1. What is a Operations Manager at AAK?

As a Process Operations Manager at AAK, you are at the heart of our global purpose: Making Better Happen™. AAK is the world’s leading specialist producer of plant-based oils, and our Louisville, KY facility is a critical hub for manufacturing the high-quality fats and oils that go into everyday consumer products. From making chocolate extra creamy to ensuring the perfect crunch in a croissant, the processes you oversee directly impact the quality, healthfulness, and sustainability of products loved by millions.

In this role, you carry significant strategic and operational weight. You will lead and direct all production activities across complex chemical engineering environments, including raw materials, refinery, bleaching, hydrogenation, interesterification, and deodorization. This is not just a standard manufacturing role; it is a highly technical, fast-paced leadership position that requires balancing rigorous safety standards with continuous improvement, cost leadership, and customer satisfaction.

You will be stepping into an environment that values proactive leadership and cross-functional collaboration. Whether you are partnering with engineering on capital projects, working with customer service to resolve delivery issues, or mentoring frontline operators on the shop floor, your decisions will drive the efficiency and safety of the entire plant. Expect a challenging but deeply rewarding role where your expertise in process operations and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) will shape the future of our manufacturing capabilities.

2. Common Interview Questions

The following questions represent the types of inquiries you will face during your interviews. While you should not memorize answers, use these to identify patterns in what AAK values and to structure your own experiences using the STAR method.

Process Management & Cost Control

This category tests your technical understanding of manufacturing processes and your ability to drive financial efficiency.

• How do you approach scheduling production across multiple dependent departments to maximize throughput and minimize downtime?
• Tell me about a time you identified a significant source of waste or rework in a process. How did you reduce the production cost per pound?
• Describe your process for preparing and managing a departmental budget. How do you track expenses and identify savings?
• Walk me through how you ensure strict adherence to SOPs and quality standards in a complex, multi-stage chemical or food process.

Continuous Improvement (TPM & 5S)

Interviewers want to see practical, hands-on experience implementing Lean methodologies, not just theoretical knowledge.

• Describe a time you successfully implemented 5S standards in a production area. How did you ensure the changes were sustained long-term?
• Give an example of a chronic reliability issue you solved using root cause analysis.
• How do you track and utilize key metrics like OEE, downtime, and PM compliance to drive performance?
• Walk me through how you transition a team from reactive maintenance to autonomous maintenance within a TPM framework.

Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

These questions assess your ability to manage people, resolve conflicts, and build a positive, productive culture.

• Tell me about a time you had to hire, train, and mentor a new frontline operator. What does your onboarding process look like?
• Describe a situation where you had to collaborate with a customer service team to resolve a critical issue.
• How do you maintain open and consistent communication with your team regarding company goals and performance metrics?
• Give an example of how you fostered teamwork between two departments that traditionally had friction (e.g., Production and Maintenance).

Safety & Environmental Leadership

Safety is a core value. You must demonstrate a proactive, uncompromising approach to workplace safety and compliance.

• Tell me about a time you noticed a safety risk on the floor. How did you correct it and ensure it didn't happen again?
• Walk me through your process for leading a safety incident investigation.
• How do you enforce a proactive safety culture rather than just a compliant one?
• Describe your approach to ensuring contractor safety during a major process improvement or capital project.

3. Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparing for an interview at AAK requires a blend of deep technical knowledge, proven leadership experience, and a strong alignment with our safety and continuous improvement culture. Interviewers will look for candidates who can seamlessly transition from high-level strategic planning to hands-on, shop-floor problem solving.

Focus your preparation on these key evaluation criteria:

Process & Technical Acumen – You must demonstrate a deep understanding of industrial chemical processes, specifically in fats and vegetable oils (or highly analogous continuous manufacturing environments). Interviewers will evaluate your ability to manage complex processes like hydrogenation and deodorization while maintaining strict adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and quality standards.

Continuous Improvement & TPM – A core part of this role is driving efficiency. You will be evaluated on your practical experience implementing Lean, Six Sigma, 5S, and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). Strong candidates will provide concrete examples of tracking metrics like Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), reducing downtime, and empowering operators to take ownership of routine equipment care.

Frontline Leadership & Culture – You will be managing a large team of operators and technicians. Interviewers will assess your ability to hire, train, mentor, and foster a best-in-class workplace culture. You must show how you maintain open communication, manage performance, and align your team with company goals.

Safety & Environmental Compliance – Safety is a non-negotiable core value at AAK. You will be evaluated on your ability to model and enforce a proactive safety culture. Be prepared to discuss how you monitor risks, lead incident investigations, and ensure contractor safety during complex capital projects.

