Vertical Startup Manager

Vertical Startup Manager – Dough Products

The Vertical Startup Manager leads go-to-market efforts for new dough products, manufacturing lines, and equipment across both internal plants and contract manufacturing sites. This role serves as the critical link between product development, engineering design, and market execution, ensuring seamless commercialization and scalable success for all dough-related initiatives.

Operating in a corporate, cross-functional capacity, the Vertical Startup Manager partners closely with R&D, Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Marketing teams to translate innovation into operational and market-ready outcomes.

This is a remote position with regular travel to our dough manufacturing sites—especially Horse Cave, KY—to support launches, process validation, and continuous improvement initiatives.

The ideal candidate will be a strategic, results-driven leader with a strong track record of managing complex commercialization projects, aligning technical execution with business goals, and driving collaboration across diverse teams and locations.

Responsibilities

Commission/Validate/Start-up: Manage the transfer of new products, manufacturing lines and equipment into the plant through well-planned and executed commissioning, validation and vertical start-up processes. Start-up performance is the key responsibility for this role.

Project Management: Lead site-based, cross-functional project teams in a process that ensures all departments have aligned project deliverables that collectively deliver vertical start-up. Oversee timelines, budgets, identify and manage risks and escalate issues that the team is unable to resolve.

Internal Collaboration: Work closely with all plant departments to align to performance goals and resources that will ensure seamless integration of new products, manufacturing lines and equipment into the plant. Partner with the plant Quality department to gather the appropriate data and inputs needed to execute a successful Commercialization initiative. Lead the Pre-processing meeting for the manufacturing site and serve as the primary point of contact to coordinate the pre-processing activities with all stakeholders and departments.

Change Management: Envision, Enroll, and Execute the change management strategy to ensure that Commercialization initiatives are successful at the manufacturing site and that any changes to people, processes (including any technical processes and document control), and equipment are adopted and sustained.

Communication: Update Operations Leaders and the Plant Leadership Team and other key stakeholders on the status of projects, decision points, risk factors, and risk mitigation activities.

Start-Up Curve Management: Develop and monitor start-up curve. Identify variances to plan, facilitate improvement plans and update start-up curve as needed. Provide the Production Scheduling team with planning rates across the learning curve horizon.

Site Liaison: This position will play a key role as the site liaison with Corporate R&D, Commercial, Quality Assurance, and Engineering in the development of new products, manufacturing lines, and equipment to ensure they fit with the plant’s Operations Master Plan and can be efficiently manufactured.

Qualifications

Education: A bachelor’s degree in engineering, food science, food processing or a related field.

Experience:

5+ years of experience in consumer products supply chain

Proven track record of successful new product commercialization projects and new equipment startups

Demonstrated experience leveraging the vertical start-up process in project management

Experience in food manufacturing and leading plant trials is preferred.

Competencies

Competencies

Project Management

Communication

Collaboration

Organizational Savviness

Courage

Organizing

Workflow Management

Food Manufacturing Technologies

Manages Ambiguity

Change Management

Supply Chain Operations

Optimizes Work Processes

Regular Full-Time