Job Description:
At Nature’s Bakery, we’re passionate about powering life’s adventures with delicious, better-for-you snacks crafted from real, wholesome ingredients. From our iconic Fig Bars to our exciting range of soft-baked treats, we believe everyone deserves snacking options that nourish the body and delight the taste buds. As a proud member of the Mars family of companies, we’re experiencing rapid growth fueled by strategic investments in our people, bakeries, and innovation. We foster a values-driven, people-first culture where collaboration, creativity, and community thrive—making every day meaningful and rewarding. Our future looks brighter than ever. Join us and help bake something better.
This role supports our manufacturing for our sister company tru fru.
What You’ll Be Doing
As a Continuous Improvement (CI) Specialist, you’ll play a key role in driving operational excellence across our bakery. You’ll lead loss elimination efforts, coach teams on problem-solving, and help shape how we continuously improve our processes and systems. You’ll partner closely with line leaders and operators to strengthen daily management systems, ensure data integrity, and support a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
In This Role, You Will:
- Lead and facilitate loss elimination initiatives across your assigned Value Stream.
- Support the development and execution of Daily Management Systems (DMS), including Centerline (CL), Clean-Inspect-Lubricate (CIL), Abnormality Handling (AH), 5S, and Changeover systems.
- Analyze line data to identify and prioritize loss elimination opportunities.
- Drive root cause problem-solving on chronic issues, using both basic and advanced tools.
- Partner with production and technical teams to define process standards, establish control strategies, and enable teams to respond to out-of-control situations.
- Facilitate team meetings and NBOS CP2 sessions; communicate clearly across shifts and functions.
- Collaborate with line leaders to ensure all departmental metrics (safety, quality, efficiency) are achieved.
- Train and coach associates to build technical mastery and problem-solving capabilities.
- Foster a culture of safety, quality, and teamwork through proactive engagement and accountability.
What You Bring:
Minimum Requirements
- Strong mechanical/technical aptitude with excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office and comfort working with data systems.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to connect with and motivate people at all levels of the organization.
Preferred Qualifications
- Certified Trainer or demonstrated ability to effectively train and coach others.
- Experience facilitating process improvement initiatives and using Focused Improvement tools.
- Proven ability to provide constructive feedback and guide performance improvement.
- BA Degree (ENG, Supply Chain, Business, or technical field) or Associate's Degree with at least 2 years' experience in a TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) manufacturing environmen
Why You’ll Love It Here:
At Nature’s Bakery, you’ll find more than a career — you’ll find a community. We’re passionate about growth, integrity, inclusion, and, of course, making great snacks. We believe in empowering our people to make a real impact, one improvement at a time.
Join us and help bake up a better tomorrow!
The Good Stuff – Benefits
Our team members' physical and mental health is important to a thriving workplace. That’s why we offer the following benefits to full-time employees:
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance offered for eligible employees
- 401(k) plan with a company match that vest on day 1 of eligibility
- Paid vacation
- Paid time off
- Holiday pay (11 days)
- Paid short-term disability
- Paid life insurance
- Banfield Pet Insurance Discounts
- Wellness Benefits and Discounts
- Employee Assistance Program
#NaturesBakeryjobs
Skills Required
- Strong mechanical and technical aptitude
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office
- Comfort working with data systems
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to connect with and motivate people at all organizational levels
- Certified Trainer or demonstrated ability to train and coach others
- Experience facilitating process improvement initiatives and using Focused Improvement tools
- Ability to provide constructive feedback and guide performance improvement
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Supply Chain, Business, or a technical field
- Associate's degree with at least two years of experience in a Total Productive Maintenance manufacturing environment
Mars Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Mars and has not been reviewed or approved by Mars.
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Healthcare Strength — The benefits package is positioned as comprehensive, with broad medical coverage and additional protections like life insurance and short- and long-term disability. Mental health support is emphasized, including free mental health services and wellbeing programming under initiatives such as Mars Be Well.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is highlighted as market-leading in the U.S., with an example of 18 weeks fully paid for both parents. Additional family-related leave types such as sick time for caregiving and bereavement leave are also described as part of the overall package.
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Retirement Support — Retirement offerings are described as strong, including 401(k) matching (with a 6% match cited) and pension plans in some cases. The broader package also references retirement savings options and contributions aligned to local market practice, supporting long-term financial security.
Mars Insights
What We Do
For more than a century, Mars, Incorporated has been driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. This idea is at the center of who we have always been as a global, family-owned business. Today, Mars is transforming, innovating and evolving in ways that affirm our commitment to making a positive impact on the world around us. Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of confectionery, food, and petcare products and services, we employ 133,000 dedicated Associates who are all moving in the same direction: forward. With $40 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including DOVE®, EXTRA®, M&M’s®, MILKY WAY®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, ORBIT®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, SKITTLES®, WHISKAS®, COCOAVIA®, and 5™; and take care of half of the world’s pets through our pet health services AniCura, Banfield Pet Hospitals™, BluePearl®, Linnaeus, Pet Partners™, and VCA™. We know we can only be truly successful if our partners and the communities in which we operate prosper as well. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire our Associates to take action every day to help create a world tomorrow in which the planet, its people and pets can thrive.
