Production Manager

Empower. Deliver. Make Your Mark.

At Real Pet Food, we're on a mission to nourish the bond between pets and their people — and we do it with passion, teamwork, and a commitment to quality. Our brands — Ivory Coat, Billy + Margot, Fussy Cat, Nature's Gift, VIP, and Trilogy — are trusted and loved by millions, and we're on a mission to change the game in pet nutrition.

As our Production Manager at the Yatala site, you'll play a key leadership role in driving plant performance, developing your team, and delivering products our customers (and their pets) love.

The Opportunity

Reporting to the Site Operations Manager, you'll lead a team of three direct and around 130 indirect reports across a dynamic 24/5 production operation.

You'll set clear direction for your shift leadership teams, ensuring production runs safely, smoothly, and efficiently — meeting schedules and quality standards while managing labour and waste to achieve commercial targets.

You'll be part of the Site Leadership Team, collaborating across Production, QA, NPD, Supply Chain, and Maintenance to improve efficiency, reduce cost of goods sold, and foster a culture of ownership, safety, and continuous improvement.

Yatala is a 'wet' manufacturing site and one of Australia's largest chilled/fresh pet food producers.

What You'll Do

• Lead, coach, and develop Shift Managers to achieve their potential and drive performance across all shifts.
• Ensure reliable delivery of production schedules with a focus on safety, quality, and efficiency.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives and embed a culture of accountability and transparency.
• Manage a direct labour budget of approximately $12M, with a focus on cost efficiency and plant optimisation.
• Champion Real Pet Food's values — Work as a Pack, Make Your Mark, Lead with Passion, and Change the Game.

About You

You're an experienced production leader from a fast-paced FMCG environment who thrives on developing people and delivering results.

You understand both the big picture and the fine detail, connecting your team's work to the broader purpose of the business. You pride yourself on being a hands-on manager who isn't afraid to roll their sleeves up when required.

You'll bring:

• Proven experience managing large production teams within a 24/5 or 24/7 FMCG operation. Experience working with Short Shelf Life products is essential (Food Industry)
• Strong leadership, coaching, and communication skills. You are known for your people management skills and actively mentor and develop your talent
• A focus on safety, quality, and continuous improvement.
• The ability to manage budgets and deliver on key performance metrics (OEE, waste, cost, DIF).

Join a team that's passionate about what we do — making real food for real pets — and help shape the future of pet nutrition in Australia.

What we're about

Welcome to RPF, where we believe in keeping it Real.

Since 1994, we have been Australia and New Zealand's pioneers in fresher dog and cat nutrition. Our story is one of passion for a better way to care for pets, a belief in fresher nutrition, and an unwavering commitment to delivering this to pet parents and pets worldwide.

We're dedicated to fostering authentic partnerships, encouraging real ambition, and providing real career opportunities for our employees to make a difference.

Real means fresher ingredients and fresher methods. We'll never stop expanding, innovating, and trying new things. We compete in every pet category and channel, creating favourite brands such as Ivory Coat, Nature's Gift, V.I.P. Petfoods, and Love 'Em & Fussy Cat

Since the establishment of RPF, we have grown to over 900 people across Australia and New Zealand, China, Southeast Asia and Europe.

With the pet industry growing rapidly (a $15 billion industry) and pets becoming increasingly important in our lives and homes, this is a unique opportunity to be a part of our remarkable growth story and advance your career.

*Why join us?

Do work that matters. We're pioneering in a new area of pet food, always striving for fresher. We're restless, creating a better life for our pets.

Make an impact and change the game. You won't be another 'cog in the wheel' here. We give full trust and autonomy for you to do your best work – and to make a real difference. Do you have a great idea for a new product or system improvement? We're all ears

Growing and global. We're growing fast We now have global presence across APAC, and Europe regions and we're only getting started

Work with a pack of awesome, genuine people who are passionate about what they do.

Grow your career with us. We're big believers in lifelong learning. You'll be given access to LinkedIn Learning, plus opportunities for internal mobility and leadership training to fast-track your career.

Pets our part of our family:  access our Pawrental leave when you adopt a new cat or dog, pet carer and compassionate leave.

Generous perks including day off for your anniversary, product discounts, volunteering days to help the community, novated leases, a rewards program and parental leave.*

What's next?

If you're ready to unleash your potential and make a real difference in the booming pet industry, then we want to hear from you Next steps will include:

• An initial telephone interview followed by 2 face to face interviews and site visit
• 2 work references
• A Pre-Employment Medical
• A Psychometric Assessment

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. Diversity's not a buzzword here, it's in our DNA. Diverse perspectives shape our culture and make our work better. That's why we're committed to building inclusive teams that represent a variety of backgrounds and skills. If you need any reasonable adjustments, accessibility assistance or would like to note which pronouns you use at any stage of our hiring process, just contact us at accommodations: people& We look forward to hearing from you.

Please note: NO agencies will be considered during this process. We encourage you to refrain from submitting unsolicited profiles