About us:

Based in Berkeley, CA, UPSIDE Foods grows meat, poultry, and seafood directly from real animal cells. These products are not vegan or vegetarian—they are delicious meat, made without the need to raise and slaughter billions of animals. In doing so, the company aims to address some of the most pressing environmental, animal welfare, and public health challenges, while still giving people the meat they love.

Founded as the world’s first cultivated meat company in 2015, UPSIDE Foods (formerly Memphis Meats) has achieved numerous industry-defining milestones, including being the first company to produce multiple species of meat (beef, chicken, and duck) and to sell a cultivated meat product in the United States. The company believes that people shouldn’t have to choose between the foods they love and a thriving planet, and is working to build a better food system with access to delicious, humane, and sustainable meat, poultry, and seafood.

UPSIDE Foods has won various industry awards, including New York Times’ Good Tech Awards, FastCo’s Next Big Thing in Tech and World Changing Ideas Awards, and the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation by the National Association for Business Resources. UPSIDE Foods has raised a total of $608 million, including from the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (ADG), Baillie Gifford, Bill Gates, Cargill, John Doerr, John Mackey, Kimbal and Christiana Musk, Norwest, Richard Branson, Softbank, Temasek, Threshold, Tyson Foods, and others.

About this job:

The Food Manufacturing Manager will work in our Engineering, Production, & Innovation Center (EPIC). This role is responsible for planning, directing, and coordinating the activities and resources necessary for conversion and formulation of food products in a USDA regulated workspace including labor & demand planning, commissioning of complex machines while interfacing with manufacturers and design engineers. This individual will create efficiencies based on manufacturing capabilities along with run strategies that result in meeting or exceeding customer requirements. They will work closely with the senior leadership team, our integrated supply chain, and other core operational departments in EPIC. The Food Manufacturing Manager will play a key role in our partnership with the USDA and interface with their officials.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead daily operations of the Food Manufacturing space, help design and lead the production processes required to create RTE and other meat products made of cultured cells and tissue in a regulated facility.
• Partner with Supply Chain and work with ERP tools to forecast workflows so throughput requirements are met without interruption.
• Collaborate with EPIC functional departments to solve problems with a data-driven approach, and create improvements that ensure process and mechanical reliability.
• Direct interface with fabricators and providers of complex industrial meat processing machines, including reliability requirements, qualification requirements, and costs.
• Operate complex machines and instruments used for the production and storage of harvested meat in a USDA-regulated facility.
• Support drafting and review of SOPs, SSOPs, and GMP programs while building a best in class culture of safety and facilitate efficiency modeling for the Food Manufacturing team.

About you:

• B.S. in food process engineering, industrial engineering/operations, or other related fields.
• Demonstrated high volume production experience in a food manufacturing environment, ideally with 5+ years’ experience in a regulatory environment.
• Experience with ERP systems; Microsoft Dynamics experience is preferred.
• Able to dissect complex manufacturing operations, and direct a team to achieve specific end results on tight schedules.
• Great organizational and project management skills, and consistently communicates to ensure reliability with a safety, efficiency, and quality mindset.
• Ability to recognize opportunities for improvement and influence others to make change.
• Must be able to work in refrigerated production spaces. Must be able to carry up to 50 pounds. Must be able to sit or stand up for long periods of time while monitoring operations and performing daily tasks. Must be able to don Personal Protective Equipment (safety glasses, gloves, hair restraints, footwear, lab coats or coveralls) on a daily basis, as well as hearing and dust protection as needed.

Who you’ll work with:

• This role will work in our EPIC facility.
• This role will most frequently interact with our FSQA, Food R&D, Supply Chain, Product and Brand, upstream Operations, Engineering/Facilities, Planning, and Warehouse teams.

Key Contributions in First Year:

• Interface and relationship-build with USDA officials.
• Partner with engineering teams and suppliers to fully commission & quality complex meat processing machines, and tune the systems for reliability and throughput.
• Develop and execute KPIs for manufacturing that are aligned to internal OKRs
• Make improvements to the existing operational framework to ensure safety, quality, efficiency, and reliability.

Compensation Range: $100,000 - $120,000*
*Pay may vary depending on factors including job-related knowledge and skills.

UPSIDE Benefits!

• Stock options for all full-time incoming team members!
• 90-100% employer-paid healthcare premiums for team members (medical [including HSA and FSA], dental, and vision)
• Pet insurance for your furry family members!
• Unlimited PTO
• Employee Engagement Council
• Company-sponsored learning & development opportunities

UPSIDE Foods is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Our company-wide mission is to create a product for everyone, so we are deeply committed to having teams and leaders that reflect this mission.