About the Role

The Production Manager is a key member of the site management team providing leadership to our processing team and taking ownership of building a culture that not only aligns with company values but creates agile teams who work for each other. Critical to the effective operation of our site, the Production Manager provides direction to the people, production, health and safety, quality and compliance with a focus on outcomes ensuring customer requirements are met every time.

Our Pareora site is a distinctive multi-species site providing unique challenges and ensures no two days will be exactly the same.

Please note the internal title for this position is Section Manager – Secondary.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Supporting departments to organize their team to achieve the best production outcomes by maximizing resources
• Champion continuous improvement initiatives across all aspects of operations and demonstrate commitment to our Streamline program
• Advising, coaching and mentoring your production leadership team to assist with their own development in leadership capability and capacity
• Build an uncompromising safety culture

About You

The successful candidate will be experienced as a leader within the red meat processing industry and ideally have specific skills around training and developing team members. They will demonstrate experience with developing and driving team culture through leading by example and have a solid understanding of standard production processes and principles. They will be confident dealing with budgeting and forecasting and be able to demonstrate successful delivery of financial targets by maximizing throughputs and managing costs.

The successful candidate will be responsible for approximately 250 staff across multiple production departments in peak season.

• Minimum of three years’ experience in a senior production leadership role, ideally within red meat processing or similar FMCG industries
• Proven background in training, coaching and mentoring team members to increase the skill level in all areas of your department
• Knowledge of employee relations principles and confident with assisting your leaders with workforce management
• Excellent knowledge of regulatory and hygiene compliance requirements and issues
• Competent to an intermediate/high level in Excel/Word/PowerPoint/Outlook

Why work at Silver Fern Farms?

Silver Fern Farms are all about Creating Goodness from the Farms the World Needs. Creating goodness is about taking a broader view of what goodness means, how we can create it and the impact it can have. That Goodness is created through the work of our People, the skill & expertise of our Farmers and our customers around the globe. ‘Goodness’ is also about being good to people and communities, animal welfare, and showing care and respect for the environment.

How to Apply

submit your application, we will be assessing applications as they are received so don’t delay. Applications close on Friday 26 June 2026.