Packaging Manager

Company Overview:

Nulixir, an early-stage start-up, is a business-to-business (B2B) biotechnology company that develops, manufactures, and licenses intellectual property (IP) for smart nanocarriers, called nanovesicles, which optimize the performance of functional ingredients in food & beverage products. Nulixir is revolutionizing this space shaping the future of intelligent food and nutrition. This patented technology has applications across multiple verticals in food and beverage (e.g., nootropics, energy stimulants, vitamins, probiotics, protein, etc.).

Founded in 2019, the company brought together a team of CPG leaders, scientists, US attorneys, and nutritionists to overcome long-standing challenges in the Food and Beverage Industry. The firm’s founder has extensive experience in the development of nanocarriers for cancer therapeutics.

In the past-year, Nulixir sales have grown ~5x with strong interest from small, mid-size and large CPG companies to partner with Nulixir and incorporate the technology in their products. Nulixir boasts an impressive board of senior executives from companies like Pepsi, Danone, Paine, Schwartz Partners, etc. The company currently has 20+ employees with a stellar executive team who come from various backgrounds.

Position Overview:

Nulixir is looking for a highly qualified and experienced professional to lead Nulixir’s in-house packaging manufacturing operations. You will partner closely with Product Development, Sales, and Procurement functions to deliver premium quality product to our B2B customers in a timely and cost-efficient manner as well as continuously identify ways to improve our manufacturing operations as we scale-up over time.

You should be highly experienced in the Beverage manufacturing operations especially in bottling & packaging. The ideal candidate has immense intellectual curiosity, operations rigor, quality-focus mindset, metrics driven approach, and strong technical and quality control background. In this role, you will directly report to the Head of Operations.

In this important role, you will be responsible for:

• Oversee the day-to-day operations of Nulixir’s only in-house beverage packaging operations located in Austin including developing a daily production plan and ensuring daily operations goals are realized
• Manage a growing team of Production Operators (10-15)
• Develop plans for all aspects of production including equipment purchases, staffing needs, work schedules, and material requirements
• Design, implement, and manage production forecasting, capacity planning, and production scheduling based on prioritization of different customer orders in partnership with Commercial team and ensure orders are met in a timely fashion
• Evaluate multiple scenarios during production planning for utilization of equipment and labor and ensure the right scenario is chosen along with robust back up plans
• Ensure a healthy and safe manufacturing environment for all employees in compliance with federal and state regulations
• Collaborate with procurement and supply chain to plan packaging materials inventory to ensure timely availability for production
• Develop a thorough understanding of process flow and key controls of the manufacturing processes; use this knowledge along with daily observations of all areas of the operations facility to drive continuous improvement of throughput and yield
• Design and implement new manufacturing processes and procedures to improve efficiency and reduce costs
• Establish a system to monitor all variable and fixed costs (e.g., raw material, labor, utilities, etc.) linked to manufacturing in partnership with Finance
• Design and implement SOPs providing production instruction for all formulations including make-to-stock and made-to-order runs
• Establish a metrics-driven performance management system across cost, service, safety, quality; provide weekly report on performance across established metrics
• Build a robust preventative maintenance plan for all manufacturing equipment and order new parts in timely fashion to minimize downtime driven by equipment issues
• Develop internal talent with effective coaching, feedback, and individual development plans and ensure multiple employees are trained across manufacturing process to drive consistency in manufacturing output and minimize dependency on individuals
• Create and implement critical role succession plans
• Devise strategy to scale up operations and add new lines
• Define quality standards (including both quality control and quality assurance) across our manufacturing (bench top to large scale) and setting up systems and processes to meet those standards
• Establish robust metrics-driven system to measure quality of each batch and develop processes to meet defined goals for these metrics (e.g., particle size, PH, etc.)
• Develop systems and capabilities to meet required regulatory and labeling requirements for customers
• Lead processes to obtain GMP, Organic, and other relevant certifications for Nulixir’s manufacturing facility
• Maintain relevant quality and regulatory certification on an annual basis

Relevant Job experiences, skills, and key requirements for this role:

• A minimum of 5+ years of experience in manufacturing operations with at least 2+ years of that experience in food & beverage, food B2B, or other industries with adjacent manufacturing processes
• Worked in a variety of manufacturing roles, including quality control, production, maintenance, purchasing, inventory management and logistics
• Any relevant certifications related to manufacturing operations and / or quality control preferred but not a requirement
• Experience leading end-to-end manufacturing operations for a single or multiple facilities
• Establishing new manufacturing systems, processes, and operations (e.g., experience in setting up new facilities)
• Overseeing key vendor and 3rd party relationships
• Strong experience in establishing and maintaining a world-class quality organization within food and beverage
• Training and knowledge of metrics and data-driven approach to managing performance and decision-making process to evaluate manufacturing performance across quality, safety, cost and service
• Experience with rapidly growing, fast paced businesses and / or start-up experience; need to have a good understanding of start-up culture and mentality
• Collaborative work style with colleagues across functions, partners, and external support resources to analyze and draw actionable conclusions that impact manufacturing operations and related costs
• Strong research, and data analysis skills with ability to connect the dots, draw insights and make recommendations.
• Ability to clearly communicate findings and to support conclusions and recommendations.
• Self-motivated, organized, and resilient – with ability to define goals, prioritize workplans and overcome obstacles.
• Experience in managing proprietary and confidential product portfolios with utmost discretion
• Comfortable working at both a strategic and tactical level
• Strong verbal and written communication and reporting skills
• Ability to find creative solutions to complex problems
• Entrepreneurial and self-starter
• Thrives in an ambiguous environment with limited datapoints
• Self-motivated, high energy and collaborative work style

Nulixirians’ Culture

We recruit, promote, and reward based off of our five core values:

• Sleeves Up – At Nulixir, we provide the autonomy and creativity needed to own your role, iterate where needed and drive impact on a massive scale.
• 100% Transparency – Nulixir is passionate about open feedback at all levels of the company. This allows us to fail fast, create in real time and build an open company culture.
• Be Defiantly Great – We are defiant, that’s in our lifeblood, we accomplish what other people think are impossible. Challenging the status quo is our lifeblood.
• Unconditional Empathy – Our customers are real people with real business needs, and we are here to listen and tackle accordingly. If we care and respect each other, there is no challenge we can’t overcome.
• Be the solution, not just the critic – take ownership and drive collaboration. We work together and we build together.

Nulixir Inc.