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.
Audit, Compliance & Risk Management
- 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.
Performance & Continuous Improvement
- 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.
Leadership & Cross-Functional Support
- 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.
Qualifications & Skills
- 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.