Senior Manager, Food Safety & Quality Assurance

Location: Pelion, SC
Travel: Regular travel to Florida processing facility and growing regions (SC, FL, MI, PA)

Why Join Us?

Competitive Pay
Full Benefits Package (medical, dental, vision, flexible spending)
401(k) with Company Match
Paid Time Off & Holidays
Career Growth Opportunities
Supportive team environment - we treat our employees like family

About Us

WP Rawl has been growing fresh vegetables and careers since 1925! As a leader in the fresh produce industry, we pride ourselves on sustainability, food safety, and providing a supportive and rewarding workplace for our employees.

Position Summary

The Senior Manager, Food Safety & Quality Assurance is responsible for leading and overseeing the company's comprehensive food safety, quality assurance, sanitation, and regulatory compliance programs across all farming, harvesting, packing, ready-to-eat vegetable processing, and shipping/trucking operations.

This role ensures the company consistently delivers safe, high-quality products that meet or exceed regulatory requirements, customer expectations, and industry standards. The position provides strategic and operational leadership across four growing regions and two processing facilities, supporting operations that produce and distribute leafy greens and vegetables to major retail and food service customers.

The Senior Manager leads the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of food safety and quality management systems including FSMA compliance, HACCP plans, environmental monitoring, sanitation programs, supplier controls, and audit readiness, while building strong partnerships with field operations, value-added operations, transportation/logistics, and WP Rawl customers (internal and external).

Key Responsibilities

1. Food Safety & Regulatory Compliance Leadership

Provide strategic and tactical leadership for all food safety programs across all WP Rawl operations.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead development and maintenance of Food Safety Plans and HACCP programs.
• Ensure compliance with FSMA Produce Safety Rule and Preventive Controls for Human Food.
• Maintain compliance with GAP/GHP, LGMA (if applicable), SQF/BRC or other GFSI certifications.
• Ensure all facilities maintain audit readiness at all times.
• Oversee regulatory interactions with FDA, state agriculture departments, and third-party auditors.
• Lead incident response, recall readiness, and crisis management.

2. Quality Assurance & Product Integrity

Ensure finished products consistently meet internal and customer quality specifications.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop and enforce product specifications for all commodities and RTE products.
• Oversee quality monitoring programs including:
  • Pre-harvest assessment process
  • Incoming raw product inspection
  • In-process controls
  • Finished product verification
• Drive root cause analysis and corrective actions for quality deviations.
• Monitor key quality metrics such as defects, shelf life performance, and customer complaints.
• Effective communication within the company regarding potential quality challenges

3. Sanitation & Environmental Monitoring

Provide leadership for sanitation programs across both manufacturing facilities.

Responsibilities include:

• Establish and maintain validated sanitation standard operating procedures (SSOPs) across all operations of the company.
• Lead environmental monitoring programs including pathogen testing.
• Ensure sanitation practices support ready-to-eat food safety requirements.
• Monitor hygienic zoning and cross-contamination controls.

4. Agricultural Food Safety

Ensure food safety compliance across all growing regions.

Responsibilities include:

• Oversee implementation of Produce Safety Programs in SC, FL, MI, and PA.
• Ensure compliance with water testing, soil amendments, field sanitation, and harvest practices.
• Coordinate with agriculture teams on pre-harvest risk assessments.
• Oversee grower audits and supplier verification programs.

5. Customer & Retail Compliance

Serve as the company's lead contact for food safety and quality requirements from key customers.

Responsibilities include:

• Ensure compliance with retailer and food service food safety standards.
• Manage customer requirements and audits.
• Support customer inquiries, quality reviews, and incident investigations.

6. Team Leadership & Organizational Development

Lead and develop the Food Safety & Quality organization.

Responsibilities include:

• Directly manage the Food Safety Manager, QA Manager, Sanitation Manager, and Program Manager.
• Build a strong food safety culture across operations and agriculture teams.
• Ensure the development of training programs for team members across growing, harvesting, and manufacturing operations.
• Establish clear performance expectations and development plans for team members.

7. Continuous Improvement & Risk Management

Drive continuous improvement initiatives across food safety and quality systems.

Responsibilities include:

• Implement data-driven decision making using quality and food safety metrics.
• Lead root cause analysis and corrective action programs.
• Identify risks in supply chain, field operations, processing operations, and transportation/logistics.
• Partner with operations leadership to improve process control and product consistency.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Agriculture, or related field (required)
• Advanced degree preferred

Experience

• 10 years in Food Safety and Quality leadership within food manufacturing or fresh produce
• Experience with ready-to-eat produce operations strongly preferred
• Experience managing multi-site food safety programs
• Experience working with major retail and food service customers
• Experience directly leading supervisor or manager level positions

Technical Expertise

• FSMA Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI)
• HACCP certification
• GFSI standards experience
• Produce Safety Rule knowledge
• Environmental monitoring and sanitation validation
• Recall and crisis management

Core Competencies

• Strategic leadership
• Risk management
• Regulatory expertise
• Data-driven decision making
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Team development
• Continuous improvement mindset
• Ability to effectively communicate across all organizational levels