_{22nd October, 2025}

Vice President, Operations
 
Do you have a passion for wine and enjoy working in a dynamic industry? Are you ready to embark on an exciting new phase of your career with a growing company and enthusiastic culture? If so, then this opportunity may be for you!
 
Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits is the third largest producer of VQA wines in Niagara, Ontario and we are looking for our next team member to fulfill the role of Vice President, Operations.  
 
WHAT YOU WILL DO:
 
In this full-time position as Vice President, Operations, you will have full accountability for the end-to-end operational execution of the organization. While direct reports will oversee the day-to-day execution, you will be responsible for strategy, integration, performance metrics, capital planning, and leading transformational initiatives across multiple functions. This role bridges strategic vision and hands-on operational leadership to deliver world-class manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and safety performance.
 
As a member of the senior leadership team, reporting directly to the President & CEO, you will define operational priorities, align cross-functional stakeholders, and ensure that Diamond Estates meets its financial, quality, regulatory, and sustainability goals. Responsibilities include:
 
Operational Strategy and Leadership

• Develop and execute a multi-year operations roadmap aligned with the company's growth and financial objectives.
• Actively participate in corporate strategic planning, bringing operational insights and constraints into senior leadership decision-making.
• Set overarching goals, KPIs, and scorecards across operations (cost, quality, throughput, safety, sustainability).
• Ensure strong cross-functional alignment (R&D, sales, marketing, finance, regulatory) to support product launches, portfolio changes, capacity expansions.
• Lead and mentor the operations leadership team (direct reports), including performance management, succession planning, and talent development.
• Champion a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, safety, and data-driven decision-making.

 
Manufacturing / Production / Bottling

• Provide oversight of all manufacturing, bottling, and process operations to ensure throughput, line availability, yield, and cost targets.
• Ensure that bottling operations meet specification, hygiene, throughput, and reliability.
• Collaborate with manufacturing engineering to develop and deploy new processes, lines, automation, and capacity expansion.
• Drive root-cause elimination of production losses, downtime, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies.
• Work with Operations Excellence / Continuous Improvement to embed Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, or similar methodologies.

 
Quality Assurance / HACCP / Regulatory Compliance

• Oversee the QA / QC function to ensure product safety, microbiological compliance, regulatory standards, and internal quality gates.
• Own the HACCP program and ensure it is robust, audited, and continuously monitored & improved.
• Ensure compliance with relevant industry standards (food safety, beverage, labeling, regulatory) and maintain certifications.
• Own and maintain all liquor licenses (AGCO/LCBO) and ensure ongoing compliance and renewals
• Oversee deviation / CAPA systems, audits, and regulatory inspections.
• Integrate quality metrics and continuous improvement feedback loops into operations.

 
Supply Chain, Inventory & S&OP Planning

• Lead Supply Chain & Inventory management (raw materials, packaging, spare parts, finished goods) to optimize working capital, service levels, spoilage, and inventory turns.
• Oversee demand planning, S&OP / IBP (integrated business planning), ensuring alignment between forecasts, production capacity, and sales.
• Ensure safety stock, buffer strategies, and risk mitigation (e.g. supplier disruption, seasonality).
• Partner with procurement to ensure reliable and cost-competitive sourcing of materials, packaging, and capital goods.
• Lead procurement end-to-end (process flows, cost-savings program, strategic supplier negotiations, and contract management).
• Establish and maintain a capacity plan tied to S&OP (people, lines, shifts, vendors).
• Partner with Finance to lead the monthly/quarterly inventory count and ensure a robust cycle-count program with targets, thresholds, and remediation.
• Drive metrics such as fill rate, stockouts, backorders, inventory days on hand.

 
Order Fulfillment, Shipping & Receiving, Distribution Interface

• Manage order fulfillment operations (warehousing, picking, packing, staging) to ensure high service, accuracy, and efficiency.
• Oversee inbound receiving from production, packaging, and coordinate logistics handoff to distribution.
• Ensure interfaces with external transportation, distribution partners, and third-party logistics (3PL) providers meet SLAs.
• Optimize warehouse footprint, flows, throughput, layout, and automation opportunities.

