Food Safety Manager

Judge Direct Placement is seeking a Food Safety & Quality Assurance Manager in Modesto, CA area!

Responsibilities:

• Serve as the primary FSQA leader, overseeing the implementation, verification, and validation of food safety programs (e.g., HACCP, SSOP).
• Ensure compliance with GFSI standards, company internal audit requirements, and all applicable food safety regulations.
• Manage relationships with regulatory agencies (USDA, FSIS, AMS) and act as the site’s primary liaison.
• Retain and evaluate non-conforming products against customer, regulatory, and internal specifications; determine and execute product disposition, including release decisions.
• Lead the implementation, maintenance, and enforcement of USDA regulations and company FSQA programs, including environmental monitoring, GMPs, pest control, allergen control, and finished product compliance.
• Oversee all product monitoring programs to ensure alignment with legal, customer, and company requirements.
• Supervise and ensure competency of all personnel, visitors, and contractors in maintaining food safety and quality standards.
• Design and coordinate training programs in partnership with HR, Operations, Sanitation, Maintenance, and FSQA teams to promote a strong food safety culture.
• Lead root cause investigations for pathogen-related issues, partnering with Operations to resolve processing, sanitation, and maintenance deficiencies.
• Drive investigations into product quality non-conformance and customer/consumer complaints; implement corrective and preventive actions.
• Collaborate with Operations leadership and regulatory bodies to address and resolve non-compliance issues; provide reports and trend analysis to corporate leadership.
• Evaluate and continuously improve FSQA programs and procedures to ensure alignment with regulatory and company standards.
• Manage FSQA data systems and reporting; analyze trends and communicate insights for continuous improvement.
• Lead cross-functional projects focused on enhancing product safety, quality, and process efficiency, including new product commercialization initiatives.
• Monitor and drive performance against FSQA key performance indicators (KPIs) to achieve corporate objectives.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree required
• 5+ years of work experience in food processing with supervisory and management experience for food safety and quality systems.
• Proficient use of Microsoft Office products is required and experience with SAP and enterprise data management systems is strongly preferred.
• Previous managerial experience supervising salaried and non-salaried team members is required.
• Demonstrated proficiency leading and managing cross-functional teams is required.