Job Title
Head – Production & Plant Operations (Plant Protein & Starch Division)
Location: MIDC Pandare, Tal. Baramati, Dist. Pune, Maharashtra
Company: Confidential
Compensation: Salary No Bar for the Right Candidate
Email: [email protected]
About the Role
We are setting up a small scale state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for production of Plant Proteins, Native & Modified Starches, Dietary Fibre and Value-added Food Ingredients. We are looking for an experienced Production Engineer/Plant Operations Head who can independently establish, optimize and operate the entire manufacturing plant with world-class efficiency, quality and profitability.
This is not a routine production job. We are looking for a professional who takes complete ownership of production, continuously improves plant performance and consistently achieves production and quality targets.
Key Responsibilities
The selected candidate shall be fully responsible for:
Plant Operations
- Setting up the plant and machinery, procurement,
- Complete production planning and execution
- Achieving daily, weekly and monthly production targets
- Maintaining optimum plant efficiency
- Maximizing plant uptime
- Capacity utilization above 90%
- Process optimization
- Continuous improvement initiatives
Manufacturing
Experience in operating:
- Protein Extraction Plants
- Starch Separation Plants
- Decanter Centrifuges
- Disc Stack Separators
- Homogenizers
- Spray Dryers
- Flash Dryers
- Fluid Bed Dryers
- Milling Systems
- Pneumatic Conveying Systems
- Packaging Lines
- CIP Systems
- Boilers
- Air Compressors
- Chillers
- Cooling Towers
- Effluent Treatment Plant
Production Responsibilities
Responsible for:
- Raw material planning
- Shift planning
- Batch planning
- Production scheduling
- Yield optimization
- Reduction of process losses
- Product recovery improvement
- Water conservation
- Steam conservation
- Power consumption reduction
- Chemical consumption optimization
Quality
Responsible for ensuring:
- Consistent product quality
- Protein specification compliance
- Starch quality
- Moisture control
- Microbiological compliance
- GMP implementation
- HACCP compliance
- FSSAI compliance
- ISO 22000 implementation
- BRC/FSSC readiness
Process Optimization
Should continuously improve:
- Protein yield
- Starch recovery
- Product whiteness
- Solubility
- Powder flowability
- Bulk density
- Drying efficiency
- Powder recovery
- Cyclone efficiency
- Spray dryer performance
Maintenance Coordination
Coordinate with maintenance team for:
- Preventive Maintenance
- Breakdown Analysis
- Root Cause Analysis
- Predictive Maintenance
- Spare Planning
- Equipment Reliability
- OEE Improvement
Cost Control
Responsible for reducing:
- Production Cost
- Utility Cost
- Maintenance Cost
- Chemical Cost
- Labour Cost
- Product Losses
- Wastage
- Downtime
Team Management
Lead and manage:
- Production Engineers
- Shift Engineers
- Operators
- Helpers
- Utility Operators
- Packaging Team
Responsibilities include:
- Training
- SOP implementation
- Discipline
- Safety culture
- Productivity improvement
- Skill development
Documentation
Maintain:
- Batch Records
- Daily Production Reports
- Utility Reports
- Yield Reports
- OEE Reports
- Downtime Reports
- Maintenance Coordination Reports
- Quality Records
- CAPA
- SOPs
- Work Instructions
Desired Candidate ProfileEducation
BE/B.Tech in
- Chemical Engineering
- Food Technology
- Food Engineering
- Dairy Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering (with process industry experience)
M.Tech is an added advantage.
Experience
Minimum 10–20 years in one or more industries:
- Plant Protein
- Starch
- Food Ingredients
- Dairy Powder
- Spray Drying
- Solvent Extraction
- Food Processing
- Corn Wet Milling
- Pulse Processing
- Rice Protein
- Pea Protein
- Soy Protein
Candidates who have commissioned new plants will be preferred.
Technical Knowledge
Must possess hands-on knowledge of:
- Protein extraction
- Enzymatic processing
- Starch extraction
- Decanter operation
- Disc separator operation
- Spray drying
- Powder handling
- Utility management
- Steam systems
- Heat recovery
- Energy optimization
- Process automation
- PLC/SCADA
- Instrumentation
- VFD operation
Leadership Qualities
The candidate should:
- Take complete ownership of the plant
- Work independently
- Solve production problems quickly
- Build high-performance teams
- Maintain strict discipline
- Lead by example
- Be target-oriented
- Be data-driven
- Continuously improve systems
- Deliver measurable business results
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Performance will be evaluated based on measurable outputs, including:
- Achievement of monthly production targets
- Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) ≥ 85%
- Plant availability ≥ 95%
- Capacity utilization ≥ 90%
- Protein recovery meeting or exceeding design targets
- Starch recovery meeting or exceeding design targets
- First-pass quality acceptance ≥ 98%
- Customer complaints ≤ 0.5% of dispatched batches
- Spray dryer powder recovery ≥ 99%
- Production losses ≤ 2%
- Rework ≤ 1%
- Batch rejection = Zero (except approved deviations)
- Utility consumption maintained within approved norms
- Zero major food safety incidents
- Zero lost-time accidents
- Preventive maintenance compliance ≥ 95%
- Inventory accuracy ≥ 98%
- On-time completion of production plans ≥ 98%
We Are Looking For Someone Who
- Delivers results rather than excuses.
- Treats the plant as their own business.
- Can independently run a modern food manufacturing facility.
- Leads from the production floor, not just from an office.
- Is committed to continuous improvement and operational excellence.
- Can develop people, systems and processes while consistently achieving production, quality, cost and safety targets.
If you have a proven track record of commissioning, stabilizing and scaling food ingredient manufacturing plants, and can demonstrate measurable achievements in productivity, yield, quality and cost reduction, we would like to hear from you.
Pay: ₹20,000.00 - ₹100,000.00 per month
Benefits:
Work Location: In person
