About the RoleThis position provides strategic and hands-on leadership for quality assurance, food safety, regulatory compliance, and occupational safety programs across manufacturing operations. This role is essential for supporting rapid growth, ensuring product integrity during expansion, and fostering a culture of quality and safety. The successful candidate will collaborate with various departments to scale systems that protect consumers, employees, and the brand.
Key Responsibilities- Lead the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of comprehensive Food Safety and Quality Management Systems.
- Ensure full regulatory compliance in a USDA-inspected environment and manage interactions with USDA-FSIS inspectors.
- Oversee third-party certifications, audit readiness, and drive corrective and preventive actions.
- Manage environmental monitoring, sanitation verification, allergen control, pathogen control, traceability, and recall readiness programs.
- Establish and monitor quality metrics and testing to ensure consistent high-quality output.
- Lead supplier quality and raw material programs to support ingredient integrity.
- Build, mentor, and develop the Quality and Safety team.
- Partner with Operations and Engineering on new equipment commissioning and process validation.
- Oversee workplace safety programs and promote a safe working environment.
- Support incident management, root-cause investigations, and consumer complaint handling.
- Provide strategic input to leadership on quality/safety risks and opportunities.
Minimum Requirements- Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Food Technology, Chemistry, or a related field.
- 10 years of experience in quality assurance and food safety within food manufacturing, with at least 5 years in a leadership role.
- Experience in USDA-inspected meat, poultry, or protein snack/RTE environments is highly preferred.
- Deep knowledge of USDA-FSIS regulations, HACCP, SSOP, FSMA Preventive Controls, GMPs, and GFSI standards.
- Current certifications such as HACCP, PCQI, and GFSI scheme practitioner strongly preferred.
- Proven ability to lead teams and scale quality systems in a high-growth environment.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
- Experience supporting new equipment installation, process validation, and product commercialization is desirable.
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