Position Title: Head of Factory Operations – Bakery Manufacturing

Department: Plant Manufacturing & Technical Operations

Reports To: Chief Operating Officer (COO) / Managing Director

Location: Bhubaneshwar, Odisha

Position Summary

We are seeking an operational plant leader and food technologist specialized in industrial and semi-automated bakery manufacturing. In this role, you will be responsible for setting up, commissioning, and running our central bakery manufacturing unit. You will oversee line setup across bread, pastry, cake, and dough processing, drive cost-effective batching and baking operations, enforce strict food safety, and lead the factory-level scale-up of new bakery products.

Key Responsibilities

- Bakery Line Setup & Process Engineering
- Oversee the installation, commissioning, and optimization of bakery processing machinery:

o Bread & Bun Lines: High-speed spiral mixers, automatic dividers, rounders, intermediate proofers, and tunnel ovens.

o Pastry & Laminated Lines: Automatic laminators, dough sheeters, butter injectors, and blast freezers for croissants and puff pastries.

o Cake & Muffin Lines: Planetary mixers, batter depositors, multi-deck ovens, and automated icing/decorating stations.

o Packaging Lines: Flow-wrapping, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) for shelf-life extension, and metal detection systems.

- Streamline dough development processes, controlling parameters such as dough temperature, floor time, proofing humidity, and baking profiles to ensure uniform volume, crumb structure, and crust color.
- Implement Lean Manufacturing, 5S, and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) to maximize Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
- Production Planning & Yield Management
- Manage daily and weekly production schedules based on retail order forecasts, balancing raw dough mixing, baking, cooling, and packing cycles.




- Track and optimize product yield, flour-to-finished-valuable conversion ratios, and recipe mass balance to minimize dough waste, batter scrap, and over-baking losses.
- Oversee cold chain storage (0°C to 4°C) and deep-freeze infrastructure (-18°C) for frozen dough, par-baked goods, and ready-to-bake products.
- Bakery New Product Scale-Up (NPD to Manufacturing)
- Work closely with product development teams and master pastry chefs to scale benchtop/kitchen recipes to industrial batch volumes without compromising flavor, texture, or appearance.
- Establish precise baking curves, moisture-retention techniques, and natural shelf-life preservation strategies (e.g., enzyme systems, pH balancers, MAP gas packaging).
- Conduct line trials, thermal profiling, sensory evaluations, and accelerated shelf-life testing for all newly introduced bakery SKUs.
- Food Safety, Hygiene & Quality Control
- Enforce international food safety standards (HACCP, ISO 22000, FSSC 22000, and regional authorities such as FSSAI/FDA).
- Implement strict raw material inspection protocols for baking ingredients (flour protein levels, yeast activity, fat melting points, dairy quality).
- Maintain strict sanitation schedules, flour dust control (to prevent cross-contamination and dust explosion hazards), allergen isolation, and pest management.
- Maintenance, Cost & Team Leadership
- Build preventive maintenance schedules for heating elements, gas burners, conveyor belts, refrigeration units,



and mixing gears to minimize line stoppage.
- Manage plant CAPEX/OPEX budgets, energy consumption (electricity and fuel/gas for ovens), packaging material costs, and direct labor allocation.
- Lead and upskill factory floor personnel, including production supervisors, dough master operators, line workers, QA technicians, and maintenance engineers.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

- Manufacturing Efficiency: Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) targets and daily production throughput against scheduled capacity.
- Wastage & Scrap Control: Raw material scrap rates below standard tolerance (<2% target across dough and batter lines).
- Product Quality & Uniformity: Zero rejection batches during trial runs and >98% compliance on finished product specification audits.
- Downtime & Safety: Unplanned machine downtime under target hours and zero lost-time injury accidents.

Qualifications & Technical Skills
- Education: Degree in Food Technology, Food Engineering, or Cereal Science (Specialization in Bakery Technology preferred).
- Experience: 10–15+ years of core industrial food manufacturing experience, with at least 5+ years managing a commercial bakery manufacturing facility.
- Technical Expertise:

o In-depth understanding of baking science and rheology (gluten development, starch gelatinization, yeast fermentation kinetics, emulsification).

o Hands-on knowledge of automated deck, rack, and continuous tunnel ovens, cooling towers, continuous depositors, and blast freezers.

o Experience handling diverse product formats: fresh bread, dry cookies/biscuits, frozen dough, and fresh cream cakes

? Ready to Take the Lead?

If you are ready for this challenge, we want to hear from you today! Send your CV and a brief intro directly to:? [email protected]

📌 Head of Bakery Manufacturing Operations & Technical Processing (Chennai)
🏢 Digital Software
📍 Chennai