Sr Director Manufacturing Food & Industrial Ingredients US & Canada

Ingredion

Full-time - Senior

501-1,000 employees

Food Manufacturing

About the position

The Senior Director, Manufacturing, Food & Industrial Ingredients, US/Canada will play a pivotal role in shaping the manufacturing strategy to align with the overall business growth strategy of Ingredion. This position requires a leader with high emotional intelligence and a growth mindset, who is customer-centric and capable of developing an operating strategy that supports business objectives. The strategic capability of this leader will be a critical differentiator, ensuring that manufacturing operations enable projected growth. This role is responsible for overseeing the development and execution of a comprehensive manufacturing strategy that delivers a competitive advantage in the market. In this capacity, the Senior Director will lead a workforce of approximately 1000 employees across six manufacturing facilities in the United States and Canada, managing operations that generate revenue of $2.3 billion. The individual will drive continuous improvement initiatives in manufacturing, focusing on production, cost efficiency, quality, safety, and environmental compliance. The objective is to ensure world-class operations that deliver high-quality, cost-effective products to customers in a timely manner. Core responsibilities include managing manufacturing facilities to meet safety, quality, environmental, and production targets while optimizing production mix and minimizing costs. The Senior Director will lead the safety agenda to achieve zero accidents and incidents, deliver net structural savings to improve manufacturing cost positions, and implement strategies to meet Ingredion's sustainability goals. Additionally, the role involves fostering alignment among key leaders on the multi-year implementation plan for the Ingredion Performance System, ensuring compliance with environmental regulations, and proposing network optimization efforts to enhance utilization and return on invested capital across the region. This transformational leader will champion best practices, drive innovation, and build a talent culture that emphasizes the importance of superior talent in achieving superior results. They will be responsible for developing and mentoring manufacturing teams to ensure capability and succession planning, while also representing Ingredion both internally and externally within the regional scope.

Responsibilities

• Manage manufacturing facilities to achieve safety, quality, environmental and annual production targets, while optimizing production mix and deploying the lowest delivered cost alternatives.
• Lead and drive the Safety agenda to ensure Zero accidents or incidents within the role scope.
• Deliver NSS (Net Structural Savings) commitment to improve manufacturing cost position in all areas.
• Implement strategies to meet Ingredion's sustainability goals.
• Foster alignment and support among key leaders on the multi-year implementation plan for IPS (Ingredion Performance System - Ingredion's Lean and Continuous Improvement system).
• Ensure full compliance in the Environmental area and oversee related projects to ensure operations continuity and compliance.
• Propose and lead network optimization efforts to ensure best level of utilization and ROIC (Return on Invested Capital) across the region.
• Champion new processes, remove barriers, and adapt current processes to facilitate improvement.
• Partner with Commercial, Innovation, R&D, Supply Chain, and other functional teams to identify innovative ways to reallocate production capacity to new products.
• Develop the organization's capital needs and work with the plants to identify the most strategic and efficient use of capital.
• Ensure that the Plants are in full compliance with all local regulations and corporate policies.
• Support all programs for the overall health, safety, and security of employees and facilities.
• Build and grow the organization to create a best-in-class Operations function by leading the team with rigor and pursuit of excellence.
• Create a talent culture founded on the belief that superior talent delivers superior results; scout for the best people, drive performance, coach transparently, and build strong teams globally.
• Push to continually drive personal and organizational results, make timely decisions that benefit Ingredion globally, and benchmark external best practices to outperform the competition.
• Challenge the status quo and promote bold thinking to create value in new ways across customers, processes, products, and solutions.
• Develop and mentor manufacturing teams to ensure appropriate capability and talent bench strength and succession plans in the region to meet business goals.
• Build strong relationships with Innovation and Strategy groups and prepare deployment plans for new products and capabilities.

Requirements

• Leadership experience in Manufacturing, Lean/Continuous Improvement, Procurement and Supply Chain roles in complex business-to-business environments, preferably in food or chemical industries.
• Degree qualified in relevant Engineering or Science subject; MBA is a plus.
• Demonstrated Plant Management experience, ideally coupled with strong Supply Chain understanding.
• Strong functional knowledge of Operations best practices.
• Successful track record in leading sizable and multiple manufacturing sites across different countries/regions and effectively managing multicultural teams locally and remotely.
• Excellent communication skills at all levels of the organization, from executives to shop floor employees.
• Fluent written and spoken English.
• Ability to travel up to 50%.

Nice-to-haves

• Demonstrated self-starter with strong leadership skills and a high degree of integrity.
• Leadership potential for development into future positions.
• Growth Mindset
• People Leadership
• Talent Coach and Developer
• Drive for Results
• Business Acumen
• Strategic Agility
• Customer Focused
• Ability to build and lead high performing teams.
• Data driven, ability to analyze and draw conclusions from complex data.
• Ability to influence various stakeholders.

Benefits

• Relocation assistance available within the country.