4. Interview Process Overview

The interview process for the Process Operations Manager role is designed to be rigorous, practical, and highly collaborative. You will engage with various stakeholders, including HR, the Plant Manager, cross-functional peers (such as Engineering and Safety Managers), and potentially global operations leaders. The process balances behavioral assessments with deep-dive technical and operational scenarios.

Expect the conversations to move quickly from your high-level leadership philosophy to granular details about production scheduling, budget management, and root cause analysis. AAK places a heavy emphasis on data-driven decision-making and proactive problem-solving. You will likely be asked to walk interviewers through past projects where you successfully reduced waste, improved safety metrics, or implemented a new continuous improvement initiative.

This visual timeline outlines the typical stages of your interview journey, from the initial recruiter screen to the final onsite panel and plant tour. Use this to anticipate the shifting focus of each round—early stages will prioritize your overall background and cultural fit, while later stages will rigorously test your technical process knowledge, TPM expertise, and frontline leadership capabilities.

5. Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed in your interviews, you must master the specific competencies that drive success at AAK. Below is a detailed breakdown of the core evaluation areas and what interviewers expect to hear.

Process Operations & Cost Leadership

This area tests your ability to run a tight, efficient, and cost-effective manufacturing operation. Interviewers want to see that you can manage daily production scheduling across multiple complex departments while aligning with customer demand and output specifications.

Be ready to go over:

• Production Scheduling – How you balance raw material intake with refining, bleaching, and deodorization schedules to meet customer deadlines.
• Budgeting & Cost Control – Your experience preparing departmental budgets, tracking expenses, and reducing the production cost per pound without compromising quality.
• Maintenance Coordination – How you collaborate with engineering to direct both preventative and corrective maintenance, as well as capital improvement projects.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Integrating new product lines into existing continuous processes, or managing supply chain disruptions for raw materials.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk me through a time you identified a bottleneck in a continuous manufacturing process. How did you resolve it and what was the impact on cost?"
• "How do you balance the need for preventative maintenance downtime with urgent customer production demands?"

Continuous Improvement (TPM & 5S)

AAK relies heavily on continuous improvement methodologies to maintain its competitive edge. You will be evaluated on your hands-on experience driving TPM and 5S initiatives, rather than just theoretical knowledge. Strong performance means showing how you moved a facility from reactive to autonomous maintenance.

Be ready to go over:

• 5S Implementation & Auditing – How you establish, audit, and sustain clean, safe, and efficient workspaces.
• Autonomous Maintenance – Your strategies for empowering production operators to take ownership of routine equipment care.
• Metrics Tracking – How you utilize OEE, downtime reports, and PM compliance data to drive continuous improvement.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Describe a specific TPM initiative you championed. How did you get frontline operators to buy into autonomous maintenance?"
• "If your 5S audit scores are consistently dropping in a specific department, how do you address the root cause with the team?"

Frontline Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

As a leader of the plant floor, your ability to inspire, manage, and communicate is critical. Interviewers will assess your emotional intelligence, conflict resolution skills, and ability to build a cohesive culture. Furthermore, you must demonstrate how you collaborate with Customer Service, Purchasing, and Technical teams.

Be ready to go over:

• Performance Management – Handling scheduling, evaluations, and professional development for plant staff.
• Culture Building – Promoting a workplace culture aligned with AAK’s guiding pillars.
• Cross-Departmental Synergy – Resolving issues with customer service teams to improve service delivery and overall customer experience.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to manage a difficult or underperforming frontline employee. What steps did you take?"
• "Give an example of how you partnered with a customer service team to resolve a critical product quality or delivery issue."

Safety & Environmental Leadership

Safety is paramount in chemical and food processing environments. You must prove that you do not just follow safety rules, but actively foster a proactive safety culture.

Be ready to go over:

• Risk Mitigation – Monitoring and correcting safety risks before they become incidents.
• Incident Investigation – Leading root cause analysis for safety or environmental breaches.
• Contractor Safety – Ensuring external vendors adhere to strict plant safety regulations during projects.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk me through a complex safety investigation you led. What was the root cause, and what systemic changes did you implement?"
• "How do you ensure contractor safety when executing a large capital project in an active production area?"

6. Key Responsibilities

As a Process Operations Manager at AAK, your day-to-day work is a dynamic mix of strategic oversight and hands-on operational execution. You will start most days reviewing safety logs, production metrics, and OEE reports from the previous shifts. Your primary responsibility is ensuring that the raw materials, refinery, bleaching, hydrogenation, interesterification, and deodorization departments are running safely, efficiently, and strictly to SOPs.

You will spend a significant portion of your time on the shop floor, engaging directly with operators and technicians. You are the champion of TPM and 5S practices, meaning you will regularly perform audits, address operational gaps, and mentor your team on root cause analysis for chronic reliability issues. You are not just managing people; you are empowering them to take ownership of their workspaces and equipment.

