FSQ Manager RTE Manager

Jack Link's Protein Snacks•Perry, GA

3d•$94,000 - $106,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The FSQ RTE Manager (Technical Authority) is the single point of authority for food safety within all Ready-to-Eat (RTE) production and packaging operations. This role is responsible for ensuring that no contamination pathway exists between environmental, personnel, or process risks and finished product. The position operates as a real-time risk controller, making immediate decisions on product safety, production continuation, and release. In this structure: Sanitation executes cleaning (Plant Manager), FSQ RTE defines standards and approves effectiveness. This role is accountable for closing the gap between what should happen vs. what actually happens on the floor.

Requirements

8+ years in food safety/QA leadership
RTE food experience (strongly required)
Deep expertise in HACCP, FSMA, GMPs
Deep expertise in hygienic zoning
Deep expertise in sanitation systems
Proven ability to enforce standards
Proven ability to make high-pressure decisions

Responsibilities

Make final decisions on product release/hold, line startup approval, and production shutdowns.
Lead escalation and response to deviations, sanitation failures, and environmental risks.
Define and enforce RAW → RTE separation, personnel and material flow, and controlled entry/exit points.
Audit zoning behavior daily, including boot wash compliance and tool segregation, to eliminate all cross-contamination pathways.
Define sanitation expectations, including the 7-step cleaning system, and validate cleaning effectiveness through direct observation, ATP, and micro results.
Reject sanitation that does not meet standard.
Own pre-op verification standards and audit high-risk equipment and repeat issue areas.
Ensure no production begins under unsafe conditions.
Partner with Micro Lab Manager to interpret trends, identify harborage points, and lead response to Listeria risks.
Eliminate repeat contamination zones.
Define and enforce controls for drains, condensation, and equipment niches.
Enforce drain segregation and no-spray policies.
Maintain strong floor presence.
Correct GMP violations immediately.
Hold operations, sanitation, and maintenance accountable.
Ensure the RTE process is scientifically sound, controlled, and safe.
Own Process & Food Safety Authority (Highest Risk Area), including kill step (smokehouse lethality), cooling, drying, post-lethality handling, RTE contamination prevention (Listeria risk).
Own Process Validation, including thermal validation, challenge studies, and the scientific basis of controls.