Career Center

Your Opportunity

As a Career Foundation Program (CFP) Associate, you are sponsored and supported by our Organization’s Senior Leaders along with an assigned mentor and program manager to partner with as you launch your career. This 18 – 24-month training program will develop you into the future leaders of our company. The program is designed for top talent who seek a performance-based culture that is built on Responsibility, Operational Excellence and Innovation (ROI). 

During your 18 – 24-months you will learn from Smithfield Foods leaders, hear from industry experts, and roll up your sleeves to experience the many functional areas of the company. You will engage in challenging and dynamic experiences throughout various Smithfield Foods business areas, locations, and functional groups broken down by Track including:

• Sales & Business
• Supply Chain
• Operations
• Operations Engineering
• Hog Procurement
• Operations Finance
• Distribution Center
• Hog Production
• Feed Mill
• Operations Human Resources

You will be expected to provide business support and thought-leadership to the company throughout the program and beyond. As a CFP Associate you will add value as a full-time employee from day one, doing real work, and delivering real results.

At the conclusion of 24 months, you will be placed into a role where you can add immediate value based on your track assignment and Smithfield Foods business needs.  Your career journey from that point forward is completely in your hands. You are not limited to a set path. 

The Career Foundation Program is divided into function-specific tracks from which you can launch your career journey at Smithfield Foods. These tracks are designed to guide placement following the program.

• Sales & Business Track – including rotations through Business Management, Sales and Marketing
• Operations Track – including rotations through Continuous Improvement, Food Safety & Quality Assurance, Environmental & Safety, Logistics, and Manufacturing
• Hog Procurement Track – including rotations through Hog Purchasing, Meat Quality, and Hog and Farm Contract Negotiations
• Distribution Center Track – including rotations through Distribution Services, Inventory Control and Supervision
• Supply Chain Track –including rotations through Demand Planning, Transportation and Supply Planning
• Operations Engineering Track – including rotations through Engineering Orientation to include exposure to IE/Quality/Production; Corporate Project Work and Supervision
• Operations Finance Track – including rotations through Plant Finance and Accounting, and Corporate Finance and Accounting
• Hog Production Track – including rotations through Breeding, Farrowing and Head of Department
• Feed Mill Track – including rotations through Receiving, Batching, Load Out, Mill Manager Skills and Relief Supervisor
• Operations Human Resources Track - including rotations through Plant Operations, HR Operations and HR Generalist functions

The CFP Associate contributes to the department’s achievement of goals by problem solving, leading projects, executing short-term and long-term responsibilities, and delivering results that exceed expectations.  The Career Foundation Program is designed for high potential college/university graduates who can quickly adapt to new environments and deliver contributions to the departments for which they are assigned.  In a fast past-paced, results-oriented environment, the successful incumbent will complete the program and be ready for assignments commensurate with their Smithfield CFP work experience (18-24 months of relevant work experience).

Core Responsibilities

As a Supply Chain CFP Associate you will experience the key fundamentals of the business through rotations in Demand Planning, Transportation and Supply Planning. During your rotations you will gain exposure to inventory for our distribution centers and plants, understand the company’s performance metrics including fill rate, distress, efficiencies and customer fill rate objectives with goal to meet and exceed. CFP Associates work with our partners in key customers to gain the knowledge and expertise needed for a smooth transition into a permanent role.

• Decide finished goods needed to support customer orders, forecasted demand & inventory stocking requirements From the Consensus Demand Plan
• Establish reorder quantities for finished goods, while considering supply lead time, warehouse and transportation constraints.
• Actively interact with demand management, manufacturing, quality, warehousing & transportation to solve finished goods issues & consumption patterns.
• Measure, analyze, and report key process metrics, while monitoring adherence to key performance indicators (KPI) that are assigned to the assigned product categories.
• Identify possible material shortages against inventory plans and develop action items.
• Responsible for long-term capacity status, weekly category KPI updates, product shortage reporting & ad-hoc daily information flow amongst supply. planning partners (Demand Planning, Customer Service, Purchasing, Manufacturing, Logistics, Business Management). 

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. May perform other duties as assigned.