Operations Business Manager (Manufacturing)
Summary of Position:
The Operations Business Manager, Bars (OBM), oversees daily business operations, optimizes processes, and ensures efficiency and productivity for the bars business. This role collaborates closely with cross-functional teams—including the bars technical team, bars marketing team, and operations—to successfully deliver bars innovation from concept through stable launch.
The OBM ensures the technical team remains on track to meet deadlines and critical milestones, supporting successful development, commercialization, and start-ups. Key responsibilities include developing and implementing operational procedures, managing projects, monitoring KPIs, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. The OBM also contributes to the development and execution of long-term operational strategies.
Functions of the Position:
- Coordinates technical, business, and operations teams to ensure successful new product development, trials, and project start-ups. Responsibilities include coordinating line support for plant trials, ensuring start-up readiness, and scheduling and leading technical team meetings. Distills critical action items and ensures timely completion. Collaborates with Operations to understand and communicate current bars line capabilities and future needs. Serves as the main point of contact for decisions/input on the line during bar start-up production runs and leads the transition from development to production.
- Partners with operations and engineering to assess the overarching bar line network and evaluate future production capabilities and needs. Collaborates with demand planning, operations, engineering, and R&D to develop recommendations for production that best leverage current capabilities and capacity. Translates future production forecasts and capacity opportunities into critical workstreams and drives implementation timelines to reallocate the network strategy.
- Leads troubleshooting and solution development for the technical team during development, scale-up, and start-up. Elevates broader issues and challenges to secure resources. Represents and influences both plant and business teams, translating needs across functions and advocating for the technical team to business leadership.
- Coordinates technical team communication, sharing updates, escalations, and progress across technical, operations, and business teams.
- Leads projects to optimize line performance, including margin enhancement, cost savings, and de-bottlenecking initiatives.
Education, Experience, and Knowledge:
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience required
- 3–5 years of experience in a manufacturing OBM or similar role leading cross-functional teams
Skills and Competencies:
- Proactive problem solver with a strong sense of ownership
- Strong team leadership skills with the ability to lead collaboratively and cross-functionally
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to collect, analyze, and interpret data, and distill it into actionable workstreams
- Skilled at influencing and persuading outcomes without direct authority
- Effective time management skills with the ability to prioritize work under strict deadlines
- Adaptable to changing business needs and able to embrace new ways of working
- Strong relationship-building skills across a wide range of stakeholders
- Demonstrated ability to make effective decisions based on available information, with clear understanding of risks and trade-offs
Additionally, we provide a comprehensive benefits package that reflects our commitment to support the well-being of our colleagues and their families. This includes health benefits, professional growth support, generous paid time off benefits to support work/life balance, retirement benefits, and other programs to support financial wellness. A full listing of our extensive benefits package can be found on our company website, located here: https://jbssinc.com/careers/.
JBSS is an Equal Opportunity Employer:
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.
