Chief Production Officer

This role is onsite and can be based at either our Louisville or Bardstown, KY offices.

What the Role Is

Reporting directly to the Co-President, the Chief Production Officer (CPO) at Heaven Hill will be a key member of the executive leadership team. The CPO will maximize the operations/manufacturing organization’s growth and profitability through insightful leadership, effective management, employee development, and a strong focus on continuous improvement systems and processes.

This role will provide the leadership, vision, strategy, and direction across the following business units:

• Bottling Plant and Heaven Hill Springs Distillery – Bardstown, KY
• Bernheim Distillery – Louisville, KY
• Deep Eddy Vodka Distillation and Bottling - Buda, TX
• TJC Carolans - Dublin Ireland
• Black Velvet Distillation and Bottling – Lethbridge Canada
• Additional responsibilities include: aging bourbon warehouse facilities, distribution facilities, trucking fleet, purchasing and supplier relations, contract manufacturing operations, corporate engineering and new product development.

How You Will Spend Your Time?

• Provide strategic direction and leadership to achieve production goals, quality standards, and cost effectiveness for multi-plant manufacturing operations including Bottling Operations, Distillation, Supply Chain, Engineering, Quality, New Product Development and Barrel Warehousing
• Lead the cultural transformation to a Lean/CI culture, driving continuous improvement in operational performance to support the company’s growth plans with a focus on employee ownership for health, safety, and security of our facilities, streamlining business and production processes, improving quality, and reducing operating costs.
• Optimize manufacturing footprint, driving manufacturing initiatives that align to strategic and corporate goals.
• Implement and enforce best practices in manufacturing processes to enhance efficiency and productivity in union and non-union facilities
• Create compelling vision and lead continuous improvement culture, driving organizational change within the organization, enabling Heaven Hill to continuously improve performance.
• Build and lead a high-performing manufacturing team, fostering a culture of accountability, teamwork, and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Select, develop, and mentor direct reports to achieve business goals through coaching, mentoring and servant leadership, promoting professional development aligned with strategy to grow our people.
• Lead managers and direct reports to evaluate and take actions consistent with the company’s overall strategy.
• Review financial statements, sales and activity reports, and other performance data to measure productivity and corporate goal achievement and determine necessary Operational actions.
• Direct and coordinate organization's financial and budget activities to fund operations, maximize investments, and increase efficiency.
• Identify opportunities for cost savings through process optimization and resource efficiency.
• Identify and drive implementation of corporate departmental policies, goals, objectives, and procedures, conferring with executive leadership team members, and staff members as necessary.
• Participate as key member of Heaven Hill Executive Leadership Team, providing insight into operations/manufacturing results and trends, contributing to strategic decision making, providing recommendations to leadership, and guide efforts to support organizational change while balancing corporate and department priorities.
• Maintain up-to-date understanding of industry trends and technical development.

Who You Are…

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business or related field; MBA preferred.
• Global manufacturing executive with a minimum of 10 years’ experience gained through increasingly responsible leadership roles in manufacturing with significant leadership and progressive operational, manufacturing, and managerial experience.
• Familiarity with Lean Manufacturing principles and other continuous improvement methodologies.
• Demonstrated ability to influence/drive change.
• Excellent leadership and communication skills with a track record of building and leading high-performing teams in union and non-union facilities.
• Strong leadership and management capabilities with the ability to manage change and effectively lead a manufacturing organization, both union and non-union environments
• Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership techniques, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Ability