Senior Food Safety Manager

Job Description

Job Description

About the Role:

We are seeking an experienced, hands-on Senior Food Safety Manager to lead food safety, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, and quality management systems (QMS) across multiple food manufacturing facilities. This senior leadership role is responsible for maintaining HACCP programs, ensuring FDA, USDA, and FSMA compliance, overseeing SQF and GFSI certification requirements, and driving operational excellence through continuous improvement. The ideal candidate brings extensive food manufacturing experience, strong technical expertise in GMPs, preventive controls, sanitation, and audit management, and a proven ability to lead high-performing quality teams in a fast-paced, multi-site production environment.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and standardize food safety, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance programs across multiple manufacturing facilities, ensuring consistent implementation of food safety policies, quality standards, and operational best practices.
• Develop, implement, and continuously improve food safety management systems (FSMS), quality management systems (QMS), standard operating procedures (SOPs), and quality control processes to support product safety, regulatory compliance, and manufacturing efficiency.
• Oversee Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) programs, including hazard assessments, critical control point (CCP) monitoring, preventive controls, verification activities, corrective actions, and ongoing food safety risk assessments.
• Ensure compliance with FDA regulations, USDA/FSIS requirements where applicable, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs), and applicable federal, state, and local food safety regulations.
• Direct SQF, BRCGS, and other Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) certification programs, including certification maintenance, internal audits, third-party assessments, regulatory inspections, audit readiness, and corrective action management.
• Lead food safety investigations, corrective and preventive action (CAPA) programs, root cause analysis, nonconformance management, and quality improvement initiatives to reduce recurring issues and strengthen preventive controls.
• Oversee sanitation verification, allergen management, environmental monitoring, microbiological testing, food defense, supplier quality assurance, and preventive maintenance coordination to minimize contamination risks and maintain product integrity.
• Manage product holds, nonconforming materials, product disposition, quality investigations, traceability systems, mock recalls, and recall preparedness to ensure timely resolution of food safety and quality concerns.
• Collaborate with Production, Operations, Quality Control, Sanitation, Maintenance, Supply Chain, and Research and Development teams to integrate food safety requirements into daily manufacturing operations, process improvements, and new product introductions.
• Establish and monitor food safety and quality key performance indicators (KPIs), including audit performance, customer complaints, corrective action effectiveness, sanitation compliance, and process deviations. Lead, mentor, and develop FSQA personnel while communicating food safety risks, regulatory concerns, and continuous improvement priorities to senior leadership.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Food Safety, Microbiology, Biology, Chemistry, Quality Management, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent relevant experience in food manufacturing and quality assurance.
• Minimum of 7 to 10 years of progressive food safety and quality assurance experience in food manufacturing, including demonstrated supervisory, management, or senior leadership responsibilities.
• Extensive hands-on experience developing, implementing, and managing food safety programs, quality management systems (QMS), regulatory compliance initiatives, and plant-level quality assurance processes.
• Advanced knowledge of HACCP principles, hazard analysis, critical control points, preventive controls, food safety risk assessments, and verification and validation procedures.
• Strong understanding of FDA regulations, FSMA Preventive Controls for Human Food, applicable USDA/FSIS requirements, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), sanitation standards, allergen controls, and food manufacturing hygiene requirements.
• Demonstrated experience implementing and maintaining SQF, BRCGS, or other GFSI-recognized food safety certification programs, including audit preparation, certification requirements, corrective action responses, and continuous compliance monitoring.
• Proven ability to conduct internal audits, coordinate third-party and customer audits, support regulatory inspections, manage audit findings, and maintain accurate food safety documentation and records.
• Experience managing corrective and preventive action (CAPA) systems, root cause investigations, environmental monitoring, product nonconformances, sanitation verification, traceability, and food safety incident response.
• Demonstrated success leading and developing quality assurance teams, managing cross-functional improvement initiatives, and maintaining consistent food safety and quality standards across manufacturing operations.
• Strong leadership, analytical, problem-solving, communication, and organizational skills, with the ability to work directly on the production floor, manage multiple priorities, evaluate food safety risks, and drive sustainable improvements across multiple facilities.

Desired Qualifications:

• Previous experience as a Senior FSQA Manager, Senior Food Safety Manager, Food Safety and Quality Assurance Manager, Corporate Quality Manager, Director of Food Safety, or Director of Quality within food manufacturing or food processing operations.
• Experience managing multi-site food safety and quality assurance programs, standardizing procedures across facilities, developing quality teams, and supporting complex manufacturing environments.
• Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) training, HACCP certification, SQF Practitioner experience, or additional food safety auditing and regulatory compliance credentials.
• Experience with Ready-to-Eat (RTE) food production, high-care or high-risk manufacturing environments, pathogen prevention, environmental monitoring programs, microbiological testing, allergen validation, sanitation verification, and supplier quality management.
• Knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Statistical Process Control (SPC), continuous improvement methodologies, and data-driven quality management, including proficiency with electronic quality management systems (eQMS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and food safety reporting tools.
• Proven ability to lead complex quality investigations, manage supplier approval and audit programs, improve food safety performance metrics, strengthen recall readiness, and implement scalable food safety management systems across multiple production facilities.