Corporate Technical Director - Food & Nutrition

Microbac•Cranberry Township, PA

3h•Hybrid

About The Position

Microbac Laboratories, Inc. is a premier commercial laboratory testing firm that partners with clients worldwide, offering laboratory solutions to the life science, food and nutrition, and environmental industries and serves our clients with the utmost expertise and respect for their market requirements, constraints, and challenges. We embody a company-wide commitment to exceptional customer experience, which has been refined over nearly 50 years of trusted, analytical and measurement experience. Through our network of laboratories, offices, and field services, we have the flexibility to meet the unique requirements for each client, project, and scope. As a privately held third-party testing company, Microbac operates with a commitment to safety, quality, and compliance. Our diverse work portfolio includes broad accreditation offerings and tested insights across the environmental, food and nutrition and life science markets. Reporting to the Chief Technical Officer, the Technical Director of Food & Nutrition serves as a key technical leader and subject matter expert for microbiology and chemistry testing performed across the Food & Nutrition business. This role provides technical guidance to internal laboratory teams, supports client-facing scientific discussions, assists with method selection and data interpretation, and helps ensure that testing programs are scientifically sound, operationally practical, and aligned with applicable regulatory, accreditation, and customer requirements. This position acts as a primary technical contact for Food & Nutrition clients and internal stakeholders, supporting routine and complex technical inquiries related to food safety, method applicability, result interpretation, and testing strategy. When contracted, this role may also provide on-site consultation at customer production facilities to support investigations, environmental monitoring programs, validation activities, corrective actions, and broader food safety initiatives.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology, Food Science, Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry, or a related scientific discipline.
Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in food testing, food safety, food microbiology, food chemistry, laboratory operations, technical consulting, or related industry experience.
Strong technical understanding of Food & Nutrition laboratory testing, including both microbiological and chemical analyses.
Demonstrated experience interpreting laboratory data and explaining technical results to clients and internal stakeholders.
Experience with food manufacturing environments, sanitation programs, environmental monitoring, root cause analysis, corrective actions, or food safety systems.
Working knowledge of applicable food safety regulations, industry guidance, accreditation requirements, and laboratory quality systems.
Ability to communicate complex scientific information in a clear, practical, and client-appropriate manner.
Strong problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making skills.
Ability to travel 50% of the time to laboratory locations and customer production facilities as needed.
Experience in a third-party testing laboratory environment.
Experience with ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratory operations.
Experience with FDA, USDA, AOAC, BAM, MLG, USP, ISO, or other recognized food testing methods.
Experience supporting shelf-life studies, challenge studies, validation projects, or environmental monitoring program design.
Experience presenting technical information to customers, auditors, regulators, or industry groups.
Experience with molecular methods, rapid pathogen platforms such as VIDAS, BAX, iQ Check or MDS, MALDI-TOF, strain typing, or advanced microbiological tools.
Familiarity with nutritional panel development and label claim verification, including how analytical results support Nutrition Facts panels, ingredient claims, “free-from” claims, fortification, and product specification compliance.
Understanding of shelf-life chemistry indicators, such as peroxide value, p-anisidine value, free fatty acids, rancidity, oxidation, moisture migration, water activity, pH changes, color, texture, and other quality-related chemistry trends.
Experience supporting method validation, verification, and troubleshooting for chemistry methods, including accuracy, precision, linearity, recovery, ruggedness, matrix effects, calibration, and quality control acceptance criteria.
Knowledge of instrumental chemistry platforms commonly used in food laboratories, such as HPLC, GC, GC-MS, LC-MS/MS, ICP-MS, ICP-OES, FTIR/NIR, titration systems, and automated wet chemistry instrumentation.

Nice To Haves

Preferred Advanced degree in Microbiology, Food Science, Chemistry or related field
HACCP, PCQI, GFSI, SQF, BRCGS, or similar food safety training/certification preferred.

Responsibilities

Serve as a primary corporate technical resource for Food & Nutrition microbiology and chemistry testing.
Provide technical guidance on method selection, method applicability, sample preparation, testing limitations, and result interpretation.
Support laboratories with complex technical questions related to food matrices, product types, environmental samples, and customer-specific testing needs.
Provide subject matter expertise for pathogen testing, indicator organisms, spoilage organisms, shelf-life studies, challenge studies, nutritional analysis, chemistry testing, contaminants, allergens, and other Food & Nutrition testing services.
Assist with technical review of unusual, unexpected, out-of-specification, or out-of-trend results.
Partner with laboratory leadership, quality, operations, sales, and client service teams to ensure technically accurate and consistent communication.
Act as a technical point of contact for clients regarding methodology, data interpretation, testing strategy, and regulatory or industry expectations.
Participate in client meetings, technical calls, proposal discussions, and project planning conversations.
Assist clients in selecting appropriate testing programs based on product type, risk profile, intended use, production process, regulatory expectations, and business needs.
Provide clear, scientifically sound explanations of test results, method limitations, and recommended next steps.
When contracted, provide on-site consultation at customer production facilities to support food safety programs, environmental monitoring, root cause investigations, corrective actions, sanitation verification, process assessments, or other technical needs.
Support the development of client-facing technical documents, white papers, presentations, reports, webinars and recommendations.
Advise on traditional, rapid, molecular, and alternative methods used in Food & Nutrition testing.
Support evaluation and implementation of new methods, technologies, and service offerings.
Assist with method verification, validation support, troubleshooting, and technical justification as needed.
Provide technical input for new business opportunities, customized testing programs, and complex client requests.
Review testing trends and client data, when appropriate, to support interpretation, investigations, and risk-based recommendations.
Help ensure technical consistency across Food & Nutrition laboratories.