Global meat snack manufacturer scaling production and supply chain operations
Jack Link's operates a vertically integrated meat snacking business across 11 countries with ~1,000–5,000 employees and an engineering-light, ops-heavy hiring mix heavily weighted toward manufacturing and operations roles. The tech stack reveals a traditional ERP-driven supply-chain company (SAP S/4HANA, SAP APO, SCADA, MES) now adding modern cloud and AI capabilities (Azure, Power BI, RAG adoption) — a typical trajectory for food & beverage manufacturing prioritizing equipment reliability and forecast accuracy. Active hiring for S&OP leads, quality assurance roles, and payroll system integrations points to internal pain around inventory, forecast accuracy, and compliance automation.
Notable leadership hires: Team Lead, Demand & S&OP Process Lead, Quality Assurance Lead, Chief Financial Officer
Jack Link's Protein Snacks is a family-owned meat snack manufacturer headquartered in Minong, Wisconsin, with additional corporate presence in Minneapolis and operations spanning 11 countries including the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, and Canada. The company manufactures and distributes a portfolio of protein snack products targeting consumers across retail, foodservice, and e-commerce channels. Core operational challenges center on reducing equipment downtime, improving forecast accuracy, managing inventory levels, and maintaining USDA and food safety compliance — common pain points in scaled manufacturing. Current strategic initiatives include new product development, TikTok Shop channel expansion, S&OP cycle optimization, and HRIS system upgrades.
SAP S/4HANA for ERP, SAP APO for supply-chain planning, SAP SuccessFactors for HR, MES and SCADA for manufacturing automation, Power BI and SAP Analytics Cloud for reporting, Azure and AWS for cloud infrastructure, with recent RAG adoption.
Key projects include new product development, TikTok Shop channel expansion, S&OP cycle optimization, payroll system integrations, and product line improvements. Quality assurance and USDA compliance strengthening are active initiatives.
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