Afternoon Shift Manager

|Food & Dairy - Production|New Zealand

The Company: Whittaker’s is New Zealand’s biggest chocolate manufacturer and has won New Zealand’s ‘Most Trusted Brand’ 14 times in a row.  They live by the belief that ‘best is always better’, insisting on using only the finest ingredients, the best methods, most precise machinery, and the best people to keep making good honest chocolate.

The Opportunity: Reporting to the Head of Production, the Afternoon Shift Manager is accountable for delivering exceptional production performance while fostering a safe, engaged, and high performing team environment.

Tasks will include, but are not limited to:

Production and Performance –

  • Leading safe, efficient and high-quality Finishing Operations
  • Ensuring SOP compliance and achievement of production targets
  • Optimising resources, managing schedules and driving accountability

Continuous Improvement –

  • Identifying and implementing process improvements
  • Reducing waste, improving reliability and lifting productivity
  • Engaging your team in practical problem solving

People Leadership –

  • Coaching, developing and managing team performance
  • Building capability and fostering positive, values-aligned culture
  • Managing employment relations professionally and fairly

Health, Safety & Quality –

  • Embed a safety-first culture and ensure compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015
  • Maintain audit-ready hygiene standards
  • Uphold Whittaker’s world-class quality and food safety expectations.

Please note: This role will require flexibility to swap shifts and cover the dayshift from time to time.

 
You, the candidate: With 60-70 staff reporting into this role, it is critical that the candidate bring strong leadership experience from a busy FMCG environment and confidence in leading diverse teams.

The successful candidate will also possess the following skills and attributes:

  • Minimum of 3 years’ experience in a similar manufacturing leadership role – food industry highly preferred
  • Qualification in Manufacturing, Logistics, Project Management or Quality
  • Proven people management experience
  • Strong data analysis capability
  • High level of organisational and time management skills
  • Confident in leading diverse teams, including employees with English as a second language
  • A values driven, hands-on leadership style

Bring your manufacturing leadership experience to a values led business committed to excellence. This is a pivotal role that will drive production performance, champion safety and build strong teams for NZ’s ‘Most Trusted Brand’.

 
Apply: To apply for this role, please select the relevant “Apply” button”. Alternatively, please contact Maya Carpenter-Salvador on maya@trs.co.nz with a copy of your CV. We look forward to hearing from you!

Please note: To be eligible for this role, you must hold current working rights in NZ. You must also be willing to undertake and return a satisfactory Ministry of Justice Criminal History check and undergo a pre-employment medical including a Drug & Alcohol Screening.