Environmental Operations Manager

job purpose: The Environmental Operations Manager (EOM) is an industrial biological treatment expert responsible for the oversight of daily operations of the fairlife wastewater pretreatment facilities at all of our manufacturing sites and our direct discharge outfall at the Coopersville, Michigan facility. The EOM will work with our 3rd party contract operations group to maintain regulatory compliance, troubleshooting of treatment process upsets, and drive cost savings and other CI initiatives to provide optimal use of company assets. The EOM will establish and maintain a sustainable plant residuals management program for all byproducts generated through the WWT process. The EOM will also develop and institute company policies and design systems and processes that meet or exceed all regulatory requirements in relation to wastewater treatment. The EOM will be expected to work with plant management and employees in an effort to identify and reduce BOD loads and wastewater volume generation.

responsibilities:

• 3rd party contract operations oversight including continuing education of support staff
• Resolve operational or quality problems associated with WWTPs and water treatment processes
• Responsible for developing and managing wastewater reporting and applicable KPIs/dashboards
• Develops and implements operations and lab procedures/methods to improve efficiencies and quality of supporting data or effluent characteristics, including microscopy evaluation
• Manages key relationships with local and state wastewater treatment officials, contractors, and relevant stakeholders
• Works with site EHS Manager and contract operations for submission of required monthly and annual reports
• Working closely with production and continuous improvement teams to identify and facilitate water and product savings activities across the facility
• Drives improvement in pretreatment budgets by identification and reduction of cost savings opportunities through process optimization, competitive pricing, and research and development of wastewater treatment processes
• Supports key capital projects around wastewater treatment as a process technical specialist and executes and oversight of small capital projects/upgrades to existing operations
• Develops engineering conceptual designs and review of capital expenditure proposals driving technical resolution of known issues while supporting long range WWT capital planning for fairlife manufacturing facilities

skills/qualifications required:

• Bachelor's Degree (Environmental Engineering, Biology/Microbiology, Chemistry, or similar discipline preferred) with proven knowledge of industrial wastewater treatment
• Minimum of 5 years of food industry related experience in biological WWT
• Data driven individual with the ability to analyze and contextualize relevant data
• Continuous Improvement mindset including root cause analysis, strategic planning
• Ability to manage projects effectively with cross functional teams and multiple stakeholders
• Strong interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills
• Excellent organizational and multi-tasking skills
• Demonstrated success working in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment
• Current with technological advancements in the discipline of biological wastewater treatment
• Prior experience managing the operations of multiple WWT sites
• State Operator/Certification for municipal or industrial operations

food safety requirements:

• Responsible for maintaining critical control points, aseptic requirements, and regulatory standards at all times.
• Responsible for implementing corrective actions and necessary changes specific to water systems, contamination risk or non-conformances
• Accountable for 3rd party Food Safety and GMP audits/results as well as internal Quality and Food Safety programs.
• Perform all duties necessary to meet Company, Customer and/or Government requirements/standards as prioritized by the Company.
• Ability to initiate action to prevent the occurrence of nonconformities relating to Food Safety and the Quality of the product, processes, quality system, or safety system.
• Identify and record any problems relating to Food Safety and the Quality of the ingredients, processes, quality system, or safety system.

position location: Coopersville, MI, Goodyear, AZ, or Webster, NY

reports to: Vice President of Environmental Engineering

travel requirements: 50%

exempt/nonexempt: Exempt