Associate/Manager, Manufacturing

OVERVIEW

Kingdom Supercultures designs and supplies a new class of natural ingredients that make it easy for food and beverage manufacturers to create exciting products that are healthier and more sustainable.  These Superculture™ ingredients are composed entirely of microbial strains found naturally in food, which Kingdom rearranges into new combinations with exciting new functionalities.  Manufacturers then use Superculture ingredients to create plant-based yogurts and cheeses that taste like real dairy, fermented beverages with no sugar, and natural bio-preservatives to replace artificial ones.  Our vision is to replace artificial chemicals and GMOs with natural Superculture solutions as the ingredient backbone of the modern consumer packaged goods industry. 

We’re looking for a high-performing and growth-oriented Operations Associate or Manager, Manufacturing to join our founding team.  This individual will stand up manufacturing operations that will take Superculture ingredients from the lab to the real world, driving millions of dollars in revenue in the first year and adding capabilities and scale to keep up with fast-growing customer demands. 

We’re in active R&D projects with some of the largest and most innovative CPG food and beverage manufacturers in the world, supplying cultures to Eleven Madison Park (rated as one of the top restaurants in the world) to enable their new plant-based menu, and are already powering products on store shelves nationally.  We’ve raised nearly $30M in funding from top investors including Shine, Valor, Lux, Sequoia, and Y-Combinator, and are still in the early stages of our journey.  This is a full-time, in-person role at our state-of-the-art HQ in Brooklyn, NY; you should expect occasional travel to customers or manufacturing partners.

RESPONSIBILITIES

In this role, you will plan and lead building out our manufacturing operations, the foundational capability that will bring our innovative Superculture ingredients to consumers at scale and drive rapid revenue growth for the business. Your activities will include:

• Building out our manufacturing facility, including determining key regulatory and capital requirements for the space, interfacing with architects and contractors, and owning the overall budget and schedule for the project
• Establish the initial systems and processes to stand up our food-safe production and delivery operation, get certified by key customers, regulators, and audit agencies, and establish and grow profitable ingredient sales
• Assess, onboard, and manage key suppliers for our initial set of ingredients for sale to customers, ensuring compliance with our requirements for producing high-quality ingredients
• Coordinate production and delivery of Superculture ingredients, working closely with the scientific team on training and implementing our standard operating procedures (SOP) and record systems
• Contribute to our manufacturing strategy and implementation plan to help us achieve greater scale needed to keep up with customer demands, new product types, greater efficiency, and potentially other areas of the value chain

You will work closely with our scientists, other commercial team members, customers, suppliers, and others to leverage the expertise required to accomplish these tasks.

COMPETENCIES & QUALIFICATIONS

• Supremely well-organized, with a track record of effectively managing multiple complex projects against deadlines
• Experience understanding and utilizing technical information when making strategic and operational decisions
• Direct experience with one or more of the following in a manufacturing context: 
  • Regulatory compliance, particularly if food-related (e.g. GMP, HACCP, GFSI, etc.)
  • Quality control or quality assurance
  • Unit operations and process engineering or management
  • Supply chain management
• Ability to effectively collaborate with a range of external and internal stakeholders, including customers, scientists, and suppliers
• Strong operational problem-solving skills and creative thinking, with the ability to operate with minimal pre-existing processes in place
• 1-3 years (Associate) or 4+ years (Manager) of work experience

Other attributes that are preferred but not required:

• Experience with negotiation and managing external commercial relationships
• Experience with process engineering or project management
• Experience with or interest in sustainability, food manufacturing, microbial products, and/or the food system

Not sure you meet 100% of our qualifications? If you believe you could excel in this role, we encourage you to apply. We encourage anyone who thinks they would excel here to apply, no matter their background, how they identify, or their professional background. 

Kingdom aims to help create a world that is healthier, more sustainable, and more delightful. We believe that fostering an equitable, inclusive workplace that empowers our team is the best way to achieve that goal. One component of this effort is to actively recruit exceptional talent from communities underrepresented in our fields, especially in STEM. Applicants will never be disqualified nor discriminated against by race, class, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, veteran status, disability status, or criminal history.

OUR VALUES

• Collaborate with kindness
• Critique by creating
• Empower the team
• Focus our energy
• Learn through curiosity
• Take complete ownership
• Uphold scientific integrity

WHY JOIN KINGDOM SUPERCULTURES?

• Meaningful work: Bring Superculture ingredients that make foods healthier and more sustainable to the world, while building a fast-growing business and driving millions of dollars in new revenue. 

• Valued member of a high-performing team: Become a leader of a fast-growing team that rewards high performance with advancement opportunities and greater responsibilities.

• Growth and learning: Lead Kingdom’s development of new manufacturing capabilities and operations that will challenge you to master commercial, technical, and operational issues alongside the team. With your cross-functional responsibilities, you will also have the opportunity to learn from and shape Kingdom’s commercial strategy, product development, and technical approach.

• Ownership and autonomy: Take and feel responsibility for Kingdom’s ingredient manufacturing capabilities and operations, building this critical part of our business from the ground up, with the mentorship and support of the Kingdom leadership team. 

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

• Competitive salary and generous equity upside
• Fully-paid medical, vision, and dental insurance
• Unlimited paid time off (PTO)
• Parental leave
• 401k participation
• Commuter benefits: subsidized Metrocards, free Citibike, free parking
• Office kitchen fully stocked with fruit, snacks, and beverages (including nitro cold brew coffee!)