General Manager

About Right Coast Brands

Right Coast Brands makes beer, hard seltzer, spirits-based cocktails, wine-based RTDs, and functional non-alcoholic beverages out of a single facility in Framingham, Massachusetts.

We build those products for beverage brands. Some are early and moving fast, some are names you would know. We also own and operate Winch and Pulley Beer Co., our house brand and taproom, which opened this spring.

The plant is built for more volume than it currently runs. That is the opportunity in this role.

The Role

You run the plant.

Production scheduling across every product and every client. Quality. TTB compliance. Materials. The production team. And the physical plant of the taproom, including the draft system, the equipment, and the facility.

You report directly to the CEO. You are the senior operating person in the building, and there is no layer between you and the decision.

The Plant

• Full brewhouse and cellar, with tankage well ahead of what the packaging floor currently moves
• Two canning lines, one running every format we offer, one high-speed on standard formats
• Sleek and standard cans across the range, plus kegging, bottling, and spirits packaging
• Retail-ready packout and full seam verification logged on every run

The packaging floor is the constraint, not the liquid. There is real headroom between what this plant is rated to do and what it currently does. Closing that gap is the job. Full equipment and capacity detail shared at interview.

What You Will Own

Production scheduling and execution

• Build and own the weekly and 13-week production schedule across brewing, canning, kegging, and spirits packaging
• Sequence client runs against tank availability, line hours, materials readiness, and commitments
• Run brewhouse and cellar operations end to end
• Operate and change over the canning line, and own line efficiency and packaging loss
• Hit yield targets and report actual against theoretical on every batch

Quality

• Own QA/QC across every product we make: sensory, dissolved oxygen, ABV, carbonation, micro, and finished goods release
• Own seam quality, including teardowns, specs, and documentation
• Own sanitation and CIP programs
• Own the quality conversation with clients

Compliance

• Own TTB recordkeeping and reporting across all federal permits
• Own state and local compliance documentation
• Maintain food safety programs and support customer and third-party audits
• Own facility safety, training, and incident reporting

Materials

• Forecast raw material needs against the schedule and place purchase orders
• Manage supplier relationships, MOQs, and lead times across malt, hops, yeast, flavors, juices, cans, ends, kegs, and packaging
• Maintain accurate inventory and reconcile monthly
• Flag cost drift before it becomes a margin problem

Team and equipment

• Hire, train, schedule, and lead the production team
• Own preventive maintenance across brewhouse, cellar, packaging, glycol, and utilities
• Manage service vendors and coordinate technical visits

Taproom, physical plant

• Own draft system quality: weekly caustic cleans, monthly deep cleans, quarterly professional service
• Own facilities, equipment, and physical readiness of the space

Client-facing

• Serve as the production point of contact for our brand partners
• Support new product trials, pilot batches, and scale-up
• Translate a spec sheet into a production reality, and tell a founder straight when something will not work

The Experience We Are Looking For

You have run a plant. Probably a regional operation somewhere in the 5,000 to 15,000 barrel range, where you owned the schedule, the team, the compliance calendar, and the equipment, and where there was nobody above you to escalate to when the seamer drifted at 2pm on a Friday.

• 5+ years commercial brewing production, with at least 2 leading a team
• Hands-on canning line experience: changeovers, seam specs, fill accuracy, and troubleshooting without calling a tech
• Demonstrated TTB ownership. You have personally filed, not supported someone who did
• Real mechanical aptitude. You diagnose and fix
• Purchasing and supplier management. You have negotiated lead times and MOQs, not just submitted requisitions
• Ownership of throughput. You have been accountable for what actually came off the line, not just what was scheduled
• Comfort with pace. Multiple products, multiple clients, changing priorities, decisions made same-day

Physical requirements

• Ability to lift 55 lbs repeatedly and work on your feet
• Forklift operation, certified or willing to certify
• Availability for early mornings and occasional weekends during peak production

On Category Experience

If you have only made beer, that is not a problem. Non-alcoholic and RTD manufacturing is teachable and I will teach it personally. I have been in beverage since 2006 and built a national better-for-you soda brand before this.

What takes years to build is brewing judgment and packaging line instinct. That is what we are screening for. The rest I can hand you.

What sets you apart

• Contract manufacturing or co-packing background
• Spirits-based RTD, hard seltzer, or functional non-alcoholic production
• DSP operations
• HACCP, SQF, or PCQI certification
• You have commissioned, dialed in, or rescued an underperforming packaging line
• Track record improving throughput and OEE on existing equipment

Compensation

Base $85,000 to $92,000 depending on experience, plus a bonus of up to $18,000 annually, paid quarterly against four measures:

• On-time delivery, 40%
• Yield and waste, 25%
• Quality, 25%
• Safety, 10%

Targets are set at the start of each quarter and shared in writing. You will know what you are measured on and where you stand. It pays quarterly because an annual bonus is a promise and a quarterly bonus is a paycheck.

Target total compensation: $103,000 to $110,000. Also included: PTO and a $500 per month wellness stipend. We do not currently offer a group health plan.

First Year

30 days. You know every piece of equipment, every SOP, and every client spec. You have run production alongside the team. You have identified the three things you would fix first, with cost and impact.

90 days. You own the schedule outright. Yield and loss tracked on every run. TTB filings go out without my review. Preventive maintenance is live.

180 days. Measurable increase in packaged output against baseline. Both lines running to their rated capability. Material loss and changeover time down. Client run reports going out unprompted.

12 months. Production is something we sell against, not something we plan around. You are the reason brands renew.

Why This One

Most brewery jobs are one brand, one recipe set, one line, and a ceiling you can see from the day you start.

Here you are making beer, spirits cocktails, seltzer, and functional non-alcoholic products for a growing roster of brands, plus our own label and taproom. The technical range is wider than anywhere else you could take this experience, the pace is faster, and you own all of it.

There is more capability in this building than we are currently getting out of it. The person who takes this job gets to close that gap and own the result. You will learn more here in a year than in five somewhere else, and you will have the authority to build it the way it should be built.

To Apply

Send a resume and a short note to cheers@rightcoast.co. Tell me the hardest packaging problem you have solved and how you solved it. Skip the cover letter template. Three honest paragraphs is better.

Right Coast Brands is an equal opportunity employer. We hire on capability and character.