About the Role:

The Vice President of Food Safety & Quality Assurance is the enterprise leader responsible for defining and executing Kinder's food safety, quality, regulatory compliance, and risk management strategy. This executive will ensure that Kinder's delivers safe, compliant, and consistently exceptional products while supporting rapid growth, innovation, and operational excellence.

Reporting as a key member of the leadership team, this role partners closely with Product Development, Supply Chain, Operations, Commercialization, and Manufacturing partners to establish scalable systems, strengthen quality capabilities, and protect the integrity of the Kinder's brand.
Key Responsibilities of this Role Include:

Food Safety & Quality Leadership

• Define and execute the enterprise Food Safety and Quality strategy, ensuring alignment with Kinder's growth objectives and brand standards.
• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing Quality organization capable of supporting a rapidly scaling business.
• Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, consumer focus, and risk-based decision making across the organization.
• Establish performance metrics, governance processes, and reporting mechanisms to measure quality performance and drive operational excellence.

Food Safety, Compliance & Risk Management

• Serve as the company's senior authority on food safety, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, and risk mitigation.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable FDA, USDA, FSMA, HACCP, labeling, allergen management, and food safety requirements.
• Develop and maintain proactive systems that identify, assess, and mitigate food safety and quality risks across the supply chain.
• Lead enterprise crisis management and product incident response efforts, ensuring rapid, effective decision-making that protects consumers and the Kinder's brand.

Regulatory Affairs & Product Compliance

• Lead regulatory compliance programs governing ingredients, formulations, packaging, specifications, labeling, and finished products.
• Ensure robust documentation, specification management, and change control processes that create a single source of truth across the organization.
• Oversee regulatory reviews and approvals for new products, packaging updates, and commercialization initiatives.
• Maintain readiness for audits, inspections, and regulatory inquiries.

Consumer Quality & Continuous Improvement

• Leverage consumer insights, complaint data, testing results, and quality metrics to identify trends and drive corrective actions.
• Lead root-cause analysis and preventative action initiatives that improve product consistency and consumer satisfaction.
• Establish a data-driven approach to quality management that enables informed decision-making and continuous improvement.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with Commercialization, Product Development, Supply Chain, Operations, and Finance leaders to balance quality, speed, innovation, and business objectives.
• Influence strategic decisions by providing clear assessments of quality risks, trade-offs, and opportunities.
• Champion a "quality-first" mindset while enabling efficient execution of innovation and growth initiatives.

What Success Will Look Like:

Success in this role means building a scalable, best-in-class Food Safety, Quality, and Regulatory function that supports Kinder's growth while protecting the integrity of the brand. The Vice President will strengthen quality and compliance programs across our network, establish robust systems and processes that ensure product consistency and regulatory excellence, and foster a culture of continuous improvement and accountability. Through strong cross-functional partnership, this leader will enable innovation and growth without compromising food safety, quality, or consumer trust, ultimately ensuring Kinder's consistently delivers safe, compliant, and exceptional products.
Skills + Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Chemistry, or a related scientific discipline required; advanced degree preferred.
• 25+ years of progressive leadership experience in Food Safety, Quality Assurance, or Regulatory functions within the food and beverage industry.
• Deep expertise in FDA regulations, FSMA, HACCP, allergen management, food manufacturing quality systems, and supplier quality programs.
• Demonstrated success leading quality organizations within high-growth CPG, food manufacturing, or branded consumer products environments.
• Experience overseeing contract manufacturing networks and supplier quality programs.
• Proven ability to build scalable systems, lead through complexity, and drive organizational change.
• Strong executive presence with the ability to influence senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Exceptional analytical, problem-solving, communication, and decision-making capabilities.
• Results-oriented leader with a balance of strategic vision and operational execution.

Pay Transparency:

The expected starting salary range for this role is $275,000 - $300,000 per year. The salary range posted for this role reflects the good-faith base pay range Kinder's reasonably expects to offer at the time of posting and may vary based on the location of the role. Individual compensation within the posted range will be determined based on factors such as relevant education, experience, qualifications, skills, and business needs.

SEASONED FOR SUCCESS:

• No two days here are the same.
• We try to be good team members and good communicators, but we don't live by hierarchy and structure - everyone is a difference maker here.
• We make a lot of decisions in the face of incomplete information - our team embraces ambiguity and tries to make good decisions fast rather than great decisions slow.
• We believe our job is to take smart risk, not to eliminate risk.
• We believe in growing our skills and becoming a better company with more managerial expertise, but we are an entrepreneurial company at heart.
• We aren't trying to be average - we want to do exceptional things, and we are willing to work hard to achieve them.

BENEFITS THAT BRING MORE TO THE TABLE:

We offer a range of total rewards that may include paid time off, 401k, bonus / incentive eligibility, equity grants, competitive health benefits, and other family-friendly benefits, including parental leave. Kinder's benefits vary based on eligibility and can be reviewed in more detail during the interview process.

OUR RECIPE FOR BALANCE:

We believe great culture starts with people. We're a people-first company built on connection, collaboration, and balance. Most of our work happens in the office to spark creativity and community, but we also offer flexibility so team members have the autonomy to work outside the office when needed to support their work-life balance and personal commitments.