss models, process-health programs, capability benchmarks, diagnostics, and validation frameworks.
• Develop employees through hiring, performance management, training, coaching, mentoring, and recognition while promoting safety, accountability, empowerment, teamwork, and continuous improvement.
• Develop communication plans covering commercialization, industrialization, technical readiness, project updates, business objectives, results, and initiatives.

Requirements

• B.A. degree in Food Science, engineering, or a comparable technical field.
• At least 10 years of process development, process engineering, manufacturing operations, or project management experience in a manufacturing environment, preferably food manufacturing, including people management experience.
• Ability to travel 75% of the time.
• Knowledge of commercialization processes and plant execution requirements.
• Solid understanding of process development, process scalability, and in-process measurements required for technical readiness.
• Ability to overcome resistance to organizational change, influence others, lead change initiatives, manage multiple projects, and prioritize according to business needs.
• Ability to build rapport with employees at all organizational levels and interface effectively with plant functions and Corporate Senior Management.
• Ability to train diverse salaried and hourly employee groups by adapting training programs and presentation styles to the audience.

Nice to have

• Cross-functional experience with a record of delivering successful business results.
• Knowledge of OSHA standards, HACCP guidelines, Good Manufacturing Practices, and related requirements.
• Passion for identifying continuous improvement opportunities and leading initiatives that deliver bottom-line results; change-agent experience.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including formulating action plans from real data; Six Sigma training is preferred.
• Excellent verbal and written communication, training, and facilitation skills.
• Computer proficiency with Windows-based applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; SAP, Minitab, or statistical analysis experience is a plus.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment.

Culture & Benefits

• Remote role with extensive travel and collaboration with plant and commercialization teams.
• Medical, dental, disability, AD&D, and life insurance benefits begin on the first day.
• Matching 401(k) plan with first-day enrollment and immediate vesting.
• Unlimited sick time, paid time off, and holiday pay.
• Employee Resource Groups and a company donation and volunteer matching program of up to $1,500 annually.