Regional Food Safety & Quality Manager-WI​/IL

Regional Food Safety & Quality Manager-WI/IL

This Regional Manager will be over our Lake Mills, Palmyra, and Whitewater/Elkhorn, WI locations as well as our Grant, Park, IL location. Summary The Regional Food Safety & Quality (FSQ) Manager is responsible for leading, implementing, and continuously improving food safety, quality, animal welfare, and biosecurity programs across multiple egg operations, including shell egg grading/packing plants and liquid egg breaking facilities.

This role ensures compliance with USDA FSIS, FDA, state regulations, SQF certification, and customer-specific requirements while driving best-in-class performance aligned with industry-leading and retailer expectations. This position serves as a key technical and leadership resource for operations, corporate teams, regulatory agencies, auditors, and customers, with a strong focus on risk management, audit readiness, continuous improvement, and a proactive food safety culture.

Food Safety & Regulatory Compliance

• Provide regional oversight of food safety systems for shell egg and liquid egg operations including farm pack as applicable, including raw and pasteurized products.
• Ensure compliance with USDA FSIS, FDA (Egg Safety Rule), APHIS, state regulations, and applicable animal food regulations where inedible streams are present.
• Lead development, implementation, and maintenance of HACCP, Preventive Controls, SSOPs, GMPs, Sanitation, and Environmental Monitoring Programs as applicable by facility.
• Act as primary technical liaison with USDA FSIS inspection personnel and regulatory officials.
• Support regulatory interactions, enforcement actions, , and corrective action development.

SQF & Certification Management

• Serve as the regional owner for SQF systems across assigned facilities.
• Ensure ongoing SQF certification readiness, including document control, internal audits, corrective actions, and management reviews.
• Lead or support SQF audits, surveillance audits, unannounced audits, and customer audits.
• Train site teams on SQF Code requirements and best practices.

Audit & Customer Expectations

• Lead preparation and execution of third-party, regulatory, animal welfare, biosecurity and customer audits.
• Ensure alignment with customer-specific standards, specifications, and "best in class" expectations.
• Review audit findings, drive root cause analysis, and ensure timely and effective corrective and preventive actions.
• Monitor and trend audit results, complaints, and key FSQ KPIs across the region.

Animal Welfare & Biosecurity

• Provide oversight and verification of animal welfare programs in accordance with regulatory requirements, industry standards, and customer commitments (e.g., cage-free, Prop 12, UEP, AHC and customer-specific standards).
• Support animal welfare audits and assessments at company-owned and contract farms.
• Partner with operations, live production, and veterinary teams to ensure humane handling, egg collection practices, and documentation compliance.
• Lead and verify biosecurity programs across farms and facilities to prevent disease introduction and cross-contamination.

Quality Systems & Continuous Improvement

• Drive regional standardization of FSQ programs, procedures, and documentation.
• Support product quality programs including specifications, defect reduction, shelf-life management, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Analyze data related to microbiology, complaints, deviations, and non-conformances to identify trends and risks.
• Champion a strong food safety and quality culture through coaching, training, and leadership engagement.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Serve as an integral member of site and regional leadership teams, providing food safety, quality, animal welfare, and biosecurity guidance to operations.
• Provide functional leadership and mentorship to site FSQ managers, FSQ technicians, and quality teams.
• Partner cross-functionally with Operations, Sanitation, Maintenance, Engineering, Live Production, Veterinary Services, Feed/Mill operations, and Supply Chain.
• Assure proper communication is delivered with escalation to the VP, FSQ as needed.
• Act as the designated Biosecurity Coordinator for assigned regions, with authority to enforce biosecurity practices and protocols.
• Collaborate with Animal Welfare and Veterinary teams to integrate animal welfare, egg safety, feed safety, and biosecurity programs across farms, mills, and processing facilities.
• Provide temporary oversight of processing activities and stakeholders in the absence of processing management, as needed.
• Support capital projects, new product/process introductions, and process changes with FSQ risk assessments.
• Participate in crisis management, recall readiness, and traceability exercises.
• Represent company and industry associations as needed.
• Travel to all locations assigned on a regular basis.
• Assist the VP, FSQ with projects as assigned.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The…