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Job Description
Job Id:
1025
# of Openings:
1
Company Description: Instinct® is a rapidly growing, family-owned marketer and manufacturer of science based 100% natural pet food for dogs and cats. Instinct® is the Raw Brand, with a mission to get more raw nutrition into every bowl of dogs and cats, for proven healthier and happier long lives. Our company mission is to Empower people to transform the lives of pets. We are committed to hiring and developing a team of passionate, performance-oriented professionals who live by our 4 values of championing raw, empowered to make a difference, collaborating as one team, and striving for excellence through continuous learning and improvement. Our home office is located in St. Louis, Missouri with our Center of Excellence Raw Food kitchens in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Instinct® is part of the family-owned group, Agrolimen, who owns leading pet food and human food businesses in the US, China, Europe, and Africa.
Position Summary: This role reports directly to the Production Supervisor and is responsible for supporting the daily operations and sanitation activities within the Forming Department. The Hybrid Lead plays a key role in maintaining efficient production and sanitation processes to ensure operational effectiveness, compliance with food safety standards, and achievement of daily production goals. This position also supports efforts to consistently meet standard yield expectations and daily pounds-per-hour production targets. Additionally, the Hybrid Lead assists the Production Supervisor with training employees to perform their responsibilities safely, efficiently, and in compliance with company policies, GMPs, sanitation procedures, and food safety requirements.
Sign-on Bonus Eligible up to $2,000
Operational Job Responsibilities
- Daily oversight and hands-on guidance of the Forming Line.
- Lead operations to ensure standards, proper specifications, superior quality, and safety are maintained.
- Responsible for ensuring all daily paperwork is completed accurately and submitted on time, while monitoring and reporting production variances.
Sanitation Job Responsibilities
- Oversee daily sanitation activities withing the forming department to ensure compliance with USDA, FDA, and company food safety standards
- Enforce adherence to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), HACCP plans, and sanitation SOPs
- Ensure proper handling and disposal of raw materials, byproducts, and waste
- Monitor chemical usage, cleaning procedures, and sanitation documentation for accuracy and compliance
Leadership Job Responsibilities
- Responsible for communicating with supervisors and other shifts to maintain continuity in operations and gain an understanding of daily changes and issues that impact operations.
- Train, coach, and mentor team members on operational procedures, safety, and sanitation standards
- Promote a culture of safety, accountability, and continuous improvement
- Monitor employee performance and provide feedback to support development
- Ensure team compliance with PPE requirements and workplace safety policies
- Provide feedback to supervisor on the effectiveness of current and future staffing needs.
- Assist in onboarding new hires and cross-training employees across forming operations
- Act as the primary point of contact for team members during shift operations and escalate critical issues to management when necessary.
- Expected to step in and lead the team effectively in the Supervisor’s absence.
- Other duties as assigned.
Physical Requirements:
- Must be able to lift up to 65 lbs. on an occasional basis if needed to cover a position.
- Frequent squatting, kneeling, stooping, and bending.
- Must be able to perform in a manufacturing environment with temperatures of 30-45°F
Personal Attributes
- Develop relationships through the team.
- Ability to build effective teams.
- Understand major functions within the plant and maintain the ability to work directly with all levels and functions.
- High Values: integrity (do the right thing), encourager, courteous, respectful and trustworthy
- Team player: work effectively across levels and departments, cover responsibilities of others, and work holidays/weekends as needed.
- Highly driven: self-motivated, work with urgency, assertive and drive action
- Organized with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple things at once
- Effective verbal communicator
- Ability to deal with ambiguity and limited information
- Ability to remain calm in stressful and conflict situations
- Curious or inquisitive with the ability to challenge the status quo
Skills and Technical Expertise:
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office including Microsoft Project, spreadsheets, Outlook.
- Technical knowledge of processes, equipment, controls and products.
- Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of team building.
- Driving Continuous Improvement.
- Comprehensive knowledge of Food and Drug laws, OSHA requirements
- Strong understanding of food safety including GMP’s, SSOP’s and HACCP
- Employee safety knowledge (Knowing what you can do to keep yourself and others free from work injuries)
- Food safety and quality knowledge (Knowing what you can do to assure safe, high-quality food)
- Sanitation knowledge (Knowing what you can do to assure a clean facility, equipment and tools)
- Experience enforcing lockout/tagout (LOTO), PPE requirements, and safe chemical handling practices
.
Preferred Experience
- 1-2 years in a production leadership position.
- Demonstrated ability to manage daily production activities, ensuring output, quality, and efficiency targets are met.
- Experience leading cross-functional teams, including production operators and sanitation personnel.
- Proven ability to coach, train, and develop employees while managing performance and accountability.
- Hands-on experience with sanitation processes in a manufacturing environment .
- Experience operating, troubleshooting, or supporting forming and processing equipment.
- Understanding of machine changeovers, setup, and preventive maintenance coordination.
- Ability to identify and resolve mechanical or process-related issues in partnership with maintenance teams.
Compensation and Benefits: Highly competitive compensation package includes health and dental insurance, life and AD&D insurance, flexible spending accounts, health savings account, short and long-term disability, paid time off, Purpose Days off for company partner volunteer opportunities, and 401k with company match.
Our Instinct is to CHAMPION Diversity
At Instinct, we are as passionate about our people as we are about the pets we call family. We are committed to inclusion, empowerment, and respect. We believe that just like our pets, what sets us apart unleashes our greatest strengths. We thrive on the ability to not only empower people to transform the lives of pets through raw nutrition, but also to empower each other to inspire a culture that celebrates our differences. Our unique approach to pet food is what makes us who we are as a company, and our individual identities are what makes us a successful, innovative, authentic team.
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