Director of Operations

About the Role

Creations Foods is looking for a Director of Operations to lead the plant operating system at our Ferndale, WA facility. This is a hands-on leadership role with direct, full ownership of four core functions: Production, Maintenance, Warehouse & Logistics, and Purchasing. Reporting to the President, you'll lead through capable functional managers to build disciplined operating routines, drive measurable performance improvement, and protect food safety, quality, and customer commitments across a growing, multi-line food manufacturing business.

This role integrates the work of the Production, Maintenance, and Warehouse Managers rather than replacing their day-to-day ownership — setting priorities and standards, developing leaders, removing cross-functional barriers, and holding the operating organization accountable for results across shifts and departments. As a growing, small company, we need someone who works boots-on-the-ground, committed to spending real time on the floor, actively coaching managers, and stepping in hands-on wherever the business needs it. Expect this role to wear a lot of hats.

What You'll Do

• Lead, coach, and hold accountable the Production, Maintenance, and Warehouse Managers through clear expectations, scorecards, and consistent follow-up.
• Establish a disciplined daily, weekly, and monthly operating cadence — tiered meetings, visual management, and KPI review — so problems have an owner, a due date, and verified resolution.
• Partner with functional managers to build standardized operating systems (SOPs, work instructions, training controls, shift handoffs) that reduce reliance on tribal knowledge.
• Oversee production planning and scheduling, lead the sales & operations planning process, and drive schedule attainment and on-time, in-full performance.
• Improve throughput, changeovers, sanitation efficiency, and startup performance without compromising food safety, allergen, or quality requirements.
• Lead a prioritized continuous-improvement pipeline using structured root-cause analysis and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), yield, waste, and downtime data.
• Hold the Maintenance Manager accountable for preventive/predictive maintenance and reliability and develop a multi-year capital and reliability roadmap.
• Hold the Warehouse Manager accountable for inventory accuracy, traceability, material staging, shipment reliability, and freight/OTIF performance.
• Own Purchasing end-to-end for the business — buying processes, approval limits and purchase-order controls, supplier scorecards, pricing and payment-terms negotiation, minimum order quantities, lead times, and supply continuity — in partnership with R&D and Quality on ingredient and packaging qualification.
• Track material availability, purchase-price variance, inventory turns, and supplier performance, and escalate shortages or working-capital risks before they disrupt production or customers.
• Partner with the Quality Assurance Director to embed SQF, FDA cGMPs, FSMA preventive controls, and allergen/traceability requirements into daily operations, and own timely closure of corrective actions and audit findings.
• Support a proactive safety culture and Quality's authority to stop or hold production when requirements aren't met.
• Partner with R&D, Quality, Sales, and Finance on new product and customer launch readiness, from plant trial through post-launch stabilization.
• Manage operating, maintenance, warehouse, and purchasing budgets, and lead the consolidation roadmap for Baking and Moon Cheese operations.

What We're Looking For

• 10+ years of progressive manufacturing experience in food, snacks, bakery, or CPG, including 5+ years leading managers across multiple plant functions.
• Demonstrated success improving safety, schedule attainment, throughput, yield, waste, labor efficiency, and cost in a multi-line manufacturing environment.
• Experience building operating systems, management cadences, KPI scorecards, and accountability routines in a fast-scaling organization.
• Strong production-planning, inventory, warehouse, and supplier-management capability, with working knowledge of ERP/MRP, WMS, and maintenance-management systems.
• Hands-on purchasing/procurement experience — sourcing, supplier negotiation, PO controls, and managing purchasing against demand and cash requirements — sufficient to own the function directly, not oversee it.
• Working knowledge of SQF or another GFSI-recognized scheme, FDA current good manufacturing practices, applicable FSMA preventive-controls requirements, allergen/gluten-free/traceability controls, and OSHA requirements.
• Experience leading capital projects, equipment commissioning, and facility or line consolidation while protecting customer service and food-safety requirements.
• Financial acumen to manage budgets, understand product and conversion costs, evaluate ROI, and control working capital.
• Bachelor’s degree in Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, Food Science, Business, or a related field — or equivalent technical education and demonstrated industry experience.
• Direct, respectful, and credible leadership, with strong follow-through, practical problem-solving, and a willingness to work on the floor when needed.
• Comfort operating as a hands-on, boots-on-the-ground leader in a small, fast-growing company where the role spans well beyond a single function — from plant floor execution to purchasing to capital planning — and where priorities can shift quickly.
• Familiarity with EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) or a similar operating framework is a plus.

Preferred

• Commercial baking, cookies, crackers, or better-for-you snacks experience.
• Private-label/co-manufacturing, club, and national-retail customer experience.
• Lean or Six Sigma training.
• Experience leading a successful plant consolidation.

Additional Details

• Pay range $130K to $150K
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid time off and holidays
• 401(k) with company match
• Location: Ferndale, Washington (on-site).
• Job Type: Full-time.