Planning and Production Director

Planning and Production Director

Symrise AG is a global leader in fragrances, flavors, and cosmetic ingredients, serving diverse industries from perfumes to pet food. With a strong commitment to economic success and corporate responsibility, Symrise operates globally and focuses on developing innovative, market-ready concepts for everyday products. SFA NEROLI, a subsidiary specializing in flavors and fragrances, is a hub of creative and technical excellence with operations in France, UAE, and Thailand, supporting the perfume, cosmetics, home care, and detergency industries.

Your Role

Reporting to the Site Management, you will define, lead, and implement the company's planning and production strategy, aligning with commercial, financial, and Supply Chain objectives. You will be accountable for overall industrial performance, encompassing safety, quality, cost, delivery, and productivity. This involves overseeing planning, production control, manufacturing, internal logistics, and supply, and developing the master production plan in collaboration with Sales, Finance, and Supply Chain teams to balance industrial capacity, service levels, and cost control.

You will manage a large operational team of over 70 employees, including supervisors, team leaders, operators, and planners. Your responsibilities include ensuring the optimal availability and allocation of human, technical, and material resources, while actively supporting team upskilling and development.

You will drive industrial performance through rigorous KPI monitoring, scorecard analysis, daily performance reviews, and the deployment of structured action plans. You will foster a strong culture of operational excellence, continuous improvement, and safety, utilizing LEAN, TPM, Kaizen, and 5S methodologies.

In a transformative context, you will lead capacity and efficiency improvement projects, support the digitalization and automation of workshops, and optimize the use of automated production management systems (SWAR or equivalent). Collaboration with technical teams for connected solutions, equipment reliability, and the implementation of work standards and autonomous maintenance practices will be key.

You will operate in close collaboration with support functions such as planning, logistics, purchasing, quality, HR, and finance, as well as internal stakeholders like Sales and Business Units, to align priorities, secure industrial flows, and address operational needs, including sample order processing.

Finally, you will contribute to the definition and deployment of the site and company Supply Chain strategy, providing a structured, global vision focused on sustainable performance.

About You

• Engineering degree in mechanical engineering or chemistry required.
• Minimum 10 years of experience managing production teams in demanding, international industrial environments, specifically within the flavors and/or fragrance industry.
• Experience in both SME and large group environments is essential.
• Inspiring leadership to mobilize and unite multidisciplinary teams.
• Balance of strong shopfloor presence and strategic perspective, with a commitment to safety and rigorous performance.
• Deep expertise in manufacturing processes and industrial systems within the flavors/fragrances sector.
• Strong command of continuous improvement tools (LEAN, TPM, Kaizen, 5S).
• Structured, organized, results-driven, capable of leading complex transformations.
• Effective collaboration in cross-functional environments with diverse stakeholders.
• Active role in industrial transformation, including digitalization and automation.
• Fluent English (written and spoken) and comfort in international, multicultural settings.

Our Offer

• A permanent, full-time executive contract.
• Opportunity to play a central role in industrial structuring and maturity growth.
• Develop the organization and teams, implement Group processes, and strengthen operational performance.
• Clarify roles and interfaces, ensure adoption of standards and best practices, maintain shopfloor engagement.
• Contribute to deploying a safety-driven, continuous improvement culture focused on long-term performance.
• Strong human dimension: retaining talent, developing internal capabilities, creating an engaging work environment.
• Competitive salary: €70-80k depending on profile.
• Additional benefits: meal vouchers, RTT, profit sharing.
• Based in Saint-Cézaire-sur-Siagne, France.

Key skills/competency

• Planning and Production Director
• Production Strategy
• Supply Chain Management
• Operational Excellence
• Lean Manufacturing
• Team Management
• Continuous Improvement
• Industrial Performance
• KPI Monitoring
• Flavors and Fragrances Industry