Plant Manager / Production

Who We Are

We're a leading Northeast family-owned food, agricultural products, and agricultural services organization headquartered in Pennsylvania. We provide animal nutrition and feeds; specialty protein production, processing, and marketing; on-farm protein production services; and grain, fertilizer, and ingredient procurement. Leidy's is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Wenger Group since 2022. Leidy's is a 130-year-old pork company located on the family farm in Pennsylvania, where Jacob Leidy was deeded the original land grant by William Penn in 1753.

We're a stable company with strong core values, great benefits, competitive wage structure, and a safe and healthy work environment. With over 1000 team members, we're a growing company in an essential sector – agriculture!

Learn more here: https://www.thewengergroup.com / https://www.leidys.com

Key Responsibilities

Safety & Regulatory Compliance

• Champion and enforce all plant safety programs, including LOTO, machine guarding, PPE, ergonomics, and hazard mitigation.
• Ensure full compliance with USDA/FSIS regulations, HACCP, SSOP, GMP, and other food safety requirements.
• Oversee pre‑operational inspections, CCP monitoring, metal detection programs, calibration systems, and labeling accuracy.
• Maintain cold‑chain integrity and sanitary conditions across all departments.
• Lead audit readiness and ensure proper documentation for USDA, third‑party, and customer audits.

Operations & Production Leadership

• Direct all plant operations to meet or exceed production schedules, throughput targets, and customer demand.
• Monitor plant-wide KPIs including yields, labor efficiency, waste, giveaway, downtime, and first‑pass quality.
• Optimize staffing levels, equipment utilization, and line configurations to maximize productivity.
• Manage daily production planning and communicate changes across departments.
• Ensure consistent adherence to product specifications (cuts, weights, packaging, labeling).

People Leadership & Culture

• Lead, develop, and coach supervisors, leads, and frontline employees across all shifts.
• Drive accountability for performance, attendance, and adherence to company policies.
• Foster a culture of safety, teamwork, and continuous improvement.
• Oversee employee training programs including SOPs, equipment operation, food safety, and knife safety.
• Conduct regular leadership meetings, shift reviews, and communication sessions.

Quality & Food Safety

• Partner closely with Quality Assurance to manage product integrity, deviations, holds, and customer complaints.
• Ensure all process controls are followed and non‑conformances are prevented or corrected.
• Lead root‑cause analysis (e.g., 5‑Why) and corrective/preventive action implementation.
• Drive continuous improvement in product quality and compliance metrics.

Continuous Improvement & Efficiency

• Identify and lead initiatives to improve yield, reduce waste, minimize downtime, and enhance throughput.
• Support Lean manufacturing, 5S, and standard work implementation across the facility.
• Encourage employee engagement in improvement ideas and problem-solving efforts.

Reporting & Systems Management

• Oversee accurate reporting of production metrics including yields, labor usage, downtime, and inventory.
• Ensure ERP/MES systems are properly utilized with accurate data entry for production counts, scrap, and rework.
• Maintain traceability and documentation required for regulatory and internal audits.

Qualifications

• High school diploma required; Bachelor’s degree in Operations, Food Science, or related field preferred.
• 5–10 years of progressive leadership experience in food or meat processing, including plant-level management.
• Strong knowledge of USDA/FSIS regulations, HACCP, SSOP, GMP, and food safety systems.
• Proven ability to lead large teams in a fast‑paced, high‑volume production environment.
• Strong communication, leadership, decision‑making, and problem‑solving skills.
• Experience with ERP/MES systems and production reporting tools preferred.

Work Environment

• Cold, wet, high‑speed food production environment with exposure to raw meat and USDA oversight.
• Required use of PPE (cut‑resistant gloves, coats, hearing protection, etc.).
• Ability to work flexible hours including early mornings, evenings, weekends, and extended hours as needed.
• Frequent standing, walking, and lifting (up to 50 lbs).

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