Plant Operations Director

Plant Operations Director

Cold Steppe Inc. Stuttgart, Arkansas, United States

About this position

About Cold Steppe Inc.

Cold Steppe is building a biomass-to-biochar platform that turns agricultural waste, starting with rice hulls from Arkansas's farming communities, into biochar: a carbon-rich material that improves soil health, sequesters carbon, retains water, and supports food system resilience. Our first facility, AR-1, sits in Stuttgart, Arkansas, the heart of rice country. It's a highly automated, continuous-process operation, and it's the foundation for how Cold Steppe expands across new sites and new regions. We're an early-stage company moving fast — the people who join us now will help define how we operate, what we stand for, and how we scale. See what Cold Steppe is building: youtube.com/watch?v=QwQmHqDSF1Q

The Role

The Plant Operations Director is Cold Steppe's operational leader at AR-1, and its most visible face in Stuttgart. Reporting directly to the Co-Founder and COO,you'llown everything that happens inside the facility, and how Cold Steppe shows up in the community around it, including:

• Safety and environmental compliance: building a culture where hazards get surfaced before they become incidents, not just a compliance checkbox
• Production and operational performance: throughput, yield, quality, and uptime on a continuous, automated production line
• Maintenance and reliability: a practical preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance program
• Quality and continuous improvement: improvement built into the operating rhythm, not treated as a side project
• Operating budget and cost management: significant ownership of the facility's financials, tied to operational decisions
• Hiring, developing, and leading a high-performing team: building one of the most technically interesting manufacturing workforces in the Stuttgart area from the ground up
• Community engagement and workforce development: you'rethe face of Cold Steppe locally – chamberof commerce, schools, site tours for researchers, partners, and investors
• R&D and technical curiosity: AR-1 is Cold Steppe's flagship facility and an active site of learning; new process configurations and product applications get worked out here alongside regular operations, and your fluency in the process feeds that work rather than protecting production from it

You'llwork closely with the founders and play a direct role inshaping howfuture facilities are designed andoperated.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

First 90 Days

Build relationships with the operations team and community partnersLearn the production process and operating systemsEstablish daily operating rhythm and performance metricsReinforce a world-class safety culture

Within the First Year

Deliver safe, reliable productionImprove uptime, throughput, and operating efficiencyBuild scalable operating procedures and maintenance practicesDevelop a strong, engaged workforceHelp create the operational blueprint for future Cold Steppe facilities

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We're looking for someone genuinely curious, deeply capable, and ready to do something that hasn't been done before in this community,someone who has built real things, led real teams, and solved real problems in an industrial environment, and still asks questions like they're new to the field.

Preferred Qualifications

Engineering degree required; equivalent technical manufacturing experience considered case-by-case15+ years of manufacturing, plant, or operations leadership experienceExperience managing a 24/7 continuous manufacturing operationStrong leadership of frontline production and maintenance teamsThermodynamics and power operations background — particularly important as we scale to Alabama sitesMechanical and/or electrical backgroundExperience with safety, environmental compliance, and operational excellenceBudget and cost management responsibilityPreventive and predictive maintenance experienceContinuous improvement mindset (Lean, Six Sigma, TPM, or similar is a plus)Public-facing, community, or educational experience is a meaningful plus — coaching, teaching, workforce development, or anything that required explaining complex things to people whodidn'talready know them

Experience From Industries Such As

Biomass/biochar, thermal or energy systems, forest products, pulp & paper, agricultural processing, chemical processing, food manufacturing, building materials/cement/minerals, or industrial/continuous process manufacturing.

WHY THIS OPPORTUNITY IS DIFFERENT

This is not a traditional Plant Manager position.You'llhave the opportunity to:
Build systems instead of inheriting them
Work directly with company founders
Help shape future facilities across multiple locations
Influence technology, operations, and company culture
Lead one of the most innovative manufacturing operations in the region
Become a visible leader within the local community

FIT CHECK

Who Thrives Here

Curious and technically engagedComfortable in a fast-moving startup environmentHands-on and visible on the plant floorPassionate about developing peopleExcited to build something from the ground upComfortable making decisions without excessive bureaucracy

May Not Be the Right Fit If…

You prefer highly structured corporate environmentsYou need established systems and detailed playbooks beforetaking actionYou prefer managing from an office instead of being visible on the plant floorYou are uncomfortable wearing multiple hats while helping build a growing organization

WHAT WE OFFER

The opportunity to be a foundational hire at a company doing something genuinely importantA direct line to the founding team and real influence over how the facility and the company developA clear path to growth as Cold Steppe scales toadditionalsites

Cold Steppe is actively planningadditionalfacilities. For the right candidate, this role has a natural path from leading AR-1 to Regional Operations Director,overseeing multiple sites, setting the operating standards new facilitieslaunchagainst, and developing the plant leaders who run them.That'snot a requirement of the job on day one, butit'show we see it growing, and the title reflects that trajectory from the start.