Director of Production Planning & Operations

Director of Production Planning & Operations Location: Butter Beans Kitchen, Greater New York City Area Reports to: VP of Operations About Healthy Bites Collective Healthy Bites Collective is a national K–12 food service platform uniting four regional leaders: Healthy Lunch Box (Houston), Twelve Oaks Catering (Dallas), Butter Beans Kitchen (New York), and Gourmet Gorilla (Chicago). Together, we bring decades of experience delivering high-quality, compliant, and student-focused meal programs. Serving a diverse mix of public, private, and specialized schools, our collective leverages local relationships and cross-state expertise to provide tailored, efficient, and culturally responsive nutrition services. Schools benefit from our hands-on support and the innovation of a nationwide team committed to excellence in school nutrition. The Opportunity Healthy Bites Collective is seeking an experienced Director of Production Planning & Operations to lead production planning and drive operational excellence at Butter Beans Kitchen, a high-volume commissary producing approximately 30,000 meals per day for schools across the greater New York City area. This role is ideal for a production leader who thrives in a high-volume environment and treats inefficiency as a problem to be engineered out. Reporting to the VP of Operations, this position owns end-to-end production planning, scheduling, and daily execution across procurement coordination, kitchen, packaging, and distribution. The Director will elevate the facility into a mature, systems-driven operation and build a food-safety-first culture, with clear accountability for yield, food cost, labor efficiency, on-time delivery, and audit-ready compliance. This is a builder role focused on making the operation measurably better, not simply keeping it running. Key Responsibilities · Own the master production schedule, translating menu, volume, and delivery forecasts into daily and weekly production, packaging, and labor plans for a large, high-volume kitchen operation · Drive measurable improvement in labor productivity, yield, food cost, and throughput through process redesign, line balancing, and workflow standardization · Establish standardized recipes, batch sizes, yields, and production standards, and hold adherence across shifts · Own the facility food safety program, including HACCP plans, SOPs, sanitation and temperature controls, allergen management, and traceability, always keeping the operation audit-ready · Ensure compliance with all local, state, and federal regulations related to food safety and nutritional standards, including applicable National School Lunch Program (NSLP) production and record-keeping requirements · Coordinate with procurement to align purchasing, inventory turns, and cost targets with production capacity · Track, analyze, and report KPIs (cost per meal, labor efficiency, yield, on-time delivery) · Implement production and inventory controls and daily management routines (shift huddles, tiered accountability, visual management) · Manage, staff, and develop the production, packaging, warehouse, and sanitation teams across shifts, and build bench strength through cross-training and documentation Qualifications & Experience · 4-7 years of experience in large scale food production and kitchen or commissary operations · Demonstrated track record of measurably improving efficiency (labor, yield, food cost, throughput, or on-time delivery) · Strong understanding of production planning systems, scheduling, and logistics · Familiar with HACCP, USDA, and local health codes; hands-on experience owning food safety programs and passing regulatory and third-party audits · Experience managing budgets, cost targets, and KPI dashboards · Continuous-improvement experience (Lean, Six Sigma, or equivalent) is a plus · Experience in school food service or NSLP is a plus · Strong leadership, organizational, and communication skills · Passion for child nutrition, health equity, and…

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