Director of Food Safety

About this role:

As the Director of Food Safety, you will be joining a team at the forefront of reinventing sustainable agriculture by reinventing how agricultural employees should be treated. This role will perform and manages all functions needed to ensure food safety, product quality and regulatory compliance, maintain quality management systems, and GFSI standards which assure a foundation for product excellence and provide a basis for long-term continuous improvement.

What You’ll Do:

• Overall responsibility for product safety and product quality and drive for superior quality results.
• Control of product releases to ensure only safe and quality products are released.
• Oversee the resolution of product/process incidents and verifying the effectiveness of corrective and preventative actions to eliminate reoccurrence.
• Ensure good quality practices, deliver continuous quality improvement, and communicate openly and timely about quality risks and opportunities to plant personnel.
• Develop and maintain vendor partnerships to ensure continuous improvement in quality and cost of service.
• Manage internal and external auditing of quality systems and prepare score cards and corrective actions for improvements.
• Audit local policies, procedures, and systems that affect product quality to assure compliance.
• Work with production and other relevant operational personnel to drive for quality issue resolution and improvement.
• Provide quality training to production and other relevant employees.
• Evaluation, preparation, and control of quality department budget to ensure its adequacy and effective use for the execution of quality goals and objectives.
• Provide leadership, development, and guidance to direct report staff.

What We’re Looking For:

• BS in Food Science or technology, Food Engineering, Biology, or related field. MS is a plus.
• Minimum 10-15 years of Quality Assurance experience in food industry, and 5-10 years of experience in managerial or equivalent role in a produce setting is preferred. Corporate level experience a plus.
• Possess Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training certification and / or one of the GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) audit scheme course training, such as PrimusGFS or Global GAP.
• Conduct quality activities with integrity, knowledge, depth, and evidence-based decision making without wavering.
• Communicate openly and genuinely with strong intention to improve the quality performance.
• In depth understanding and expertise of quality improvement techniques such as 5S, fish bone analysis, 5W technique and Statistic techniques is preferred. Lean 6 Sigma training a plus.
• Possess strong desire for continuous improvements, challenge status quo and is a self-starter.
• Possess "can do" attitude, take ownership, and passion about delivering tangible results.
• Identify coherent and provide leadership and insightful key steps/actions for quality projects while delivering quality results within defined timeline with urgency.
• Demonstrated ability to use facts and data to make decisions and prioritize actions.
• Demonstrated ability to work with all levels of employees in various functions within the organization.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and computer literacy in Microsoft Word and Excel

Benefits:

• 100% company paid insurance premiums (Medical, Dental and Vision Plans)
• 401K Company Match 100% of First 3%- 50% of next 2% and is vested immediately – it is automatically yours
• 10 company paid holidays
• Generous PTO Packages starting at 15 PTO days
• 2 Paid Mission Days for volunteer work
• Company provided uniforms and shoes (for Greenhouse Employees)