Director Sanitation

Position Summary

The Director of Sanitation is a strategic and operational leader responsible for developing, implementing, and continuously improving the enterprise-wide sanitation program across 12 food manufacturing facilities. Reporting to the Senior Director, FSQA & Regulatory, this position provides leadership, technical expertise, and direction to ensure all products are manufactured in a sanitary, hygienic, and regulatory‑compliant environment that protects consumer safety, product quality, and company reputation.

The Director of Sanitation will establish and execute a comprehensive 3–5-year sanitation strategy focused on advancing best-in-class sanitation practices, standardization, risk reduction, operational excellence, and continuous improvement across all facilities. This role will drive harmonization of sanitation programs, develop sanitation talent and organizational capability, implement innovative cleaning technologies and equipment, and ensure compliance with FSMA, GFSI, customer and regulatory requirements.

The successful candidate will serve as the company’s sanitation subject matter expert, leading initiatives that optimize sanitation effectiveness, improve cleaning validation and verification programs, reduce food safety risks associated with allergens and cross-contamination, identify cost‑saving opportunities, and support hygienic design principles in facility, process, and equipment development. This leader will proactively leverage industry best practices, emerging technologies, automation, data analytics, and continuous improvement methodologies to enhance sanitation performance, operational efficiency, and overall business results.

• Serve as the corporate sanitation subject matter expert and primary resource for sanitation‑related initiatives, risk assessments, and problem‑solving.
• Directly manage the Corporate Sanitation Manager and provide functional leadership to plant sanitation leaders across all manufacturing facilities.
• Develop and execute a 3–5-year sanitation strategy aligned with company goals, regulatory requirements, and industry best practices.
• Lead the development, implementation, and governance of enterprise sanitation standards, SSOPs, cleaning validation and verification programs, and sanitation systems to drive consistency and harmonization across all manufacturing facilities.
• Ensure sanitation programs effectively prevent microbiological, allergen, foreign material, and cross‑contamination risks.
• Lead the evaluation, selection, and implementation of emerging sanitation technologies, equipment, automation systems, chemicals, and cleaning methodologies to improve sanitation effectiveness, food safety performance, operational efficiency, sustainability, and cost optimization across all manufacturing facilities.
• Drive continuous sanitation innovation through the advancement of CIP optimization, dry‑cleaning strategies, automated and robotic sanitation systems, environmental monitoring technologies, and data‑driven sanitation tools to maintain industry‑leading sanitation and food safety programs.
• Benchmark sanitation programs against leading food manufacturing organizations and industry best practices.
• Ensure compliance with FSMA Preventive Controls requirements, GFSI standards, USDA, FDA, customer requirements, and applicable regulatory expectations.
• Serve as the enterprise sanitation leader by partnering with Operations, FSQA, Engineering, Maintenance, EH&S, Procurement, Supply Chain, and Plant Leadership to align sanitation programs with business objectives, strengthen food safety and regulatory compliance, optimize operational performance, and drive continuous improvement across all manufacturing facilities.
• Lead sanitation readiness efforts for customer, regulatory, and third‑party audits.
• Drive post‑sanitation inspection and audit programs with documented corrective actions.
• Support root‐cause investigations, corrective actions, and preventive action programs related to sanitation, food safety, and environmental monitoring findings.
• Establish and oversee sanitation performance management systems, including KPIs, scorecards, dashboards,…