Value Stream Manager

Lead a legacy plastics manufacturing operation with 60 years of history in sustainable manufacturing. Are you someone who thrives in fast-paced manufacturing and wants the freedom to genuinely influence how things get done? Maybe you’re looking for a role where commercial thinking, people leadership and continuous improvement are a part of the everyday.

Here on the NSW Central Coast, you’ll swap traffic for coastline while stepping into a business that is continuing to invest in its people, systems and manufacturing capability. For over 60 years, Trendpac has partnered with some of Australia’s biggest retailers, building deep expertise across product development and manufacturing while investing in the next era of sustainable production.

This is a role that sits right inside the engine room of production. As the Value Stream Manager - Plastics, you’ll take ownership of Trendpac’s plastics manufacturing operation across a 24/7 manufacturing environment. You’ll lead an established team of supervisors and leaders, bringing together people, performance and production across each shift.

One day you’ll be walking the floor with your supervisors, reviewing how the shift is tracking and supporting decisions around output, labour and machine performance. The next you’ll be reviewing budgets, OEE, waste and downtime trends, working alongside Maintenance, Quality, Engineering and Supply Chain to identify the next opportunity for improvement.

You’ll have visibility across the entire value stream. From material readiness and moulding through to quality and ready-to-dispatch output, you’ll understand how each part of the operation connects and where your leadership can make the biggest impact. This is not a role where continuous improvement sits on a project plan and gets revisited once a quarter. It will show up in the daily conversations you have with the team, the way changeovers are run, how performance is reviewed and how ideas from the floor are turned into better ways of working.

You’ll bring structure and consistency, while giving your leaders the autonomy to make decisions and take genuine ownership of their shifts. The goal is a team that knows what good looks like, understands how its performance connects to the wider business and feels proud of what it delivers.

You’ll also have ownership of the commercial side of the operation. Labour, overtime, waste, consumables, overheads and productivity will all sit within your remit, giving you the opportunity to connect the day-to-day decisions made on the floor with the wider performance of the value stream.

Trendpac is also investing in smarter reporting, automation and the practical use of AI across manufacturing. You don’t need to be a technology specialist. But you will be someone who is curious about what better systems and faster data can unlock, and who sees technology as a way to give teams more clarity rather than more administration.

For six decades, Trendpac has been at the forefront of sustainable plastics and product manufacturing, partnering with renowned retailers across Australia. All with a commitment to sustainability and cutting-edge technology while maintaining the highest standards of safety, quality and efficiency.

If you have a passion for sustainable manufacturing, you have come to the right place. Dedicated to transforming recycled plastics into tangible manufacturing solutions, you’ll be rubbing shoulders with some big players in the manufacturing game while contributing to the continued evolution of Australian manufacturing.

This business is continuing to modernise its capability, strengthen its systems and invest in the people who lead its operation. There is a real sense of resilience across the team. When production lands well, people feel it. They talk about the wins, support one another through the busy days and understand the part they play in keeping the operation moving. This role will have the opportunity to build on that culture and help the team achieve even more together.

You’re someone who understands manufacturing from a practical standpoint. You’ve spent enough time around production to know that the strongest results come from having the right people, standards and communication in place across every shift. You enjoy being close to the floor, coaching leaders, asking questions and seeing improvements come to life in real time. But you can also step back and see the bigger picture.

You understand how labour decisions affect cost, how strong changeovers improve output and how the right investment in capability can change the performance of an entire operation. Your background could come from plastics, packaging, food and beverage, pharmaceutical or animal health manufacturing, household care or another high-volume and regulated production environment. A background in plastics or polymer engineering, or exposure to injection or blow moulding, would be highly regarded.

What matters most is the leadership experience you bring with you. You’ve built capability within teams, led people through periods of change and can point to genuine wins across safety, quality, productivity, waste or cost. You know how to set clear expectations and follow through, while creating enough trust for your leaders to make decisions without everything needing to come back to you.

You’ll ideally bring at least five years of manufacturing leadership experience, supported by broader experience across production or operations. Strong technical curiosity and mechanical aptitude will also be important. You don’t need to be the person turning the tools, but you’ll understand machinery and process performance well enough to engage confidently with operators, maintenance teams and technical specialists.