 
Maintenance, Facilities & Capital Planning

• Oversee maintenance (preventive, predictive, corrective) for production assets, facilities, utilities, and supporting infrastructure.
• Lead the insurance claims process and own facilities risk assessments and mitigation.
• Ensure high equipment uptime, reliability, and life-cycle cost optimization.
• Lead capital planning, budgeting, and execution of production & facility enhancements, upgrades, expansions, and replacement projects.
• Ensure facilities (utility, HVAC, sanitation, infrastructure) meet required standards, safety, environmental compliance, and sustainability goals.
• Maintain asset management systems, depreciation plans, and reliability engineering capability.

 
Health & Safety

• Lead safety, environmental, and occupational health functions to maintain compliance, reduce incidents, and foster a safety-first culture.
• Ensure adherence to regulations; manage audits, incident investigations, root cause, corrective actions.
• Drive continuous improvement in safety performance through training, metrics, behavior-based safety, risk assessments, and ergonomic improvements.

 
Sustainability & Environmental Stewardship

• Partner across, manufacturing, and operations to drive sustainability initiatives (e.g. water usage, energy efficiency, waste reduction, recycling, carbon reduction).
• Develop operational metrics and targets around sustainability (e.g. emissions, water use, waste diversion) and report against them.
• Evaluate and implement green technologies & process improvements

 
Operational Excellence / Continuous Improvement

• Lead the Op-Ex / Continuous Improvement function (or oversee it) to systematically drive cost, quality, throughput, and lead-time improvements.
• Deploy Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, value stream mapping, and other methodologies to establish capability and sustain gains.
• Map process flows in ERP and other systems, and ensure timely, accurate, and complete operational records (batches, work orders, QA/COAs, product movements).
• Monitor and report improvement pipelines, ROI on projects, and embed a culture of continuous improvement across operations.

 
WHAT YOU WILL BRING: 
 
Education & Credentials

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, or related field.
• Certifications or training in Lean, Six Sigma, project management (PMP) or equivalent preferred.

 
Experience / Domain Expertise

• 10+ years of progressive operations leadership experience in manufacturing, ideally in CPG / beverage / food / wine / spirits or adjacent industries.
• Previous experience as a senior operations executive managing multiple functions (manufacturing, quality, supply chain, maintenance, warehousing, logistics).
• Strong track record of leading capital expansions, process scale-up, automation deployment, and performance improvement transformations.
• Deep expertise in food/beverage safety systems (HACCP, GMP, quality compliance) is strongly desired.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives, introduce continuous improvement programs, and drive culture change.
• Experience in S&OP, demand planning, and supply chain optimization.
• Demonstrated financial acumen: P&L awareness, budgeting, cost management, capital return analysis.
• Excellent leadership, communication, stakeholder management, and influence skills (ability to engage with senior leadership, internal/external stakeholders).
• Strong analytical mindset and comfort with data, metrics, dashboards, root-cause problem-solving.

 
Personal / Leadership Qualities

• Execution-driver strategic thinker
• High level of integrity, decisiveness, energy, and accountability.
• Resilient, adaptable, with ability to operate under complexity and ambiguity.
• Collaborative and inclusive leadership style; strong coaching/mentoring capability.
• Change agent able to drive shift in culture and embed process discipline.

 
 
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT:
 

• A collaborative, entrepreneurial team environment with opportunity to make a meaningful impact.
• A growing, stable organization filled with people who really care about their products, their customers, and each other.
• A competitive salary and total compensation package which includes generous employee health and dental benefits and other perks.

 
Diamond Estates and its divisions is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome and encourage applications from people with differing abilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.
 
Please note that when applying, you will be directed to a site hosted by The Talent Company, our recruitment partner who is supporting us with this search.
 

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