VP, Category Quality & Food Safety

Danone•Louisville, CO

11d•Hybrid

About The Position

This role is responsible for the overall and end-to-end Quality & Food Safety performance for our Shakes, Kids, & Yogurt category – design to manufacturing (supply points and COMANs). The Category Quality & Food Safety leader is accountable to make sure all market observations and issues are being channelled through the most efficient way across different functions and stakeholders, ensuring consumer trust and operational excellence. The role covers all end-to-end QFS design and operational activities, for the Shakes, Kids, & Yogurt Category within NORAM including assuring a strong link to the brand/ category and commercial leadership through the QFS VP NORAM leadership role. The salary range for this position is $275,000-315,000 USD. The exact salary offered will depend on several factors, including the candidate’s relevant experience, geographic location, internal equity, and market conditions. Danone North America additionally offers a performance-based bonus and has a strong benefits package including Medical, Dental, Vision, Prescription Drug Coverage, 401k Plan, Wellness Program, Life Insurance, Tuition Reimbursement, Flexible Time Off, and Paid Parental Bonding Leave, among other benefit plan options. To give our employees flexibility, Danone is a hybrid work environment.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Science/Food Science/Technology or similar major.
15+ years combined experience with food, ingredients quality and manufacturing.
Prior responsibility as QFS Lead within the Food & Beverage industry.
Strong ownership and demonstration of Danone behaviors and values.
Proven strategic mindset with servant leadership in focus to enable functional teams for execution with excellence.
Mastery and globally recognized expertise in QFS systems and programs management.
Leader and advocate / owner for IWS success.
Train the Trainer Qualified for delivery of QFS training to factory leadership teams.
Undisputed, consistent servant leadership.
Excellent communication skills and leadership courage.
Strong leadership to drive change within the organization.
Strong problem solving skills and focus on enabling excellence in execution.
Facts and data driven, with strong synthesis and analytical capabilities.
Willingness to travel up to 50%.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience within the following categories strongly preferred: yogurt and cultured dairy.

Responsibilities

Define and execute the Category QFS strategy aligned with global standards and business priorities.
Develop QFS capabilities in plants and COMANS.
Strengthen implementation and adherence of product and operational standards and increase performance in plants and COMANS.
Ensure the Quality Management System within the factories meets the needs of the product and consumer.
Drive a QFS culture of transparency, continuous improvement and zero-defect minded executional excellence.
Monitor end-to-end QFS performance and consumer satisfaction metrics, reporting, data and insights analytics and make strategies for addressing gaps and performance issue as well as recognizing good performance.
Ensure the right resources (CapEx, OpEx and people) are in place to drive food safety compliance and consumer satisfaction.
Develop the capabilities within the category QFS team and in the factories to deliver the digital and IWS agenda.
Develop and implement the right process of Quality in design, insuring RFT on all projects.
Ensure new products and processes are designed to meet relevant regulatory and quality and food safety criteria.
Ensure products are designed with consumers needs in mind and that end user experience is fully integrated into the design stage.
Ensure end-to-end processes within factories, including the quality management system, deliver a product that is consistent, functional and meets customer expectations.
Address QFS performance issues with existing products, ensuring that issues are raised, actioned and resolved.
Lead by example with a servant leadership focus enabling a culture of teamwork and trust across all teams.
Develop highly competent factory QFS organizations that are technically and capable of implementing strong quality management systems.
Establish a category network linking factories, technical expertise and global QFS teams to drive best practice, shared learnings and ultimately category performance.
Establish strong, collaborative relationships with Factory Directors, Operations, R&I, C&P and Supply Chain teams.
Work openly and proactively with zone QFS teams and categories to drive overall performance in the Europe zone.
Develop strategies for continuous QFS improvement in designated category but also input to zone QFS strategy.
Interact seamlessly and proactively as a peer/partner with all relevant functions as needed to assure successful delivery of QFS objectives in the category.
Ensure implementation of food safety and quality policy, procedures and standards in factories and in quality in design processes.
Deliver the implementation of reference analytical tools and methods in factory laboratories.
Ensure audit non-conformances are followed up and closed.
Ensure transparency in reporting issues, KPIs and QFS risks using the Danone systems and standards.
Fully interrogate KPIs and consumer feedback to evaluate product performance and protect brand integrity.
Escalate and manage issues and potential QFS risks timely, to appropriate stakeholders while fully securing product, brand integrity and consumer safety. This includes risk due to factory team capability, performance or product non-conformance.
Ensure robust action plans created from a deep root cause analysis are in place and follow up on action closure.