Job Description

Director, Manufacturing Food Safety & Quality

Location: Gloucester County, NJ or Covina, CA

Reports To: VP, Corporate Responsibility, Safety & Quality

Department: Food Safety & Quality

Position Summary

The Director of Manufacturing Food Safety & Quality is responsible for leading all food safety and quality programs across a multi-site manufacturing network. This role ensures consistent execution of standards, regulatory compliance, operational readiness, and preventive controls within each facility. With direct oversight of Plant Food Safety & Quality Managers, the Director drives continuous improvement, strengthens raw material quality alignment, enhances detection and prevention systems, and fosters a high-performing food safety and quality culture.

This leader is accountable for delivering consistent performance across all sites, proactively identifying risks, analyzing trends, and ensuring timely communication with customers, regulators, and internal stakeholders. The Director is responsible for codifying best practices, aligning processes across facilities, and ensuring that learnings, corrective actions, and preventive activities flow seamlessly across the network.

As a key member of the Food Safety & Quality leadership team, this role collaborates closely with Site Directors, Operations, Supply Chain, R&D, and peer FSQ Directors to deliver unified, reliable, and predictable manufacturing performance. The position also represents the organization in customer engagements, audits, and industry forums, and participates in crisis management and incident response activities.

Primary Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership for all manufacturing FSQ programs, ensuring consistent, reliable execution across multiple production sites.
• Lead, mentor, and develop Plant FSQ Managers to strengthen capability, accountability, and technical expertise across the network.
• Drive standardization of quality processes, raw material criteria, defect frameworks, escalation protocols, and preventive controls across all manufacturing locations.
• Conduct proactive trend analysis to identify emerging risks and drive timely corrective or preventive actions.
• Strengthen detection and monitoring systems to reduce defects, foreign materials, microbiological risks, and product variability.
• Integrate food safety into daily operations and long-term operational strategies in partnership with Site Directors and Operations leadership.
• Lead root cause investigations, enterprise CAPA programs, and cross-functional improvement initiatives with clear follow-through.
• Ensure accurate, timely communication to customers regarding FSQ performance, CAPAs, trend data, and preventive measures.
• Maintain regulatory compliance across all plants, including FSMA, GFSI, GMPs, HACCP, GAP, and customer-specific requirements.
• Build and sustain an FSQ culture that reinforces ownership, accountability, and proactive risk mitigation.
• Codify and share best practices across sites to accelerate improvements and raise system maturity.
• Represent the organization in customer meetings, audits, and industry events.
• Support crisis and incident management activities, ensuring rapid escalation, investigation, and resolution.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of FSQ leadership experience in fresh-cut, produce, food manufacturing, or multi-site operations.
• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Microbiology, or related field; advanced degree preferred.
• Strong knowledge of GMPs, HACCP, FSMA, GAP, and GFSI requirements.
• Proven experience leading multi-site teams and building high-performing FSQ organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze data, identify trends, and implement preventive strategies.
• Strong communication skills with experience interacting directly with customers and regulatory bodies.
• Demonstrated success driving standardization, best practice replication, and cultural transformation across multiple manufacturing sites.

Essential Job Functions

• Ability to climb stairs
• Ability to lift up to 25 lbs
• Ability to sit at a workstation for extended periods

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