Senior Project Operations Manager

job purpose: 

The Sr. Project Operations Manager leads all plant-side operational readiness, startup, and commissioning activities for an expansion, serving as the bridge between project execution and steady-state operation to ensure a safe, compliant and high-performing transition.

responsibilities: 

• Lead plant-side operational readiness and startup for a major expansion by building and directing a cross functional team responsible for all activities required to successfully commission and transition new lines to steady state plant ownership.

• Serve as the primary liaison between the project organization and plant leadership, ensuring plant operational needs, risks, and insights are fully represented in project planning, design decisions, and execution.

• Own change management and communication to the plant, clearly translating project decisions, design changes, and operational impacts to plant teams while intentionally managing plant involvement in project forums to avoid disruption and overload. Engage plant leaders in critical discussions as needed to inform decisions and ensure readiness.

• Oversight of hiring, training, and SOP development aligned with the project timeline and production ramp up to ensure a successful handoff to the plant team.

• Ensure asset, maintenance, and material readiness by establishing reliable maintenance programs for all new equipment and systems, including, critical spare parts identification and inventory, preventive maintenance strategies and schedules.

• Coordinate and execute all plant infrastructure tie-ins, including utilities, access points, traffic patterns, and facility interfaces, ensuring activities are properly planned, communicated, and executed with minimal impact to existing operations.

• Ensure quality, safety, and environmentalreadiness by coordinating QA requirements including sanitary design reviews, validation activities, and QA equipment readiness.

• Ensuring all safety programs, environmental policies, permits, and regulatory considerations are incorporated into project planning and startup and applying existing plant safety and food safety standards to all new equipment and processes.

• Incorporate lessons learned and best practices from existing fairlife operations and prior expansions into design and execution, including participating in equipment FATs and benchmarking visits to other fairlife plants to validate design, readiness, and operational standards.

• Develop, align, and communicate startup and ramp up curves that meet business, quality, and service requirements.  Actively manage early life performance.

• Drive and measure startup success using defined KPIs, including EHS, product quality and regulatory compliance, employee engagement and morale throughout the change, production ramp up performance, and long-term equipment reliability during the first 2–3 years of operation.

skills/qualifications required: 

• Minimum of 10 years of progressive manufacturing or plant leadership experience, including direct involvement in major capital projects, startups, or commissioning.

• Experience in dairy, brewing, food, or pharmaceutical manufacturing; aseptic processing experience strongly preferred.

• Strong leadership capability with a track record of building trust, influencing cross functional teams, and delivering results.

• Ability to lead through ambiguity Demonstrated ability to identify and mitigate food safety risks associated with temperature sensitive raw materials such as milk.

• Demonstrated ability to analyze and reengineer operations and processes, develop policies, and design and implement effective strategies and procedures.

• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to engage stakeholders at all levels.

• Experience working with local, state, and federal regulatory agencies.

• Knowledge of budgeting, cost estimation, and fiscal management related to capital projects.

food safety requirements:

• Notify supervision of any repairs or adjustments that are required that may affect product quality or food safety.

• Understand, observe, and comply with the handling and usage of the color-coded container policy while in the Production Areas.

• Perform all duties necessary to meet Company, Customer and/or Government requirements/standards as prioritized by the Company.

• Ability to initiate action to prevent the occurrence of nonconformities relating to Food Safety and the Quality of the product, processes, quality system, or safety system.

• Identify and record any problems relating to Food Safety and the Quality of the ingredients, processes, quality system, or safety system.

• Control further processing or delivery of nonconforming product in terms of Food Safety and Quality issues until the deficiency or unsatisfactory condition has been corrected.

• In the event of absence, another employee with the same skill level will assume the duties and responsibilities as required.

how fairlife nourishes you:

At fairlife, we believe in better — and that includes how we support our people. We offer a comprehensive suite of benefits and wellbeing resources designed to support you physically, emotionally, socially, and financially, both in and out of work.

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, effective day one!

• Supplemental health plans (hospital indemnity, accident, and critical illness insurance)

• Paid Time Off to recharge and support work-life balance

• Paid parental leave & adoption assistance (up to $10,000)

• Parental support & family care benefits, including childcare resources and lactation support

• 401(k) to support retirement planning with up to 9% in employer match

• Wellness reimbursement (up to $500 for qualified wellbeing expenses)

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for emotional wellbeing and work-life support

• Company-paid life insurance and short-term disability

• Employer HSA funding (for HDHP participants)

• Tuition reimbursement (up to $10,000) and student loan repayment ($200/month)

• Learning & development programs to unlock your full potential

• Rewards & recognition, matching gifts, free product, and Business Resource Groups

fairlife’s nour!sh program is designed to meet you where you are — supporting your individual wellbeing journey while enabling you to do your best work every day.

position location: Coopersville, MI

reports to: Plant Director, Coopersville

travel requirements: up to 25%

exempt/nonexempt: exempt