FoodNerd - Operations Manager

About FoodNerd:

FoodNerd is a fast-growing food company based in Buffalo, New York, making organic, nutrient-dense foods using innovative processing methods designed to preserve the nutrients naturally found in our ingredients.

We sprout our own vegetable seeds, combine sprouts with real fruit ingredients, cold mold our products, freeze-dry them, package them, and ship them from our Buffalo facility. We’re still early in our journey, and that’s important.

We’re building and improving our manufacturing operation while we’re running it. Our equipment will change. Our technology will change. Our systems will change. The way we manufacture today won’t necessarily be the way we manufacture a year from now. We’re looking for an Operations Manager who thinks that’s exciting.

The Role:

The Operations Manager is the on-site leader responsible for making sure our production

operation performs every day. You’ll report directly to the COO and oversee a growing team of approximately 20-30 people

across two shifts, with four direct reports: a Sprouting Lead and Production Lead on each shift. This is not a desk job.

We expect you to spend approximately 90% of your time gowned up and on the production floor. You should know what’s happening in the facility because you’re there watching it happen, talking to the team, identifying problems, and making sure we’re executing against the plan. You’ll have significant ownership from day one. You’ll determine what we need to produce, set the daily production schedule, manage labor and productivity, monitor yield and scrap, minimize downtime, maintain inventory accuracy, oversee warehouse and shipping operations, and make sure the data in our ERP accurately reflects what’s happening on the floor.

You’ll also work closely with our Quality team to ensure our production processes and people consistently execute against our food safety and quality standards. When something isn’t working, we don’t just want you to report the problem. We want you to pull the thread, figure out why, and help solve it.

What You’ll Own:

Production

• Own daily production execution across both shifts, from sprouting through cold molding, freeze drying, packaging, and finished goods.
• Use our ERP and your knowledge of what’s happening on the floor to determine what needs to be produced and when, including managing upstream and downstream constraints throughout the production process.
• Set and communicate daily production schedules and ensure the team executes against them.
• Own production output and schedule attainment, labor productivity, yield, scrap, and downtime.
• Identify bottlenecks as they develop and take action to keep production moving.

People

• Lead four direct reports and oversee a growing production organization of approximately 20-30 people across two shifts. Set clear expectations and hold people accountable for meeting them. Coach and train team members when needed, provide feedback on performance, and work with other leaders on personnel decisions. Be willing to jump into the process yourself when the operation needs help. Leadership at FoodNerd doesn’t mean managing from an office.

Inventory, Warehouse, & Shipping:

• Own inventory accuracy across the facility. Ensure receiving, material movements, work-in-process, and finished goods are accurately tracked in our systems.
• Oversee physical inventory counts and help identify and resolve discrepancies.
• Oversee warehouse and shipping operations, including fulfillment of retail and e-commerce orders as applicable.

Systems & Data:

• Ensure production data is entered into our ERP accurately and on time, whether you’re entering it yourself or training and holding team members accountable for doing it.
• Accurate data isn’t administrative housekeeping here. It’s how we run the business.
• Our COO operates remotely and makes decisions based heavily on what our systems show.
• Part of your job is making sure the digital picture of our operation matches what’s actually happening on the production floor.
• When the data doesn’t make sense, don’t ignore it. Pull the thread, understand what’s happening, and solve the underlying problem.

Continuous Improvement:

• We don’t believe “that’s how we’ve always done it” is a particularly useful answer. We’re entering a stage of growth where, in many cases, we’ve never done it before.
• You’ll constantly look for better ways to operate.
• Our approach is simple:

• • Look at a process and identify a better way to do it.
  • Implement the better way.
  • Test it.
  • Evaluate the results.
  • Keep the improvement if it works, or go back and try something else if it doesn’t.
  • Standardize successful improvements and train the team.

That might mean improving a production process, changing a layout, reducing waste, solving an equipment bottleneck, developing a new SOP, improving an ERP workflow, automating a manual process, or finding an entirely different way to solve a problem. You’ll also help develop, document, implement, and enforce SOPs and standard work throughout the facility.

This Job Is for You If You Love:

• Having a visible impact on the business every single day.
• Being an impact player at a growing company where your ideas can actually change how the operation works.
• Building systems instead of simply inheriting them.
• Solving problems. You don’t need to already know every answer, but you need to be someone who will figure it out.
• Working somewhere where no two days are exactly the same.
• Being on the floor and close to the work rather than managing through spreadsheets and meetings.
• Leading people, setting clear expectations, and holding your team accountable.
• Rolling up your sleeves and helping when there’s a bottleneck or the team needs you.
• Using data and common sense together.
• Using AI as a tool to learn, troubleshoot, research, and solve problems you haven’t encountered before.
• Looking at a piece of equipment, process, or system you don’t understand and thinking, “I can figure this out.”
• Questioning whether there’s a better way instead of accepting “that’s how we’ve always done it.”
• Communicating comfortably with everyone from a production employee to the CEO and COO.
• Change. Our priorities, equipment, processes, technology, systems, and even our organization
• will continue to evolve as we grow. If that sounds energizing rather than frustrating, you’ll probably like it here.

What You’ll Bring:

We’re more interested in finding the right person than checking boxes on a résumé.

We’re generally looking for someone with:

• Approximately 3-5 years of hands-on manufacturing or production leadership experience, or equivalent experience demonstrating that you’re ready for this level of ownership.
• Experience directly leading people in a production environment.
• Comfort working with ERP systems, entering production information, and reading operational reports.
• Strong problem-solving skills and a willingness to dig into problems rather than simply escalate them.
• Comfort using AI tools as part of how you learn and solve problems.
• A track record of identifying opportunities to improve processes and actually implementing those improvements.
• The ability and willingness to spend the large majority of your day on the production floor.
• The flexibility to work across our two production shifts as the needs of the business require.
• Experience in food manufacturing or another GMP-regulated manufacturing environment is strongly preferred.
• Experience with FDA GMP requirements, food safety, traceability, lot control, or SQF is a significant plus.
• A particular degree isn’t required. We’re hiring the person, not the paper.

An Opportunity to Grow With Us:

This isn’t necessarily the job we expect you to have forever.

We’re building FoodNerd for significant growth, and as the company scales, the size, complexity, and leadership needs of our operations organization will grow with it.

For the right person, this role can be an opportunity to take a major step forward early in your career. Someone joining us today after several years as a Production Supervisor could grow well beyond an Operations Manager role as the company expands. We don’t promise titles on a timeline. We do believe in giving exceptional people more responsibility as quickly as they demonstrate they’re ready for it. If FoodNerd grows the way we believe it can, someone who excels in this position could find themselves one, two, or even three levels higher in the organization within the next several

years. If you’re looking for a mature organization where the next step on the career ladder is already defined, this may not be the right opportunity.

If you want the chance to help build that ladder, and potentially climb it quickly, we’d love to talk.

Schedule & Location

This is a full-time, salaried, on-site position at our Buffalo, New York manufacturing facility.

Our current production operation runs two shifts:

6:00 AM-2:00 PM

2:00 PM-10:00 PM

Your schedule will flex across both shifts based on the needs of the operation. We aren’t looking for someone to punch a clock at the same time every day. We’re looking for the person responsible for knowing what’s happening across the operation and making sure the team succeeds.

Compensation:

Expected base salary: $80,000-$100,000, depending on experience. We’re intentionally open-minded about the person we hire. If you’re an exceptional candidate who can make an outsized impact on FoodNerd, we’re willing to have a conversation beyond that range.