Processing Manager

At Rubicon Organics, our vision is to be the most trusted house of premium cannabis brands – creating elevated experiences for people everywhere. Our mission is to build brands people believe in by delivering elevated experiences in all we do. Through uncompromising quality, purposeful innovation, and trusted partnerships, we create products and relationships that enrich lives and help shape the future of cannabis.The Processing Manager is a builder: a hands-on, systems-minded leader who develops people, strengthens processing capability, and improves the way Rubicon thinks about product quality, customer expectations, drying, curing, trimming, sanitation, bulk pack, and milling coordination. This role must stay close to the floor while also advancing the science behind post-harvest processing, using customer feedback, complaint trends, climate data, trials, and external learning to challenge assumptions and improve outcomes. The Manager owns team development, operational flow, SOP discipline, budget awareness, cross-functional alignment, customer complaint follow-up, production order variance approval, and continuous improvement. Success requires strong communication, curiosity, coaching discipline, practical processing experience, and the ability to build durable systems that improve quality, output, worker experience, and brand performance. This role is based at our Pacifica facility in Delta, BC, and reports to the Senior Cultivation Manager.
Key ResponsibilitiesTalent Leadership & People Development

• Develop Supervisors and Leads through regular 1:1s, coaching, clear expectations, development plans, stretch assignments, and succession planning.
• Build a culture of accountability, curiosity, learning, collaboration, and ownership across the processing team.

Operational Excellence & Systems Building (LSS)

• Apply Lean Six Sigma thinking, standard work, visual management, data review, and root-cause discipline to improve flow, reduce waste, and strengthen consistency.
• Build practical systems, trackers, dashboards, escalation flows, and routines that make the right behavior easy and repeatable.
• Identify process trials, automation opportunities, bottlenecks, and method changes that improve quality, output, labour efficiency, and worker experience.

Drying & Curing Science, Climate Strategy

• Stay current on drying and curing science, terpene and cannabinoid preservation, moisture management, climate strategy, and emerging post-harvest technology.
• Advance Rubicon’s processing approach by translating external learning, climate data, trials, customer feedback, and quality trends into SOPs, training, and better decision-making.
• Partner with Cultivation, Quality, R&D, Maintenance, and Planning to improve drying and curing outcomes and challenge outdated ways of working.

Defect Reduction, Output & Worker Experience

• Reduce defects, retrims, quality holds, and customer complaints through prevention, training, environmental control, customer understanding, and RCA follow-through.
• Improve output and worker experience through balanced labor deployment, ergonomic thinking, fair scheduling, clear expectations, recognition, and removal of non-value-added work.

Departmental Oversight & Floor Presence

• Oversee processing, trimming, dry rooms, curing, sanitation, bulk pack, milling coordination, and related operational performance.
• Maintain regular floor presence to assess quality, dry room and curing status, tote checks, RMA activity, people performance, and readiness against plan.

Financial & Labor Oversight

• Own weekly budget and performance review, including identifying overspending, labor opportunities, automation opportunities, and areas for improvement.
• Manage Clockify entries and ensure labor tracking is complete and accurate.

Communication & Collaborative Workspace

• Communicate clearly in writing and verbally through structured meetings, weekly updates, documented decisions, risk escalation, and follow-up discipline.
• Build a collaborative, respectful workspace and coach Supervisors and Leads on communication standards, meeting discipline, and escalation etiquette.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Lead cross-functional alignment with Planning, Warehouse, Packaging, R&D, Extraction, Quality, Maintenance, and Cultivation when priorities, risks, or trade-offs need escalation.
• Clarify grade use, demand timing, milling versus whole flower direction, room scheduling, sample timing, processing tracker updates, and urgent demand needs.

Production Order Review & Variance Approval

• Review production orders for capacity, material availability, expected versus actual quantities, component changes, variances, and reconciliation readiness.
• Approve variances only after confirming whether they are true variances, component changes, logging errors, typos, or missing information.

Customer Complaints, RCAs & Final Quality Call

• Own customer complaint follow-up by assigning RCA work, reviewing findings, escalating gaps, and ensuring corrective and preventive actions are implemented.
• Use customer complaints, quality trends, and RCA data to better understand the customer, improve processing decisions, and update SOPs or training.

Compliance & SOP Ownership

• Own SOP changes, new process implementation, audit readiness, ES records, sanitation logs, environmental monitoring, traceability, and processing documentation.
• Ensure work follows GACP/GPP standards, BC OHS Regulation, Health Canada requirements, and Rubicon’s internal compliance expectations.

Meeting Cadence

• Maintain cadence for safety/results meetings, PO reviews, Quality and process improvement meetings, customer complaint meetings, international meetings, planning alignment, biweekly Supervisor 1:1s, monthly Lead check-ins, warehouse touchpoints, and maintenance project meetings.

Health & Safety

• Lead by example on PPE, WHMIS, biosecurity, incident follow-up, near-miss reporting, hazard closure, and safe execution of processing work.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressive experience in cannabis or regulated production, including direct management of supervisors and front-line leaders.
• Hands-on processing experience that demonstrably elevates brand and product quality.
• Lean Six Sigma training (Green Belt or higher preferred); proven application of LSS methods to deliver measurable improvements.
• Deep working knowledge of drying and curing science, including climate strategy and environmental control for drying rooms (Stratus or comparable).
• Proven track record of developing people and building systems that scale.
• Strong financial discipline — budget ownership, labor planning, and cost-per-gram thinking.
• Experience owning SOPs, leading RCAs, and driving cross-functional process improvement.
• Excellent leadership, negotiation, and written and verbal communication skills.
• Proficient with MS Office (Excel, Outlook, Teams), Planner, Clockify, Humi, and Stratus (or comparable environmental control platforms).

Why Rubicon

• Be part of a team that values quality, compliance, and doing things the right way.
• Join a publicly listed, mission-led company focused on sustainability and product excellence.
• Work in a collaborative environment with smart people who value initiative and curiosity.
• Base salary of $80,000–$90,000
• 15% bonus potential
• Monthly phone stipend
• Unlimited vacation
• Medical and dental benefits after 3 months

We believe hiring should be a human process. Every application is reviewed by our team, and we do not use artificial intelligence or automated tools to screen, rank, or make decisions about candidates.We take a deliberate approach to evaluating each applicant based on their experience, skills, and potential, ensuring every candidate is considered thoughtfully and fairly.