Production Manager

About Us:

As a leading provider of high-quality food and beverage ingredients, we work with farming communities across the globe to grow, source and produce ingredients that are good for consumers, farmers, and the world around us. We supply household food brands and manufacturers worldwide with cocoa, coffee, dairy, nuts and spices ingredients which are often grown on our own farms and estates and sourced from hundreds of thousands of farmers across 50 countries. Along with our diverse manufacturing and innovation capabilities, this means we can provide ingredients for a range of products, from a plant-based latte mix to an almond-based snack bar or a dairy-free ice cream. Making a positive impact on people and planet is a core component of our Purpose, to be the change for good food and a healthy future. With a deep-rooted presence in the countries where our ingredients are grown, we are closer to farmers, enabling better quality, and more reliable, traceable, and transparent supply. And whoever we're with, whatever we're doing, we always make it real.

About Food & Beverage Solutions:

We have launched a new platform called Food and Beverage Solutions, part of our ingredients and solutions reporting unit. This platform consolidates our current category solutions capabilities and innovation infrastructure. We support customers in developing new consumer concepts and application solutions at our four customer solution centres in Amsterdam, Bangalore, Chicago, and Singapore. Food and Beverage solutions leverages the strengths of our five product platforms, including their global and sustainable supply chain capabilities, a complementary portfolio of high-quality food and ingredients, and extensive ingredient expertise. This enables us to address a diverse range of customer requirements in the rapidly evolving Food and Beverage industry. Built on deep consumer, category, and application understanding, we are enhancing our application and R&D capabilities to provide an end-to-end integrated customer experience. This opens up more on-trend and inspired product ideation opportunities. Together, we can co-create product innovations that delight consumers and make your ambitions a reality.

Overview of the role:

The Production Head will take full ownership of the end-to-end manufacturing operations of our Balagtas facility, ensuring safe, efficient, and reliable production that meets customer requirements, internal specifications, and regulatory standards.

This is a critical leadership role that combines operational discipline, technical expertise, and strategic vision to drive productivity, cost efficiency, and continuous improvement across our growing solutions manufacturing operation. The Production Manager will work closely with Supply Chain, Quality, Engineering, and R&D to embed operational excellence across the full manufacturing process — from raw material intake through to finished goods dispatch — while enabling the sustainable growth of ofi's Food & Beverage Solutions business in the Philippines.

Key responsibilities:

Production Planning & Line Execution

• Own the translation of sales forecasts and material plans into clear, executable production schedules.
• Drive daily and weekly production planning, ensuring alignment with demand, capacity, and material availability.
• Optimize line scheduling to minimize changeovers, maximize throughput, and ensure full-batch utilization.
• Maintain tight control over daily execution, addressing deviations in output, downtime, or quality in real time.

Operations Performance & Cost Control

• Drive production efficiency across all lines with clear focus on throughput, yield, and labor productivity.
• Monitor manufacturing cost drivers including labor, utilities, and material losses, taking action to stay within budget.
• Lead structured initiatives to reduce waste, improve yields, and optimize conversion costs.
• Partner with Finance to track cost performance and proactively identify improvement opportunities.

People Management & Shopfloor Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop Production Supervisors and plant operators to deliver consistent, high-quality performance.
• Ensure appropriate staffing levels, shift coverage, and effective deployment of manpower across production lines.
• Drive strong discipline and adherence to SOPs, work instructions, and production standards.
• Build a performance-driven culture with clear accountability for output, quality, and safety at every level of the production team.

Quality, Food Safety & Compliance

• Ensure strict adherence to quality and food safety standards, GMP, and product specifications across all operations.
• Partner closely with the Quality team to ensure consistent product output and full audit readiness at all times.
• Drive root cause analysis and corrective actions for quality deviations and customer complaints.
• Maintain full compliance with company standards and all applicable regulatory requirements.

Safety & Risk Management

• Enforce all plant safety procedures with zero tolerance for unsafe practices or behaviors.
• Lead incident investigations and implement robust corrective and preventive actions.
• Ensure safe operations across all production lines, equipment, and material handling processes.
• Drive continuous improvement in safety awareness, culture, and measurable performance outcomes.

Continuous Improvement & Plant Optimization

• Lead continuous improvement initiatives across production — including downtime reduction, process efficiency, and 5S implementation.
• Identify and implement opportunities to improve capacity utilization and operational flow.
• Support new product introductions and process scale-ups within the plant, working alongside R&D and Quality.
• Build structured routines and KPI frameworks to drive sustained operational improvements.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Supply Chain to ensure alignment between production plans, inventory levels, and material availability.
• Partner with Engineering and Maintenance to improve equipment reliability, uptime, and overall plant performance.
• Collaborate with Quality to maintain consistent product standards and regulatory compliance.
• Provide regular performance updates and operational insights to the Plant Manager and business leadership.

Qualifications & profile:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Industrial Technology, Chemical Engineering, or a related technical field; MBA is an advantage.
• Minimum 8–10 years of manufacturing experience, ideally within a food, food & beverage solutions, or FMCG environment.
• Demonstrated success in managing production operations, multi-line teams, and plant performance at a supervisory or managerial level.
• Strong understanding of production planning, process efficiency, and manufacturing cost management.
• Sound working knowledge of GMP, food safety standards (e.g., HACCP, ISO 22000), and applicable regulatory requirements.
• Strong leadership capability across both frontline operators and supervisory teams, with a track record of building accountable, high-performing teams.
• Analytical mindset with the ability to use operational data and KPIs to drive sound decisions.
• Adaptable, hands-on, and comfortable operating in an entrepreneurial, fast-scaling manufacturing environment — someone who takes ownership and builds structure where it does not yet exist.

ofi is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to racial or ethnic origin, color, age, religion or belief, sex, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.