Jobs at Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Ltd.

Leads operations finance for a multi-site manufacturing network, partnering with Operations to improve profitability, cost management, asset utilization, capacity planning, and performance. Owns manufacturing costing methodologies, BOM governance, cost standards, variance analysis, and financial contributions to integrated business planning. Leads plant controllers, strengthens reporting and decision support, evaluates operational trade-offs, and drives improved financial visibility, processes, tools, and enterprise-level decision-making.

Provides administrative and program support for Regulatory Affairs and Consumer Relations. Leads internal label update projects, coordinates cross-functional approvals, maintains label libraries and product databases, prepares reports, manages certification documentation, and supports responses to consumer and customer feedback. Requires a food science degree, at least three years of experience, strong organizational and communication skills, attention to detail, and comfort with labeling databases and computer systems.

Analyze shopper, category, channel, customer, consumer, industry, and sales data to provide actionable commercial insights. Evaluate brand and competitor performance, identify marketing-mix drivers, deliver standardized reporting, and develop automated Power BI and Excel tools. The role supports strategic planning, ad hoc analysis, and data-driven initiatives while presenting recommendations to commercial stakeholders.

Leads the Cheese business strategy, three-year roadmap, annual execution plan, marketing organization, portfolio, pricing, innovation pipeline, and business performance. Owns growth, profitability, market share, P&L outcomes, and cross-functional alignment across sales, operations, supply chain, finance, procurement, and R&D. Translates consumer and market insights into investments and strategic priorities while developing talent and driving enterprise-wide execution.

Develops short-, medium-, and long-term production plans aligned with demand forecasts. Manages capacity planning, master scheduling, inventory levels, shelf life, shipping dates, and supply risks across dairy manufacturing operations. Leads capacity and supply review meetings, analyzes KPIs and root causes, coordinates with purchasing, production, sales, finance, and operations, and supports integrated business planning. Requires travel to other sites as needed.

Leads R&D capability development, operating model improvement, project execution, resource planning, knowledge management, and continuous improvement. Manages scientists, researchers, and technicians while strengthening governance, documentation, reporting, systems, and execution processes. Partners with Operations, Quality, Engineering, and Principal Scientists to prioritize projects, allocate resources, remove delivery barriers, and support effective technology implementation across the R&D portfolio.

Leads enterprise business finance, performance management, Integrated Business Planning, rolling forecasts, and long-range planning. Owns the enterprise performance narrative and aligns commercial, operations, and supply plans. Drives trade-offs involving pricing, mix, cost, capacity, and supply while translating financial and operational data into decisions. Serves as a strategic finance partner to senior leadership and modernizes finance through improved tools, data capabilities, and decision-support processes.

The Operations Training Lead identifies manufacturing training needs and skill gaps, develops practical training materials, delivers or coordinates hands-on and digital training, and supports site trainers. The role maintains competency assessments and training records, tracks completion through an LMS, verifies employee capability and compliance, updates content for operational changes, and collaborates with manufacturing, quality, safety, engineering, and HR teams across multiple sites. Regular travel to manufacturing locations, primarily in southern Ontario, is required.

Leads the design, implementation, optimization, and standardization of manufacturing processes across facilities. Manages engineers and technicians, leads complex capital projects and cross-functional teams, analyzes operational data, drives root-cause investigations and continuous improvement, develops process specifications and cost estimates, coordinates automation and equipment integration, and ensures safety, quality, environmental, and regulatory compliance.

Manages end-to-end order fulfillment and customer communications for assigned accounts. Processes ERP and EDI orders, resolves service issues, coordinates returns and credits, monitors inventory and service metrics, and collaborates with Sales, Planning, Logistics, Operations, QA, Finance, and IT. Supports root cause analysis, compliance documentation, customer initiatives, and continuous improvement of fulfillment and distribution processes.

Leads the centralization and transformation of indirect procurement across Canadian operations. Develops procurement governance, sourcing processes, category strategies, supplier partnerships, spend visibility, dashboards, and savings initiatives across MRO, facilities, utilities, professional services, fleet, telecommunications, and other categories. Partners with cross-functional and manufacturing stakeholders to implement standardized procurement practices, improve supplier performance, and deliver cost, productivity, and working-capital targets.

Leads enterprise-wide controls, automation, and digital transformation across manufacturing sites. Designs PLC, HMI, DCS, MES, IIoT, analytics, and AI/ML solutions; establishes automation standards; leads capital project workstreams through commissioning; integrates vendors and OT systems; supports cybersecurity, data analysis, training, and technical governance across the network.