Collaboration is a constant in this role. You will work closely with the Environmental and Safety Manager to address compliance issues, partner with Engineering to direct preventative maintenance and capital projects, and align with Customer Service to ensure production schedules meet external demands. Additionally, you will be responsible for the financial health of your departments—preparing budgets, tracking daily expenses, and continuously seeking opportunities to reduce waste, rework, and the overall production cost per pound.

7. Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be a highly competitive candidate for the Operations Manager position at AAK, you must bring a strong blend of technical education and extensive industrial experience.

• Must-have skills – A Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering (or a closely related technical field) is required. You must have 10+ years of experience in operations management within an industrial or manufacturing environment. Proven frontline leadership skills, deep knowledge of production safety regulations, and a firm grasp of quality standards are non-negotiable. Strong financial acumen for budget management and cost leadership is also essential.
• Nice-to-have skills – Experience specifically within food manufacturing, fats, or vegetable oil processing is a massive advantage. Formal certifications or deeply proven experience in continuous improvement methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, and TPM will strongly differentiate you from other candidates.

Your soft skills are just as critical as your technical background. You must possess excellent problem-solving abilities, exceptional communication skills to bridge the gap between the shop floor and executive leadership, and a collaborative mindset to work effectively across departments.

8. Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How technical are the interviews for this role? Because the role requires a chemical engineering background and oversees complex processes like hydrogenation and deodorization, expect a high degree of technical scrutiny. You won't be asked to solve complex equations on a whiteboard, but you will be expected to fluently discuss process flows, fluid dynamics, heat exchange, and equipment reliability.

Q: What differentiates a good candidate from a great candidate? A good candidate has strong management experience and understands manufacturing. A great candidate speaks the language of TPM and 5S fluently, can point to specific, quantified reductions in production costs (e.g., cost per pound), and possesses the emotional intelligence to truly inspire frontline operators rather than just directing them.

Q: What is the culture like at the AAK Louisville plant? The culture is highly collaborative, safety-obsessed, and driven by continuous improvement. AAK’s motto is "Making Better Happen," which translates internally to a constant push for better efficiency, better safety, and better teamwork. Expect a hands-on environment where leaders are visible on the shop floor.

Q: How much preparation time should I dedicate to continuous improvement topics? A significant amount. The job description heavily emphasizes Lean, Six Sigma, TPM, OEE, and 5S. You should have multiple, detailed STAR-format stories ready that showcase your direct involvement in leading these initiatives, auditing them, and sustaining the results.

9. Other General Tips

• Quantify Your Impact: Whenever possible, use hard numbers. Don't just say you "improved efficiency." State that you "increased OEE by 12% over six months, resulting in a 5% reduction in production cost per pound."
• Lead with Safety: In any operational scenario you are given, mention safety first. If asked how you would handle a sudden equipment breakdown, your first step should always be to secure the area and ensure the safety of the operators before diagnosing the mechanical issue.

• Speak to the Frontline: AAK values leaders who respect and empower their operators. Highlight your ability to listen to shop-floor technicians, involve them in root cause analysis, and give them ownership over autonomous maintenance.
• Structure with STAR: Use the Situation, Task, Action, Result framework for all behavioral questions. Be specific about the Action you took personally, rather than just what the team did.

• Know the Processes: Brush up on the specific processes mentioned in the job description: refining, bleaching, hydrogenation, interesterification, and deodorization. Even if your background is in a different chemical or food manufacturing sector, be prepared to discuss how your experience translates to these specific vegetable oil processes.

10. Summary & Next Steps

Securing the Process Operations Manager role at AAK is an opportunity to lead complex, high-impact manufacturing processes for a global leader in sustainable plant-based oils. You will be stepping into a position where your expertise in chemical engineering, continuous improvement, and frontline leadership will directly influence the quality of products consumed worldwide.

The compensation data above reflects the base salary range for this role in Louisville, KY, alongside a potential 10% bonus structure. Where you land within this range will depend heavily on your years of specialized industrial experience, your mastery of continuous improvement methodologies (like TPM and Six Sigma), and your proven track record of cost leadership.

To succeed, focus your preparation on crafting compelling, data-backed narratives that showcase your ability to drive OEE, reduce waste, and champion a proactive safety culture. Remember that AAK is looking for a leader who can seamlessly bridge the gap between strategic budgeting and hands-on, shop-floor mentoring. Approach your interviews with confidence, knowing that your structured preparation will allow your technical expertise and leadership qualities to shine. For more insights and targeted preparation resources, continue exploring your interview tools on Dataford. You have the experience and the capability—now go make better happen.