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, all aligned with the company’s strategic growth objectives. The role demands strategic and operational leadership to ensure safe, efficient, reliable, and cost-effective manufacturing processes while spearheading 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 focused on growth, profitability, and sustainability. Lead manufacturing operations across multiple food processing and production facilities. Drive operational excellence by improving productivity, optimizing assets, reducing costs, and applying lean manufacturing principles. Collaborate closely 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.

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

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

Organization & Leadership:
Build and lead a high-performing technical team with strong 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.

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 with a focus on productivity, cost optimization, and return on assets (ROA) improvement. 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.

Preferred Qualifications and Benefits
A Master’s degree in Engineering, Operations Management, or an MBA is preferred. The role offers the opportunity to lead transformative initiatives in a dynamic, growth-oriented food and beverage company, contributing significantly to its operational and strategic success.

This position is ideal for an experienced technical leader passionate about driving innovation and operational excellence in the food manufacturing industry.