Guided Search Partners (GSP)
Guided Search Partners is an Executive Search firm built on Trust, Transparency, Specialization, and Long-term Relationships.
We connect high-performing professionals with organizations that value people, performance, and growth, helping leaders find roles where they can make an impact and build meaningful careers.

About the Opportunity
We’re supporting a search for a Plant Manager with a large food manufacturing operation in Pennsylvania. This is a high-visibility leadership role at a flagship sauce facility. The plant needs a strong people leader who can bring the management team together, strengthen accountability, improve KPI ownership, and lead a partially transformative rebuild across the operation.

What You’ll Do
You’ll lead the full plant operation with responsibility for people, performance, accountability, and financial results.

Key areas of focus include:

• Lead a large, 24/7 food manufacturing operation
• Own full plant Profit & Loss responsibility
• Bring the management team together into one cohesive group
• Strengthen leadership accountability and KPI ownership
• Reduce silos across departments and improve plant-wide collaboration
• Lead and develop the plant leadership team
• Drive performance across production, engineering, maintenance, continuous improvement, and process engineering
• Partner with EHS and Quality leadership
• Support a transformative site environment and ongoing operational improvement
• Lead a flagship sauce manufacturing operation with high organizational visibility

Who You Are
You are a proven plant leader who knows how to bring people together, establish accountability, and lead through change.

You are comfortable operating in a large food manufacturing environment and can balance people leadership with full P&L responsibility. You are willing to hold teams accountable while building a more cohesive leadership culture across the facility.

Preferred Experience & Attributes
• Strong plant leadership experience
• 10+ years of Plant Management experience preferred
• Food manufacturing experience
• Experience with sauces, dressings, marinades, emulsions, or other pourable products is ideal
• Full P&L leadership capability
• Experience leading large manufacturing teams
• Strong people leadership and accountability skills
• Experience improving leadership alignment and reducing organizational silos
• Bachelor’s degree preferred, but not required
• SAP experience
• TraceGains experience

Why This Role Matters
This facility is the company’s flagship sauce site and has significant visibility across the organization. The plant has good people who want to improve, but the leadership team needs stronger direction, accountability, and alignment. The incoming Plant Manager will have the opportunity to bring the organization together and lead meaningful performance improvement across the site.