Operations Manager - Feed Mill

Own the safe, efficient, and profitable operation of the Jerome feed mill by leading the operations team, maintaining full accountability for site execution, and aligning plant performance with commercial strategy.

This role is responsible for integrating operations, commercial priorities, and financial outcomes to maximize throughput, optimize product mix, and improve margin performance. While third-party resources may be utilized, the position emphasizes direct leadership, capability development, and operational ownership within Scoular’s workforce, ensuring the site operates as a scalable, performance-driven asset.

Success in this role is defined by the ability to operate the site as a fully integrated commercial and operational asset, where execution decisions directly drive profitability, scalability, and customer outcomes.

 

Site & Operations Leadership

• Provides overall operational leadership for the Jerome Feed Mill, directly managing production, maintenance, and logistics resources, with dotted-line leadership responsibility for quality and safety.
• Build and lead a high-performing site organization with clear accountability for safety, quality, reliability, and cost.
• Oversee and manage execution of 3rd party operations and logistics partners. Ensure all work is clearly scoped, performance-managed, and aligned to internal operating standards.
• Drive continuous improvement focused on throughput, yield, uptime, labor efficiency, and cost per ton.
• Identify operational bottlenecks and develop structured solutions using data driven decision making.
• Ensure compliance with all regulatory, food safety and Scoular standards.

 

Commercial Integration & Margin Optimization

• Serve as the primary bridge between commercial and operations teams to align customer commitments, inventory positions, and operational capabilities in support of asset utilization, customer service, and profitability.
• Coordinate inbound and outbound product flows to maximize asset profitability and net earnings.
• Manage facility capacity, storage allocation, and inventory positioning to support commercial objectives.
• Understand and monitor elevation rates, handling costs, and asset economics to optimize margin performance.
• Partner with traders and sales teams to ensure customer requirements are met while balancing operational constraints.
• Coordinate closely with railroads, truck carriers, and logistics providers to maintain efficient product movement and service levels.
• Oversee shipment execution and loading schedules to maximize throughput and minimize delays.
• Ensure commercial pipelines align with operational capabilities, inventory availability, and customer demand.
• Identify bottlenecks in the supply chain and proactively recommend solutions to improve service, asset utilization, and profitability.
• Provide daily visibility to commercial and operations leadership regarding inventory, shipments, capacity, and customer service risks.

 

Financial & P&L Ownership

• Own site-level P&L with clear accountability for margin performance, cost control and capital efficiency.
• Understand and manage key cost drivers including labor, energy, maintenance, materials and third party contracts.
• Translate financial performance into actionable operational improvements.
• Build and manage budgets, forecasts, and capital investment justifications tied directly to operational and commercial outcomes.
• Evaluate tradeoffs between throughput, cost, and product mix to maximize profitability.

 

People Leadership and Organizational Capability

• Lead, develop, and retain Scoular employees with a focus on building internal operational capability and ownership.
• Establish clear roles, expectations, and performance metrics across the site team.
• Build a culture of accountability, safety, continuous improvement, and operational discipline.
• Identify capability gaps and implement staffing, training, or structural changes to reduce reliance on third-party labor.
• Coach frontline leaders to connect daily execution with financial and commercial outcomes.

 

Cross Functional Leadership and Execution Alignment

• Serve as the on-site leader coordinating Operations, Maintenance, EHS, FSQ, HR, Supply Chain, IT, and Engineering.
• Ensure alignment across functions to support both operational execution and commercial outcomes.
• Build and maintain productive, trust-based relationships across internal teams and external partners to drive execution, remove barriers, and accelerate decision-making.
• Influence stakeholders across Operations, Commercial, Finance, and external service providers to ensure priorities are aligned and outcomes are delivered.
• Provide clear, data-driven updates to senior leadership on performance, risks, and improvement opportunities.
• Lead site execution against company priorities including cost reduction, growth initiatives, and operational excellence.

Qualifications

• Proven experience aligning operations with commercial strategy to drive revenue growth, cost control, and margin improvement.
• Experience managing both internal operations teams and external resources, with a demonstrated ability to build internal capability and reduce reliance on third-party labor over time.
• Experience building and leading high-performing teams with a focus on accountability, safety, and continuous improvement.
• Strong understanding of grain, feed ingredient, rail, and truck logistics, including inventory management, asset utilization, and commercial supply chain coordination.
• Proven ability to build productive, results-driven relationships across internal teams and external partners to drive execution.
• Working knowledge of FDA/FSMA, HACCP, and quality assurance programs for feed and grain manufacturing.
• Strong operational leadership combined with financial and commercial acumen; able to translate business priorities into operational execution.
• Independent and confident decision-maker willing to challenge when necessary.
• High integrity and trusted judgment.
• Clear communicator able to explain operational realities to non-operators.

 

Preferred

• Previous role as Plant Manager, Site Manager, Operations Manager, or Plant General Manager.
• Experience working directly with traders, merchandisers, sales teams, railroads, and transportation providers to optimize asset profitability and customer service.
• Hands-on experience with throughput optimization, yield management, shrink, energy, and maintenance cost control.
• Ability to challenge legacy practices using data-driven decision making.
• Experience translating P&L outcomes into operational changes.

 

Physical environment/working conditions:

• Scoular is a Drug-Free Workplace (for more information See the Drug Free Workplace Act of 1988 or your location’s Federal Workplace Poster)
• Scoular is an at-will employer. Employment is considered voluntary for employees and employers.
• This is a full-time job that may require occasional overtime.