Production Supervisor (Night Shift) - AeroFarms

AeroFarms is looking to hire a Production Supervisor (Nights), at our Danville, VA Farm.

The world needs our help. Today 8 billion people live on the planet with less arable land than ever before. We need a solution to cultivate more using less and define the future of farming for generations to come.  

AeroFarms is part of that solution, transforming agriculture with people and planet in mind. As a Certified B Corporation and pioneer in indoor vertical farming, we use our proprietary technology to grow produce using up to 95% less water and no pesticides ever. The result is a portfolio of products that burst with flavor, taste, and nutritional value. Leading the industry, AeroFarms has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies five years in a row, topped Fortune Magazine’s 2022 Change the World Company List, and was recognized as one of the 95 “Brands The Matter” by Fast Company.  

Now in over 1,000 stores across the United States, we are scaling our award-winning brand and technology around the world. As AeroFarms approaches our next phase of explosive growth, we seek passionate and motivated individuals to join our team. If a group of 300 intellectually curious coworkers, expansive global operations, and our change-the-world mission resonates with you, apply today. Learn more about AeroFarms and join us to change the world as we grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity. 

Reports to:

Operations Manager

Primary Stakeholders:

Plant Leadership Team, Head Grower, Maintenance Team, Engineering Team, Training Team, Food Safety & Quality Assurance (FSQA), Safety, and Human Resources.

Collaborating with:

Packaging, Harvesting, Seeding, Sanitation, Shipping, Grow Room Teams

About this role:

A key part of our operational leadership team, this salaried role is primarily based on the production floor to drive operational excellence across all departments at our food manufacturing facility. You will be responsible for leading, training, developing, and motivating the team to deliver consistent results and collaborating with management to address challenges at the root. Delivering high quality product, in a people and safety-first approach is integral to how we operate.

What you’ll do

• Lead day-to-day operations on production floor under the guidance of the Shift Operations Manager and the Plant Manager.
• Serve as the subject matter expert on all production equipment and processes within the facility, including dependencies between departments to drive success.
• In partnership with the Training team, deliver training and guidance to grow our team and help develop new production employees.
• Troubleshoot all equipment and support area Team Leads when issues arise and re-deploy staff as needed to maximize operational efficiency.
• Mentor, train, and motivate production team including Team Leads, Technicians, and Operations to achieve daily production targets and KPIs shared from Plan of the day.
• Ensure team adheres to OSHA, GMP, USDA, and FSQA requirements with a continuous improvement mindset.
• Ensure smooth transition and hand over between shifts with overcommunication of reportable metrics and challenges.
• Partner with operations managers and all shift supervisors share insights 
• Communicate issues to maintenance and engineering teams to support goal of 100% operational uptime and communicate hazards to safety leader, and quality issues to FSQA department.
• Help in the development of new SOPs and training materials, sharing information with the training and Operations leadership team.
• Resolve daily personnel issues professionally, escalating to Human Resources as needed.
• Solve problems at their root, recommending solutions for equipment, people, and process and working with cross functional teams to deploy them.
• Provide daily target goal reports to Operations Manager as well as other daily reporting as requested.
• Manage adherence of reporting of employees on shift and advise Operations Manager of infractions as well as performance evaluations.
• Participate in daily production meetings as well as other meetings as required.
• Assist with daily pre-shift team huddles and provide clear plan of the day for all departments

What you’ll bring

• Bachelors/Associates degree with 3 years in a supervisory role with 8 direct reports, or 6 years of experience in a supervisory role with GED.
• Leadership experience including experience in hiring, performance management, and employee relations in a manufacturing environment.
• Ability to motivate and engage a diverse hourly associate team to build a positive, diverse, and collaborative work environment.
• Experience working with and supervising a diverse, hourly, skilled-labor workforce in an operational capacity (manufacturing, production, food, etc.)
• Able to work in 34F, and 78 to 80F work environments (our plants need to be a nice warm temp to grow, but once harvested we need them to be cold for product shelf life)
• Ability to work 12-hour days, on a rotating 2/3/3 schedule working alternate weekends.
• Proficiency in using Microsoft office suite, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and Forms on computers and tablets.
• Ability to use HMI/touch screen control panels to run automated equipment and heavy machinery.
• Ability to be standing and or walking within manufacturing area for most of the shift interfacing with plant staff.
• Dependability in reporting on time for all scheduled shifts and to lead by example

Bonus Requirements/Skills

• Experience in food or pharmaceutical manufacturing
• Experience in a plant start up
• Experience developing SOPs and training material

Summary of Benefits:

Base salary, annual company/performance bonus, eligible for equity, matching 401k with no vesting period, 3 weeks of vacation/sick time/PTO, group health plan including medical, dental, vision etc, and paid family leave policy (after 1 year of service)

*Please note that AeroFarms does not work with any external staffing/recruitment vendors. Any unsolicited resumes shared with the AeroFarms team will be considered property of AeroFarms and no recruitment fees of any kind will be paid or owed unless an existing recruitment agreement exists alongside with specific engagement for the role in question.

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