Your Employer
Our client is a respected player in Australia's seafood export sector, based in Cairns and renowned for its sustainable harvesting, international reach, and long-term success. With an agile, founder-led culture and close relationships across Asia, the business is transitioning its leadership and now seeks an operations manager who will grow into the CEO role over the next two years. The company thrives on strong values, detail-driven operations, and close teamwork across its factory, fishing, and trading arms.
The Role
This is a rare opportunity to join as Operations Manager, a small COO role and step into a CEO role within two years, working directly under the founder and current Managing Director. You'll take charge of production and team operations, while gradually learning commercial export, trading, and client engagement from the business's leadership.
Key responsibilities:
* Lead daily operations at the Portsmith facility to ensure quality and efficiency.
* Build strong working relationships with factory and production teams.
* Support export documentation, product quality assurance, and compliance.
* Work closely with the CEO on trading strategy, pricing, and offshore relationships.
* Contribute to new commercial leads, markets, and product opportunities.
* Participate in regular site checks, including occasional weekends.
* Travel to Asia (~2x/year) and USA (~1x/year) for client and market engagement.
About You
You're an ambitious, grounded leader ready to take the reins of a hands-on business. You'll ideally come from a small-to-medium enterprise, family business, or agri/seafood background—and bring the detail focus, commercial smarts, and personal commitment required to evolve into a CEO role.
Selection criteria:
* Background in operations, production or supply chain, ideally in food or seafood.
* Exposure to or interest in exports, trading or international markets.
* High attention to detail and ability to manage hands-on operational challenges.
* Strong communication and interpersonal skills, across factory and boardroom settings.
* Resilient, self-directed, and capable of handling high expectations.
* Desirable: prior business ownership or experience in founder-led/family enterprises.
The Benefits:
Step into a pivotal leadership role with a structured transition into CEO over two years. Learn directly from the founder while gaining broad commercial exposure and international experience.
Remuneration:
* Salary package: ~$160,000 + superannuation
* Travel exposure to Asia and USA
* Future incentives post-transition
* Cairns-based lifestyle with local and international scope
Choose Agri Talent