Job Description

Project Plant Manager | Dietary Supplement Facility Build-Out

About the Opportunity

Our client, a growing nutritional supplement manufacturer, is hiring a hands-on leader to take a new softgel manufacturing and bottling facility from concept to full operation. You'll own the project from start to finish: the site master plan, site selection, facility design, equipment selection, utilities and facility support, construction in an existing (brownfield) building, hiring and training, and commissioning, qualification, and validation (CQV). You'll work with internal stakeholders and an outside engineering firm, and partner with Production, Supply Chain, Quality, R&D, Maintenance, and Engineering to deliver a modern facility on time and on budget. When the build is complete, you'll step into the role of Plant Manager and run the site you built.

What You'll Do

• Lead the core project team and the cross-functional workstreams that carry out the project plan through a defined startup date
• Give regular progress updates to the steering committee and the board, and bring their input back into the plan
• Manage the technical side of the project, including risk, budget tracking, dependency mapping, and changes in scope
• Work with Engineering and general contractors on equipment selection, specification, purchasing, factory acceptance testing (FAT), installation, CQV, and site acceptance testing (SAT) for manufacturing equipment and facility systems
• Partner with the EHS Manager to design ergonomic workspaces and set up job safety analyses, procedures, and safety training
• Work with Maintenance and Manufacturing to put strong TPM practices in place, covering preventive and autonomous maintenance, so new equipment performs well from day one
• Build automation and visual management into the plant layout to improve flow, reduce waste, and make production status easy to see
• Support integration between processing equipment, packaging equipment, OEE tracking, MES, SCADA, and enterprise reporting
• Oversee the creation of SOPs, work instructions, one-point lessons, troubleshooting guides, startup and shutdown procedures, and equipment manuals
• Bring in Industry 4.0 capabilities, such as connected equipment, data collection, cloud analytics, predictive maintenance, and AI tools

What You Bring

Education

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical, chemical, or industrial engineering, or in operations management

Experience

• 5 to 7+ years of hands-on capital project management on large projects ($50M to $100M+), including new-site construction for softgel manufacturing
• 5 to 7+ years of plant management experience, preferably with P&L responsibility
• 5+ years in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, supplement, or food industries
• Experience with cleanrooms and low-humidity drying environments, including specialized HVAC
• Working knowledge of FDA, cGMP, and NSF compliance and certification requirements
• Hands-on experience with batch and continuous compounding, encapsulation, drying, and bottling lines, plus robotic downstream packaging
• Hands-on experience with automation and control of Clean-In-Place (CIP) systems, including cycle validation and optimization
• Familiarity with Industry 4.0, IoT, smart factory solutions, and data analytics platforms
• Strong problem-solving skills and a proactive approach to improving equipment and cleaning processes
• Clear communication and the ability to work with Production, Engineering, Maintenance, Quality, and IT
• Strong project management skills and the ability to juggle several priorities; PMP certification preferred
• Lean certification (Green Belt or Black Belt) highly desirable

Personal Qualities

• Positive, enthusiastic, and friendly
• Innovative, able to look beyond standard solutions
• Detail oriented, organized, and dependable
• Takes initiative to make decisions and solve problems

Tools

• MS Project, AutoCAD, MS Office, Google Workspace, SAP