Food Safety Compliance & Culture Manager

Position Summary:

The Manager of Food Safety Compliance and Culture provides proactive leadership in developing, implementing, and monitoring company's food safety culture and compliance strategy and related requirements, policies, procedures and training.  The position serves as the lead for the internal audits, GFSI, and FSMA compliance.  This includes compliance with food safety plans, Food Defense, FSVP, Sanitary Transport and any other current and future regulations.  The manager is also responsible for assessing the food safety plans and verifying activities associated with Preventive Controls. This role ensures adherence to regulatory requirements, internal policies and best practices while fostering a strong food safety mindset across all levels of the organization. The manager will also establish a Food Safety Culture program to permeate the manufacturing facilities and be measurable and impactful.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develops and execute a comprehensive food safety culture program that promotes, awareness, accountability, and continuous improvement across the organization. Assess food safety culture  maturity through surveys, audits, and behavioral observations,  Build awareness, training and education programs to drive cultural and behavioral changes.  
• Develops and implements internal auditing programs to drive continuous improvement of Quality and Food Safety programs.  Design and execute corporate audit program for food safety compliance and continuous improvement.  Ensure auditors are calibrated and have competency to be effective in driving continuous improvement.  Lead team of QA Audit Supervisors as a calibration tool.
• Lead risk-based assessments of food safety plans and ensure appropriate preventive controls are identified. Provide project support for Sanitation initiatives, Foreign material initiatives,  and Environmental monitoring assessments.
• Verify environmental monitoring programs for high-risk areas, review site zoning, swabbing plans, testing, trending, escalation rules and sanitary design considerations.
• Report metrics related to supported programs and engage in continuous improvement activities.
• This role requires up to 25% travel to manufacturing sites and other locations to support audits, training, and program implementation.

Education and Experience:

• B.S. degree in Microbiology / Food Science / Chemistry or related area and at least 5+ years industry food safety experience required.
• Minimum 3 years of experience in a food manufacturing environment including HACCP team experience.
• HACCP certification; SQF/BRC training, and Certification as Preventive Controls Qualified Individual required.
• Internal auditor certification is a plus.
• Minimum 3 years of people management experience (proven track record of leading teams - dirct reports and leading without authority) preferred.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Must demonstrate strong problem solving and project management skills including root cause analysis, risk assessment and corrective/preventive action.  
• People leadership and ability to influence cross functionally are critical.
• Experience building auditing programs, designing QMS systems, and utilizing technology such as SharePoint is preferred.