Principal, Regulatory Affairs & Compliance

Job Description

Principal, Regulatory Affairs & Compliance

Location: Charlotte, NC preferred (hybrid).

Remote considered for exceptional candidates with strong regulated beverage backgrounds.

Team: Individual contributor at hire

About Delta Beverages

Delta Beverages is the category leader in hemp-derived THC beverages by unit sales, with a portfolio spanning multiple THC dose formats and a zero-THC functional line launching this year. We are hiring a senior regulatory and compliance operator to serve as our internal authority across regulatory filings, product labeling and batch documentation, marketing and commercial-channel compliance, and distribution requirements.

This is a hands-on, execution-driven role. You will personally own multi-state filings and registrations, clear product labels prior to production, review marketing claims before launch, and build the systems that keep us audit-ready as we scale.

You will work directly with the Chief Strategy Officer, outside counsel and other internal leaders from several departments while serving as the primary internal compliance authority for product and commercial matters.

The Role

You decide and sign off:

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• Renewals and recurring filings across all active jurisdictions
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• Existing SKUs entering a state we have already cleared
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• Label revisions that do not change a claim, dose disclosure, or warning
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• Marketing and packaging collateral that maps to the approved claims matrix
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• Routine distributor and retailer compliance documentation
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You investigate and recommend:

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• Entry into a new state or a materially new channel
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• Any novel claim, or any claim not covered by existing substantiation
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• Anything that changes our overall risk posture or sets a precedent
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• Co-manufacturer deviations, potency excursions, or any recall-adjacent decision
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• Anything touching active enforcement, litigation, or a pending legislative outcome
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Multi-State Regulatory Filings & Registrations:

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• Personally manage all state filings, registrations, and renewals across our active and target footprint
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• Own the compliance calendar - deadlines, dependencies, and owners
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• Track brand and label registration requirements state by state, including where they differ by dose or format
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• Monitor regulatory shifts, agency guidance, and enforcement trends; translate them into concrete internal operational changes
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• Maintain a live state-by-state matrix of what we can sell, at what dose, through what channel
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• Deliver a standing regulatory brief to executive leadership
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Product Labeling, COA & Batch Documentation:

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• Clear all product labels prior to production; maintain version control and a documented approval trail
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• Validate THC disclosures, warnings, symbols, font sizing, and placement against each state's requirements
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• Manage state-specific label variations and the SKU-by-state matrix that governs them
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• Own the COA chain: third-party lab qualification and rotation, potency verification, retained sample protocol, and the tolerance policy for out-of-spec runs
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• Ensure every production batch is traceable to a specific approved label version
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• Lead labeling risk audits as regulations change, and proactively drive remediation
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Marketing, Advertising & Commercial Channel Compliance:

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• Review and clear marketing claims prior to launch across digital, retail, packaging, and trade
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• Maintain the approved claims matrix and the substantiation file behind it
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• Prevent implied intoxication positioning, health claims, and unsubstantiated functional claims
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• E-commerce and DTC: age verification and age-gating, shipping restrictions by state, marketplace and platform policy compliance
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• SMS, email, and direct marketing: consent, opt-out, and record-keeping requirements under TCPA and analogous state rules
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• Promotions: sweepstakes, contests, sampling, and trade promotion compliance
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• Partner with Marketing to build guardrails that hold up without slowing launches
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Distribution & Three-Tier Compliance:

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• Own brand and label registration and price posting where states require it
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• Navigate franchise-state requirements, including territory and termination provisions
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• Maintain working fluency in tied-house and trade-practice restrictions as they apply - or come to apply - to our category
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• Review compliance language in distributor and retailer agreements
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• Support Sales with channel-by-channel guidance on what is permitted where
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FDA Food Safety, Ingredient & Manufacturing Compliance:

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• Own FDA food labeling compliance: Nutrition Facts panels, ingredient declarations and sequencing, allergens, net contents
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• Evaluate ingredient regulatory status - GRAS coverage, self-affirmed versus branded, supplier documentation
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• Substantiate structure/function claims for functional and nootropic ingredients
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• Qualify and oversee co-manufacturers on GMP and FSMA obligations
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• Own recall readiness: mock recalls, traceability, and the decision protocol
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• Manage the consumer complaint and adverse event intake process
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Cross-Functional Ownership:

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• Serve as the internal escalation point for product and commercial regulatory risk
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• Partner with Sales on distribution and channel compliance
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• Partner with Operations and co-manufacturing on production conformance to approved specs
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• Partner with Marketing on claims and channel guardrails
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• Run a standing governance cadence that keeps compliance visible and current
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• Work directly with outside counsel on interpretation - escalating deliberately, not reflexively
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Qualifications

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• 7+ years in regulatory or compliance roles in alcohol, hemp/cannabis, dietary supplements, or regulated food and beverage
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• 3+ years as the senior-most compliance authority or equivalent scope
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• Have personally owned multi-state filings and registrations
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• Have personally cleared product labels prior to production
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• Have ended or materially changed a marketing claim before launch, and can explain the call
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• Working knowledge of both cannabis/hemp regulation and FDA food and labeling requirements; deep in one and credible in the other is acceptable
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• Comfortable working with outside counsel without becoming dependent
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• Have made consequential judgment calls without clear precedent
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Helpful, not required:

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• Alcohol three-tier experience - TTB, COLAs, state brand registration, franchise law
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• Experience through a regulatory regime change or a new-category framework rollout
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• Co-manufacturing and contract packing oversight
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What Success Looks Like

First 90 days:

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• A written risk register, ranked by exposure, with an owner and a date on each item
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• A completed labeling gap analysis across every SKU and state combination
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• A rebuilt compliance calendar with no unassigned deadlines
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• Documented approval workflows for labels, claims, and filings
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• Executive reporting cadence established
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• At least one identified gap actually remediated, not just logged
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First year:

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• Zero missed regulatory deadlines
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• Clean, documented labeling approvals across every SKU
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• A claims matrix Marketing can work from without asking permission each time
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• A measurable time-to-clearance for new state entry and new label revisions
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• Materially less executive time spent resolving compliance ambiguity
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• A compliance function capable of absorbing a federal framework change without stalling the business
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