Senior Manager of Food Safety and Quality

It's fun to work in a company where people truly BELIEVE in what they're doing!
We're committed to bringing passion and customer focus to the business.

Duties & Responsibilities

Food Safety, Quality & Sanitation Systems Leadership

• Lead and manage all Food Safety, Sanitation, and Quality Assurance functions, including but not limited to:
  • SQF system management and certification readiness
  • Preventive Controls / PCQI programs
  • HACCP program oversight
  • Food Quality Plan management
  • Allergen control, gluten program, organic program, and other prerequisite programs
  • Sanitation program oversight, validation, verification, and continuous improvement
  • Environmental monitoring and hygienic controls
  • Document control and quality system records management
• Maintain and continuously improve the site Food Safety, Sanitation, and Quality Management Systems to ensure compliance with regulatory, customer, and certification requirements.
• Provide oversight of sanitation performance, sanitation effectiveness, pre-operational readiness, and sanitation-related corrective actions.
• Serve as the site quality authority with responsibility for product hold, release, disposition decisions, and escalation of food safety or quality risks, including stop-production authority when warranted.

• Lead all internal, customer, certification, and regulatory audits and maintain audit readiness.
• Lead food safety, sanitation, and quality incident investigations, root cause analysis, corrective and preventive actions (CAPA), and recall readiness activities.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements, customer standards, and company policies.
• Lead risk assessments and support crisis management response related to food safety and quality events.

• Develop, monitor, analyze, and communicate quality and sanitation metrics and KPIs; drive actions to close performance gaps.
• Lead initiatives to improve process capability, reduce defects, strengthen sanitation effectiveness, lower cost of quality, and improve operational efficiencies.
• Recommend and support quality, sanitation, production, and process improvements through data-driven problem solving and cross-functional collaboration.

• Provide strategic quality and food safety support to the Senior Leadership Team.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Quality and Sanitation teams, fostering accountability, capability growth, and a strong food safety culture.
• Partner cross-functionally with Operations, Maintenance, Sanitation, Supply Chain, and other departments to drive shared ownership of food safety and quality.
• Support supplier and customer quality initiatives, complaint investigations, and customer audit requirements as needed.
• Perform other duties and strategic initiatives as assigned in support of business objectives.

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Biology, Engineering, or related scientific field preferred.
• SQF Practitioner certification or equivalent experience.
• PCQI certification.
• HACCP certification.
• Minimum 7+ years progressive experience in Food Safety and Quality within food manufacturing, including leadership experience.
• Experience in GFSI-certified manufacturing environments preferred.
• Demonstrated experience managing food safety and quality systems within USDA and FDA regulated environments, including regulatory inspections, compliance programs, and agency interactions preferred.
  • Food Safety and Inspection Service
  • Food and Drug Administration
• Experience leading sanitation programs, environmental monitoring systems, and hygienic design controls preferred.
• Working knowledge of manufacturing processes, process controls, and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Experience with root cause analysis, CAPA systems, and data-driven performance management.
• Lean / Six Sigma experience preferred.
• Strong leadership, communication, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration skills.