Sr. Manager, Quality & Food Safety - Orangeburg, SC

VetJobs•Orangeburg, SC

6d•$98,843 - $148,381•Onsite

About The Position

The Sr. Manager, Quality & Food Safety is the senior quality leader embedded in Ferrara’s Orangeburg, South Carolina factory and reports to the Sr. Director Quality-Manufacturing. The role is accountable for establishing and leading site quality, food safety, regulatory compliance, and consumer protection. It is a hands-on, highly visible manufacturing leadership position requiring daily presence on the production floor and flexibility to support production schedules, collaboration, and real-time problem solving. Schedules may vary and are subject to change. The role owns the site quality and food safety agenda from raw-material receipt through finished-product release, including site FSQAR performance. The leader ensures that systems and processes are consistently followed on the production floor, leads product holds and risk assessments, and supports compliance with company policies, FDA requirements, FSMA, HACCP/HARPC, GFSI standards, customer requirements, and regulatory expectations. The Sr. Manager establishes a culture in which quality is non-negotiable, issues are promptly escalated, root causes are addressed, and corrective actions are sustained. The position leads investigations and continuous improvement, develops the site FSQA team, and partners with manufacturing, maintenance, sanitation, planning, warehousing, engineering, supply chain, and site leadership. The position is part of the site leadership team and contributes to operational decisions, capital projects, new product launches, commercialization, line trials, and improvement initiatives. This opportunity is part of building a new, large-scale food manufacturing facility from the ground up. The leader will help establish site processes, team capability, culture, and operations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Engineering, Microbiology, or a related field.
At least 10 years of progressive manufacturing quality leadership experience in food or consumer packaged goods manufacturing.
At least five years of plant quality management experience.
Strong expertise in GMPs, HACCP, sanitation, environmental monitoring, SPC, and process controls.
Strong operational acumen and ability to influence cross-functional teams.
Experience driving cultural and operational transformation initiatives.
Experience working in a TPM/Lean manufacturing environment and partnering across Quality, Operations, and Maintenance to eliminate losses, address equipment- and process-related defects, drive root-cause corrective actions, and prevent recurrence.
Ability to work in person at the manufacturing site and adapt to schedules that may vary to support production.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree.
Experience with SAP, quality management systems, specification systems, laboratory systems, and manufacturing data systems.

Responsibilities

Lead the site quality and food safety agenda from raw-material receipt through finished-product release, with accountability for site FSQAR performance.
Maintain a visible, proactive presence on the production floor for at least three hours daily to verify standards, identify risks, coach behaviors, and drive corrective actions.
Create a culture where quality is non-negotiable and issues are escalated quickly.
Serve as the senior site authority for product holds, risk assessments, escalations, and dispositions.
Ensure compliance with company policies, FDA requirements, FSMA, HACCP/HARPC, GFSI standards, customer requirements, and regulatory expectations.
Lead site readiness for internal audits, regulatory inspections, customer audits, and corporate assessments.
Lead investigations into consumer complaints, foreign-material events, microbiological failures, labeling concerns, process deviations, and other site risks.
Drive disciplined root-cause analysis and corrective and preventive actions (RCCA and CAPA) to eliminate repeat failures and strengthen controls.
Partner with Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Continuous Improvement to solve issues at their source.
Lead and develop the site FSQA team, establishing clear decision rights, shift coverage, and accountability.
Build technical capability through coaching, training, floor-based verification, and practical problem solving.
Strengthen FSQA partnership with operators, supervisors, mechanics, sanitation teams, and site leaders.
Participate as a key member of the Orangeburg site leadership team and bring a food safety and quality perspective to operational decisions, capital projects, product launches, commercialization, line trials, and improvement initiatives.
Challenge decisions when product safety, compliance, quality, or consumer trust may be at risk.