Process Manager - Lichfield Cheese Plant - Taupo & Southern Waikato - 11796 - Fonterra

Job Name

Process Manager - Lichfield Cheese Plant

General Information

Date Published

30-May-2025

Advertising Ends

13-Jun-2025

ID#

11796

Role Type

Manufacturing

Work Type

Permanent Full-Time

Workplace Type

On-site

Country

New Zealand

Location

Taupo & Southern Waikato

Position Description

Our Co-operative

Fonterra’s strength is in the collective | Te Mātāpuna toa takitini

Here at Fonterra, we are committed to growing our people. We value you and your career progression and are excited that you are taking this next step in your career journey with us. We are proud to offer a wide variety of roles across the Co-op, ensuring that no matter what business unit or stage of life you're in, there's a good chance we've got something to suit.

About us | Ko wai mātou

Our Lichfield site sits in the heart of the Waikato, manufacturing a range of products including whole milk powder, whey protein concentrate and whey protein isolate used in medical and nutritional products, as well as a range of award winning cheeses exported internationally to a global market

Nestled between Hamilton and Rotorua Lichfield is central to Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Taupo and Waitomo and offers the perfect blend of work-life balance.

About the opportunity | Te whiwhinga mahi

As Process Manager for our Cheese Plant at our Lichfield site, you will inspire a large, diverse team to deliver world class manufacturing performance of our plant.

This is an opportunity to play an integral role as part of the Leadership team, including the responsibility of leading and coaching a large team to deliver the day-to-day business objectives and strategic continuous improvement of operations.

Reporting to the Plant Manager and working closely alongside another Process Manager and wider department Leaders, you’ll lead and engage the team to optimise our operations and deliver sustainable performance.

With your authentic nature and influencing ability you will bring our team on a successful journey in creating an outstanding culture around food quality, people and safety whilst increasing reliability and efficiency.

Other key responsibilities include:

Responsible for components of production planning
Supporting the leadership team for the sustainable performance improvement of the plant including yields, costs, quality and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) as well as staff performance, capability building and engagement.
Creating a proactive health and safety culture that ensures a safe workplace that meets compliance requirements.

About you | Ko wai koe

To be successful in this role you will be an inspirational people leader who thrives in a changeable environment, with a passion for maintaining high performance, leading change and continuous improvement.

With a natural ability to build high performing engaged teams and influence diverse groups of stakeholders, you will build and strengthen key relationships across the site and wider business.

Previous experience in a plant and manufacturing process and leading teams will be an advantage.

You will be a sound communicator, a decision maker and be able to build effective relationships.

In addition to this you will have:

Relevant degree or equivalent work experience in manufacturing processes
Proven track record in building team capability and performance
Ability to drive and implement new initiatives, deliver results, and manage change
Experience in successful change management and operational performance improvement
Strong business acumen with complex problem solving and lateral thinking skills.

Are you excited about this opportunity but may only meet some requirements?

That's not a problem. We are committed to growing our internal talent and building a diverse workplace; therefore, we are open to looking at applicants with excellent transferable skills. If that's you, we encourage you to apply as you may be the right candidate for this role or one of our other opportunities.

Sound good to you? We like to see as many jobs as possible filled by our talented existing team, so if you are interested, please apply now so we can continue to solve for better, together.

You, me, us together. Tᾱtou tᾱtou.

#LI-LT1 #LI-JW

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