Operations Manager
About The Bread & Butter Project
The Bread & Butter Project (TBBP) is Australia’s first social enterprise bakery. Founded in 2013 by Paul Allam and David McGuinness of Bourke Street Bakery, TBBP runs a year-round wholesale bakery in Sydney with approximately 30 employees and 140 graduates.
Mission
To empower refugees through paid training, employment and support, using our bakery as a platform for social inclusion, confidence-building, financial independence and long-term opportunity.
TBBP reinvests 100 per cent of profits into the trainee program, which combines on-the-job production training, English-language tutoring and job-readiness support.
The Position
The Operations Manager is responsible for running the bakery safely, compliantly and efficiently, so that TBBP delivers reliably for its customers. Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the role carries a clear operational mandate to:
- Lead manufacturing to meet production, quality, safety and service objectives.
- Own WHS and food safety accreditation, and build the culture that sustains both.
- Drive productivity, waste reduction and cost management.
This is a hands-on, floor-based role. It combines the discipline of a food manufacturing operation with the responsibility of leading a workforce that includes refugee trainees at the start of their Australian working lives. It offers the distinctive reward of building an operation whose performance directly funds training and employment outcomes for refugees.
Position Context
Position title
Operations Manager
Reports to
Chief Executive Officer
Direct reports
Bakery production team (supervisors, leading hands and bakers); Quality Assurance; Packing; Maintenance
Key stakeholders
Sales & Marketing, Program, Finance and Admin
Location
Sydney, on-site at our Marrickville bakery
Employment type
Full-time
Key Accountabilities
Deliver the mission
- Run an operation that creates real, supported training and employment for refugees.
- Work with program coordinators to support onboarding, skills progression and wellbeing support for trainees, consistent with TBBP’s mission.
- Provide the operational stability the program depends on, through predictable rosters, safe workplaces and quality work, so that people can build a career.
Work health and safety
- Ensure compliance with all WHS legislation, organisational policies and procedures, and safety standards.
- Drive a strong WHS culture through visible leadership, risk assessments, hazard identification, incident investigation, corrective actions and continuous safety improvement.
- Ensure safety systems and inductions are understood by a workforce with varied language backgrounds and experiences, including trainees new to a manufacturing environment.
Food safety, quality and compliance
- Own food safety accreditation (HACCP), including internal and external audits and corrective action close-out, in partnership with the Quality Assurance Team.
- Ensure manufacturing operations consistently meet customer, regulatory, quality and food safety requirements.
- Consistently maintain the workplace to be audit-ready at any time.
- Ensure compliance with company policies, procedures and delegated authority limits.
Manufacturing and daily operations
- Lead and manage day-to-day manufacturing and operational activities to achieve production, quality, safety and service objectives.
- Ensure effective labour planning and resource management to meet operational requirements.
- Manage stock ordering and inventory levels to maintain high service availability whilst minimising holding costs.
- Manage equipment and asset upkeep, including preventive maintenance scheduling and minimising unplanned downtime.
- Support new product development and test and expand capacity, in collaboration with the commercial and bakery development teams.
People, leadership and culture
- Develop and maintain a high-performing operational culture focused on teamwork, accountability, engagement and continuous improvement.
- Lead, coach, mentor and develop operational teams and frontline staff to build capability.
Performance, improvement and reporting
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on productivity, labour efficiency, waste reduction, downtime reduction and cost optimisation.
- Monitor and improve key operational metrics - throughput, yield, labour utilisation, waste, downtime and service levels.
Success Factors
Success in this role will be evident when:
- There are no serious safety incidents, and leading indicators such as hazards reported, actions closed, and near-miss reporting demonstrate ongoing improvement.
- Food safety accreditation is maintained, audits are passed and corrective actions are closed within agreed timeframes.
- Waste, labour cost per unit and unplanned downtime are falling, while throughput and yield are rising.
- Customer service levels are consistently met, so that the Sales Team can win and hold accounts on quality and reliability rather than price.
- Trainees progress through skills levels and into sustained employment, supported by a stable, well-led operation.
- Frontline leaders are capable and confident, and the bakery can still run smoothly when the Operations Manager is not on site.
Skills, Experience and Attributes
Essential
- Demonstrated experience leading day-to-day operations in a food manufacturing environment, including direct leadership of frontline teams and supervisors.
- Working knowledge of WHS legislation, with demonstrated success in fostering and maintaining a proactive safety culture.
- Hands-on ownership of the food safety scheme (HACCP), including leading external audits and closing out corrective actions.
- Evidence of continuous improvement delivering measurable gains in productivity, waste, downtime or labour efficiency.
- Strong labour planning, inventory and cost management skills, with the commercial literacy to understand the impact on margin and cash.
- Ability to coach and develop people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, including those who are early in their working lives in Australia and those with lived experience of forced migration.
- A clear, practical communicator who is equally comfortable in the bakery setting, in front of a customer and reporting to the Board.
Desirable
- Formal qualifications in food technology, food science, engineering, operations management or a related discipline.
- Experience in a bakery or another short-shelf-life, high-SKU environment.
- Experience supporting new product development and scale-up into commercial production.
- Lean, Six Sigma or equivalent continuous improvement training.
Remuneration and Benefits
A competitive remuneration package will be offered. Indicative salary of approximately $100,000 plus superannuation, with access to salary-packaging benefits available to employees of a registered Public Benevolent Institution. The final package will be commensurate with experience and the candidate’s combination of commercial, sector and mission credentials.
Application Process
Candidates are invited to submit a current CV and a cover letter addressing the selection criteria and outlining how they would approach the key accountabilities of the role.
Applications should be addressed to the CEO, The Bread & Butter Project, [email protected].
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview, followed by a site visit to the bakery. The Bread & Butter Project is an equal opportunity employer. We particularly welcome applicants from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and from communities with lived experience of forced migration.
Pay: From $100,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Parental leave
- Salary packaging
Work Location: In person
