Director of Food Safety & Quality

Kettle Cuisine•Savage, MD

About The Position

The Director of Food Safety & Quality leads the plant’s quality team and serves on the site senior management team. The role is responsible for ensuring the facility remains audit-ready, establishing a strong quality culture, and driving continuous improvement in food safety and quality. The director ensures work is properly validated and verified, improves customer satisfaction through better product ratings and fewer complaints, and systematically reduces risk through ongoing evaluation of the HARPC/Food Safety Plan. The position develops and implements food safety programs and ensures regulatory compliance. It coordinates regulatory visits and third-party and certification audits, strengthens FSQ knowledge across the team, and maintains an internal audit system that supports compliance and identifies opportunities to improve processes and team capabilities. The director works with vendors and corporate partners to uphold incoming-material standards, audits raw-material suppliers, develops sensory and other quality tools, and oversees finished-product specifications and customer manufacturing documents. The role leads corrective and preventive actions for complaints and internal deviations and manages the laboratory, its programs, and related budgets, including allergen testing, environmental sampling, pre-operational testing, and microbiological testing for shelf-life and confirmation studies. As a leader at Kettle Cuisine, the director models and supports the company’s core values and safety culture, manages team performance, builds a committed and collaborative team, develops employees and their careers, conducts annual reviews and PDPs for direct reports, and promotes accountability, quality, and continuous improvement. The director plans work, tracks results, and resolves variances.

Requirements

At least 10 years of experience in a technical role in fresh food manufacturing.
A degree or equivalent qualification in Food Science, Microbiology, or an equivalent field.
Excellent communication skills at all levels.
High level of computer literacy, including Excel, Word, and internet use.
Able to conceptualize initiatives and drive them forward as a self-starter.
Able to develop strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
Creative problem-solving skills.
Obsessive attention to detail, strong organization, and ability to manage multiple projects.
Comfortable working at a fast pace and in ambiguous environments.
Willing to address difficult situations directly, with patience and respect.
Drive, energy, integrity, and tenacity.
Positive attitude and motivation to contribute to the overall success of the team.
Passion for food.

Responsibilities

Lead the quality team and contribute as a member of the site senior management team, ensuring plant activities are properly validated and verified.
Develop and implement the Food Safety Plan, including HARPC, HACCP, SSOP, and GMP.
Ensure full compliance with applicable regulatory codes.
Coordinate and plan regulatory visits, including USDA, FDA, FDA-FSMA, state, and city visits.
Coordinate and plan third-party and certification audits, including SQF, GIG, Organic, and Military audits.
Develop broader food safety and quality understanding across the team.
Ensure the internal audit system drives compliance and identifies opportunities to improve processes and team, individual, and competency capabilities.
Work with vendors and the corporate team to ensure incoming-material standards are met.
Develop sensory and other quality tools for the team.
Audit suppliers of raw materials.
Oversee finished-product specifications to ensure they are accurate and met.
Lead the CAPA process for complaints and internal deviations.
Oversee customer manufacturing documents, including iCiX and GORP.
Manage the laboratory, associated testing and sampling programs, and budgets.
Model, develop, and support Kettle Cuisine’s core values and safety culture.
Manage team-member performance and build a strong, committed, collaborative team.
Develop individual team members and their careers.
Conduct annual reviews and PDPs for all direct team members.
Create a culture of accountability and performance.
Drive a focus on quality and continuous improvement.
Plan work, track results, and resolve variances.