Hot Smoke/Dips Manager

New Zealand King Salmon is the world’s largest producer of King salmon. We raise and market the finest salmon globally under the Ōra King, Regal, and Southern Ocean brands. We strive to grow healthy kai, healthy communities, healthy relationships, healthy environments, and healthy economies.

Reporting to the Head of Processing, we now have an exciting opportunity available to provide operational leadership to the production team within Hot Smoke & Dips factories across all shifts, ensuring alignment with business objectives and strategic priorities.

Key responsibilities in this role include:

• Driving continuous improvement initiatives to enhance productivity, efficiency, quality, and food safety performance
• Monitor and report on production, quality, and food safety KPIs, implementing corrective actions and improvement plans where required
• Provide leadership, coaching, and development for Chargehands and production teams, fostering a high-performing and engaged workforce
• Oversee recruitment, training, succession planning, and performance management to build capability and ensure compliance with regulatory and internal training requirements
• Champion the highest standards of food safety, product quality, health and safety, and operational compliance
• Collaborate with cross-functional leaders to support effective communication, resource planning, budgeting, and project delivery
• Work closely with other factory leaders to ensure appropriate staffing levels and operational continuity across the site.

At the heart of our operations lies a firm commitment to the Health, Safety & Wellbeing of our people. Your role will be instrumental in upholding these standards, bringing a dedication to maintaining high levels of workplace safety and continuously enhancing policies and procedures for the protection and wellness of our team members.

To be successful in this role, you will need:

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in a production management role within a food manufacturing business
• Extensive experience and understanding of production workflows and optimisation
• Strong organisation skills & work ethic
• Proven problem solving & collaboration skills
• Proven ability to deal with pressure and conflicting demands

Your leadership skills will be essential. You'll lead our team with confidence, motivating and empowering them to reach new heights of excellence. As such your communication skills both written and verbal will be strong.

This is a fantastic opportunity to lead our Hot Smoke & Dips factories. All applications will be treated in confidence.

Applications close 28 October 2026.

The New Zealand King Salmon Co Ltd is committed to a drug and alcohol-free workplace and has a pre-employment, post-incident and reasonable cause drug testing programme in place.

All applicants must be legally entitled to work in New Zealand.