Vice President, Technical

The Catalyst Group is recruiting a Vice President – Technical on behalf of a leading Food & Beverage company in Pakistan. This senior leadership role is responsible for overseeing the company’s comprehensive technical and manufacturing operations across multiple sites. The VP Technical will drive long-term operational excellence, manufacturing competitiveness, engineering reliability, product quality, innovation, sustainability, and technical capability development. The role aligns closely with the company’s growth strategy, ensuring safe, efficient, and cost-effective production while leading modernization efforts through digital transformation, automation, AI, IoT, and advanced manufacturing technologies.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic & Operational Leadership
Develop and implement the company’s long-term technical and manufacturing strategy to support growth, profitability, and sustainability objectives. Lead manufacturing operations across multiple food processing and production facilities, focusing on productivity improvement, asset optimization, cost reduction, and lean manufacturing principles. Collaborate with the CEO and executive team on capacity planning, supply chain resilience, capital investments, and business expansion initiatives. Ensure key operational KPIs such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), yield efficiency, energy utilization, and maintenance costs are consistently met or exceeded.

Engineering, Projects & Digital Transformation
Lead engineering, maintenance, and reliability efforts to maximize plant uptime and operational efficiency. Manage major capital expenditure projects from feasibility studies through commissioning, ensuring strong governance, return on investment, and timely delivery. Champion modernization initiatives by integrating automation, AI, IoT, robotics, predictive maintenance, and digital manufacturing systems. Promote data-driven decision-making and support innovation, new product development, packaging improvements, and localization efforts.

Quality, Safety & Compliance
Maintain world-class standards in quality, food safety, occupational health, and environmental compliance across all facilities. Strengthen quality management systems, standard operating procedures, audits, risk management, and regulatory adherence. Manage relationships with regulatory authorities and drive continuous improvements in customer quality perception and satisfaction.

Organization & Leadership
Build and lead a high-performing technical team with a focus on succession planning and capability development. Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, safety, and continuous improvement throughout all technical functions.

Required Qualifications

Education
Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Chemical, Electrical, Industrial, or related discipline) is required. A Master’s degree in Engineering, Operations Management, or an MBA is preferred.

Experience
A minimum of 15 years of leadership experience in technical, engineering, manufacturing, or supply chain roles within large FMCG or food manufacturing organizations. Proven track record managing large-scale, multi-site manufacturing operations. Experience in food processing, dairy, agri-processing, or related sectors is highly desirable. Demonstrated success in operational transformation, modernization, and manufacturing excellence initiatives.

Technical & Leadership Competencies
Strong commercial and financial acumen focused on productivity, cost optimization, and return on assets (ROA). Deep expertise in manufacturing systems, reliability engineering, process optimization, and Industry 4.0 technologies. Proven leadership in capital projects, stakeholder management, strategic planning, and organizational transformation. Solid understanding of food safety, quality systems, and regulatory frameworks.

This role offers the opportunity to lead a critical function within a prominent food and beverage company, driving innovation and operational excellence at scale.