Customer Quality Manager

Kettle Cuisine•Savage, MD

About The Position

The Customer Quality Manager leads Kettle Cuisine’s quality-service relationship with customers and ensures customer expectations are understood, communicated, and managed across internal teams. The role serves as a primary quality contact for customers and coordinates accurate, timely responses to quality questions, complaints, reviews, and follow-up actions. The Customer Quality Analyst supports complaint execution, KPI analysis, and reporting under this role. The manager partners with the Customer Quality Analyst and site FSQ teams to review complaints, quality KPIs, customer feedback, controllable incidents, and emerging trends. The role also coordinates customer supplier-assurance questions with Quality, Procurement, and Technical Services, and escalates material risks promptly. Customer-facing communications must be factual, appropriately reviewed, and consistent with verified evidence. Success in the role includes meeting agreed response expectations, documenting ownership and follow-up, accurately communicating customer requirements and specifications internally, and converting complaint, KPI, and sentiment trends into appropriate actions. As a leader within the Kettle Cuisine team, the manager is expected to model company Core Values and safety culture, develop team members, foster accountability and performance, drive quality assurance and continuous improvement, and plan work, track results, and resolve issues.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in food science, Quality, Business, or a related field; equivalent experience may be considered.
Five or more years in food-manufacturing quality, customer quality, complaint management, or a related customer-facing technical role.
Demonstrated skill in customer communication, investigation coordination, specification interpretation, trend review, and cross-functional follow-through.
Ability to communicate technical findings clearly and professionally, manage competing priorities, maintain confidentiality, and exercise sound judgment.
Self-directed, with high integrity and sound judgment.
Positive and collaborative, with the ability to build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
Organized and able to manage priorities, projects, and metrics in a fast-paced environment.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills appropriate to the role.
Willingness to address difficult situations with patience and respect.
Ability to provide after-hours support for critical issues when required by the role.
Enthusiasm for food and commitment to safe, high-quality products.

Nice To Haves

Experience with customer audits, quality reviews, or supplier-assurance coordination.

Responsibilities

Translate customer expectations for quality-service standards and communicate quality expectations, limits, values, agreed specifications, and service commitments to the Customer Quality Technical team, Quality and Food Safety Program Managers, and FSQ site leadership.
Serve as a primary quality contact for customers and coordinate timely, accurate responses to quality questions, complaints, reviews, and follow-up actions.
Initiate and maintain customer quality reviews using clear evidence, trend analysis, action owners, and follow-up.
Partner with the Customer Quality Analyst and site FSQ teams to review complaints, quality KPIs, customer feedback, controllable incidents, and emerging trends.
Coordinate customer supplier-assurance questions with appropriate Quality, Procurement, and Technical Services owners, and confirm alignment between customer expectations and documented supplier controls.
Promptly escalate material risks and ensure customer-facing communications are factual, appropriately reviewed, and consistent with verified evidence.
Model and support Kettle Cuisine’s Core Values and safety culture.
Develop individual team members and their careers.
Create a culture of accountability and performance.
Drive a focus on quality assurance and continuous improvement.
Plan work, track results, and resolve issues.