Operations Director - Food Processing

About the role

Sunbeam Foods, part of Manassen Foods Group, is looking for an Operations Director to lead a major operational transformation. Based in Mildura and reporting to the General Manager of Manassen Foods Group, the role sets and delivers the operational strategy for Sunbeam and Angas Park and is accountable for performance across Mildura and Loxton, including safety, quality, service, cost and capital investment. You will lead eight leaders across fruit supply, processing, manufacturing, engineering, quality and warehousing, within a team of more than 150 employees.

Key responsibilities

• Set and deliver a multi-year operational strategy and transformation roadmap with clear governance and measurable benefits.
• Build a proactive safety culture with strong controls, risk assessments and incident investigations, and hold food safety, quality and product compliance from receival to dispatch, audit ready.
• Embed a site-wide operating system based on daily management, KPI ownership, production control, standard work and structured problem solving, using data to lift throughput, yield and labour productivity while reducing waste, downtime and cost.
• Lead S&OP so fruit availability, quality constraints, inventory, labour and capacity come together in seasonal, monthly and weekly plans, backed by a flexible seasonal labour model.
• Strengthen inventory accuracy, ageing, stock rotation and specification visibility, and release working capital on slow-moving or obsolete stock.
• Develop an asset reliability strategy with preventive maintenance, shutdown planning, critical spares control, root cause analysis and a prioritised lifecycle capital plan.
• Own the operational budgets and P&L across labour, manufacturing, maintenance, inventory, overheads and capital, and explain cost drivers in financial terms.
• Build leadership depth, frontline capability and succession, with clear decision rights and regular communication.
• Oversee local and imported fruit supply with growers and fruit teams, and partner with Supply Chain, Commercial, Finance, Quality and Technical leaders.

Required profile

• Senior operations leadership in food, FMCG, agricultural processing or another seasonal manufacturing business.
• Record of leading sustained operational transformation with results in safety, service, throughput, yield, waste or cost.
• Hands-on knowledge of manufacturing, engineering, maintenance, quality and warehousing, including variable-quality raw materials.
• Commercial strength: P&L ownership, budgeting, forecasting and capital prioritisation.
• Experience leading a large, varied, seasonal workforce, including in a unionised environment and through enterprise agreement negotiations.
• Tertiary qualification in engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, operations or business, or equivalent senior experience; Lean or Six Sigma training is well regarded.

The role sits within the Manassen Foods Group Executive Leadership Team. Applications are made through the recruiter, Miller Leith.