Sanitation Manager

Sanitation Manager

Kerry is the world's leading taste and nutrition company for the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries. Every day we partner with customers to create healthier, tastier, and more sustainable products that are consumed by billions of people across the world. Our vision is to be our customers' most valued partner, creating a world of sustainable nutrition. A career with Kerry offers you an opportunity to shape the future of food while providing you opportunities to explore and grow in a truly global environment.

About the Role

The Sanitation Manager serves as the site technical leader for sanitation systems, hygienic design, environmental hygiene, and Clean-in-Place (CIP) program management. This role is responsible for developing, implementing, validating, and continuously improving sanitation programs that support food safety, operational excellence, regulatory compliance, and production reliability.

The Sanitation Manager acts as the site's sanitation subject matter expert and change agent, providing technical leadership for sanitation processes while influencing cross-functional teams across Operations, Engineering, Maintenance, Quality, and Supply Chain. The position is responsible for driving sanitation excellence through strong technical expertise, organizational leadership, data-driven decision making, employee capability development, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

Sanitation Program Leadership

• Ensure the facility maintains compliance with all regulatory, customer, GFSI, and Kerry sanitation requirements.

• Provide leadership and oversight for sanitation systems across manufacturing, processing, warehousing, utilities, and external facility grounds.

• Develop, maintain, and continuously improve the site's Master Sanitation Schedule (MSS), ensuring all activities are risk-based, properly documented, and effectively executed.

• Develop, maintain, and improve detailed SSOPs aligned with Kerry sanitation standards utilizing the seven-step sanitation methodology.

• Lead sanitation audits, inspections, and facility assessments to identify risks and opportunities for improvement.

• Maintain sanitation documentation, records, and programs to support customer, regulatory, and third-party audit requirements.

• Manage sanitation chemical inventories and sanitation supply programs.

CIP Technical Leadership

• Serve as the site's technical authority for Clean-in-Place (CIP) systems, providing expertise in system design, operation, validation, troubleshooting, and optimization.

• Lead development, implementation, and continuous improvement of CIP programs throughout the facility.

• Establish and maintain CIP critical factors including time, temperature, concentration, flow, mechanical action, and conductivity parameters.

• Drive improvements in CIP effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and system reliability through data analysis and continuous improvement methodologies.

• Lead investigations and root cause analyses related to sanitation failures, CIP deviations, product quality concerns, and operational inefficiencies.

• Develop and execute CIP validation protocols demonstrating cleaning effectiveness and process control.

• Partner with Engineering and Maintenance to improve CIP equipment design, automation, instrumentation, and monitoring systems.

• Review CIP recipes, operating procedures, alarm management systems, and exception reporting to ensure effective process control.

• Analyze sanitation and CIP performance data to identify trends, reduce cleaning failures, improve uptime, and optimize chemical, water, and energy usage.

• Support capital projects involving sanitization systems, process equipment, and automation upgrades.

Qualifications and Skills

QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor's Degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Engineering, Dairy Science, or related technical discipline.

Experience

• Minimum 7-10 years of progressive sanitation, food safety, quality, or manufacturing leadership experience.

• Minimum 3-5 years of demonstrated technical leadership involving Clean-in-Place (CIP) systems.

• Experience within beverage, dairy, aseptic, high-acid, low-acid, or ready-to-drink food manufacturing environments strongly preferred.

• Experience leading sanitation transformation, continuous improvement, and organizational change initiatives.

• Experience supporting customer, FDA, USDA, BRCGS, SQF, or other GFSI certification audits.

ORGANIZATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Demonstrates visible leadership in Safety, Food Safety, Quality, and Sanitation Excellence. Actively promotes a culture of accountability by identifying risks, enforcing standards, coaching employees, and driving continuous improvement. Ensures compliance with all Kerry Food Safety & Quality policies, regulatory requirements, customer expectations, and internal management systems. Takes immediate action to address, escalate, and resolve deficiencies impacting employee safety, food safety, product quality, or regulatory compliance.