Food Safety Operations Manager

Job Description

This role leads food safety operations across a large, complex fulfillment network, ensuring that all sites meet stringent food safety criteria and regulatory requirements. You will manage large-scale food safety programs, respond to incidents, and drive continuous improvement through metrics, technology, and cross-functional collaboration. The position combines strategic program management, hands-on incident response, and stakeholder influence to protect product safety for millions of customers and support scalable business growth.

Responsibilities

+ Maintain a robust set of compliance metrics and key performance indicators to measure performance, track progress, and identify areas for improvement in food safety programs across multiple sites.

+ Execute rapid response protocols for food safety incidents, including investigation, containment, resolution, and documentation of comprehensive corrective actions.

+ Project manage complex, large-scale food safety escalations across multiple facilities, establishing clear action plans, tracking deliverables, and driving accountability for timely closure.

+ Provide regular, structured communication to leadership on critical incidents, program status, resource needs, and risk mitigation efforts.

+ Influence and manage relationships with diverse stakeholders at all levels, from site operations teams to leadership, effectively balancing competing priorities while maintaining food safety compliance standards.

+ Drive program adherence and standard work across multiple facilities, ensuring consistent implementation of food safety policies, procedures, and training.

+ Analyze escalation patterns, incident data, and root causes to identify systemic issues, inform audit priorities, and recommend targeted improvements.

+ Investigate and analyze customer complaints and trending data related to food safety, ensuring thorough documentation, timely resolution, and identification of systemic issues for continuous improvement.

+ Leverage deep knowledge of regulatory frameworks, including the Code of Federal Regulations, Food Safety Modernization Act, FDA guidelines, and Food Code requirements, to ensure audit processes and corrective actions align with current standards.

+ Compose and edit detailed business review documents and written narratives that clearly communicate food safety improvement initiatives, program outcomes, and risk mitigation strategies.

+ Participate in an on-call rotation, including weekend coverage, to support food safety incidents and program implementation across the network.

+ Conduct and support site audits, protocol updates, and cross-functional incident analyses to strengthen food safety management systems.

+ Use technology and data tools to monitor KPI dashboards, identify trends, and drive process improvements in food safety and quality control.

+ Provide guidance and support to site managers, answering food safety questions, documenting corrective actions, and ensuring alignment with regulatory and internal standards.

+ Train and coach cross-functional teams via video conference and other channels to embed food safety standards, culture, and best practices across the network.

+ Work proactively and independently to meet deadlines, deliver on projects and tasks, and ensure that food safety programs are executed effectively at scale.

Essential Skills

+ At least 3 years of experience managing food safety and quality in a large-scale retail or manufacturing environment.

+ Demonstrated experience working at scale across multiple sites or large organizations, particularly in environments with complex fulfillment or production operations.

+ Experience leveraging technology to drive process improvements in food safety, quality control, or operational programs.

+ Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office products and applications for analysis, reporting, and documentation.

+ Ability to travel up to 80% of the time to support food safety incidents, audits, and program implementation across the network.

+ Experience interacting with local food safety regulators and navigating regulatory requirements at local, state, and federal levels.

+ Strong knowledge of food safety management systems, food quality, quality control, and manufacturing environments.

+ Familiarity with USDA, GMP, FDA, and related regulatory and industry standards.

+ Ability to work independently with minimal supervision while maintaining strong analytical skills, attention to detail, and effective communication…