Operations Capabilities Specialist, Blue Buffalo

General Mills, Inc. manufactures some of the most beloved foods in the world, including Cheerios and Lucky Charms, Nature Valley granola bars, Totino's pizza rolls, and Yoplait yogurt. Blue Buffalo became part of General Mills in 2018, so even your pets love us too. We exist to make food the world loves. But we do more than that. Our company is a place that prioritizes being a force for good, a place to expand learning, explore new perspectives and reimagine new possibilities, every day. We look for people who want to bring their best - bold thinkers with big hearts who challenge one another and grow together.

Check out why General Mills Manufacturing is the place to grow a career:

Operations Capabilities Specialist, Blue Buffalo - Joplin, MO

As a part of our manufacturing group, you will provide technical and process leadership for the shift through equipment expertise, Daily Management System execution, and on-shift mentorship to support operational performance and team development.

Shift hours:

• 12-hour shifts - 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off, schedule
  • Day shift: 6:45 am to 7 pm
  • Night shift: 6:45 pm to 7 am
• Currently hiring for NIGHT shift only
• Ability and willingness to work overtime, any shift, including days, nights, weekends, and holidays
• Plant operation is 24 hours a day, 7 days per week

Pay:

• $24.00 per hour
• Up to $29.77 per hour - internal pay advancement
• Shift differential
  • Additional $1.00 per hour for hours worked between 7 pm and 7 am

Benefits:

• Up to 10 days (120 hours) of vacation annually and 11 paid company holidays
• Great paid time off benefits
• 401(k) match
• Health Insurance - includes medical, dental, vision and life
• Pet Parent Perks - includes pet insurance and pet adoption reimbursement
• And much more!

About our Location:

Located in historic Joplin, at our Joplin Pet manufacturing site we produce Blue Buffalo dog food and dog treats. We foster a culture where we want our employees to be excited to come to work. We have a variety of committees at our plant to engage and connect our employees. Our Blue Rah committee hosts events throughout the year, as well as events for employees and their families. We also partner with our local humane society for different events and volunteer work. Blue Rah!

Our Products:

Blue Buffalo dog food, Sizzlers, Stix, Bits, Blue Bones and Wilderness Wild Bones dog treats.

What your day will look like:

• Creating high quality foods that are eaten EVERYDAY, NATIONWIDE
• Using TECHNOLOGY in an industry-leading facility
• Working with HIGH-LEVEL operators on EXPERIENCED teams that are looking to pass down their knowledge to workers WILLING TO LEARN and get paid doing it
• CHALLENGING yourself to get the JOB DONE RIGHT and gain skills to take with you to your next opportunity
  • Promote and model strong food and human safety practices in alignment with safey principles, proactively identifying and mitigating risks
  • Develop team capability through hands-on coaching, mentoring, and training to maintain eqiupment at basic conditions (CIL, CL, DH, TOO, changeovers)
  • Support onboarding and ongoing development of shift team members in partnership with site learning programs and training systems
  • Lead and support daily operational performance routines, including Daily Direction Setting (DDS) and improvement plan execution to drive loss elimination
  • Utilize data and manufacturing systems to analyze performance, troubleshoot issues, and support informed decision-making across the operation
  • Build operational understanding of production processes, equipment, and systems to strengthen workforce technical mastery and problem-solving capability
  • Create, maintain, and improve training materials and skill matrices to identify capability gaps and track employee development progress
  • Provide backup support for operations roles as needed to ensure continuity, staffing flexibility and effective team coverage

What you have to offer:

• Minimum of a high school diploma or GED
• 2 years (minimum) of manufacturing experience
• Demonstrated leadership experience in a highly collaborative, team-based manufacturing or production environment
• Proven ability to drive results through effective process execution, teamwork, and continuous improvement practices
• Track record of identifying opportunities and reducing losses while improving operational performance
• Strong technical understanding of manufacturing process and equipment, with hands-on experience
• Effective communicator with the ability to collaborate across shifts, departments, and cross-functional teams
• Experience working with manufacturing data systems (e.g. MQIS, Maximo) to pull, analyze, and interpret operational data for decision-making

Physical requirements:

• Must be able to lift up to 50 lbs
• Must be able to perform physical tasks for extended periods of time including standing, walking, climbing, bending, pushing, pulling and twisting over surfaces
• Ability to climb and/or work at heights while utilizing stairs, ladders, personnel lifts, or platforms
• Ability to wear protective clothing and equipment such as safety shoes, face masks, safety glasses, hearing protection, a hard hat, a hair/beard net and gloves when required
• Willing and able to adhere to all grooming requirements necessary for a food manufacturing environment
• Ability to work in hot, cold, noisy, dusty, wet environmental working conditions
• Willing to work around industrial high-speed moving machinery
• Ability to work with allergens that might be present in a food environment
• Ability to work in a tobacco free environment

We exist to make food the world loves. But we do more than that. Our company is a place that prioritizes being a force for good, a place to expand learning, explore new perspectives and reimagine new possibilities, every day. We look for people who want to bring their best - bold thinkers with big hearts who challenge one other and grow together.Because becoming the undisputed leader in food means surroundingourselves with peoplewho are hungry for what's next.