What are the responsibilities and job description for the Sr Director Food Safety & Quality position at Gehl Food & Beverage?
Position Overview
Reporting to the VP of Food Safety & Quality, the Senior Director FSQ has oversight for the FSQ teams at each manufacturing location. This role will provide direction and support for the day-to-day side of FSQ with the site FSQ leaders reporting directly into this position. This role will be tasked with ensuring consistency across the sites and setting the strategic direction for each plant. The Sr. Director FSQ will work cross-functionally with other key leaders to drive the right culture of food safety and quality. This role ensures product integrity, consumer safety, and regulatory compliance while driving continuous improvement initiatives and maintaining customer satisfaction.
Job Responsibilities
People Supervision:
- Build a team of employees working in a collaborative environment and fostering a culture of accountability, empowerment, continuous improvement, customer focus and teamwork.
- Manage, develop, plan, and continuously evaluate performance of FSQ Managers and Directors.
FSQ Strategy & Execution:
- Provide support to the VP of Food Safety & Quality in the development and execution of the FSQ Strategy.
- Manage and lead the effective execution of departmental FSQ strategic initiatives.
- Provide regulatory guidance to manufacturing sites FDA, USDA, BRC, SQF, Customer Requirements, and Company Internal Requirements.
- Provide technical support and document standard operating procedures and work instructions, as needed.
- Provide guidance and play key technical leadership role across HACCP, GMP, CIP Management and Internal Audit teams.
- Support for aseptic validation events for packaging, processing, and filling.
- Assist with Process Authority needs.
- Serve as the subject matter expert (SME) on aseptic processing food safety regulations, industry trends, and emerging risks.
- Support execution of GMP procedures and routines in operations.
- Provide technical support and leadership in resolution of CAPA reports associated to major process deviations, hold events of raw batches and finished products, and customer complaints.
- Partner with cross-functional teams (Operations, R&D, etc.) to support product launches, process changes, and continuous improvement projects.
- Provide leadership and guidance in the development of training resources and delivery of Food Safety training program.
- Lead FSQ risk assessments, crisis management plans, product recall programs, and incident investigations.
- Provide technical and managerial support to Change Control activities.
- Establish FSQ performance metrics, reporting, and data-driven analysis for operational and leadership reviews.
- Contribute and provide technical leadership during internal and third party Quality, Food Safety and Regulatory audits and ensure timely resolution of audit findings.
- Foster a culture of food safety awareness, employee training, and operational excellence throughout the organization.
- Other duties as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications
- BS in Food Science, Engineering, Biology, Microbiology or Chemistry.
- Minimum of 10 years of managerial experience in Quality Assurance and Food Safety within the food or beverage industries, including people management.
- Knowledge and experience with aseptic processing and packaging of food or beverage products.
- Knowledge and experience of food or beverage testing and laboratory operations.
- Knowledge and experience in microbiological testing / commercial sterility testing of aseptic food or beverages.
- Practical experience in developing and implementing Quality, Food Safety, and GMP programs and systems.
- Practical experience and training in HACCP.
- Ability to enforce Quality and Food Safety policies and procedures.
- Demonstrated knowledge of Good Manufacturing Practices.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Demonstrated people leadership, coaching and team building experience.
- Ability to adapt to changing operational and organizational needs; ability to lead others through change
- Ability to handle multiple priorities simultaneously, while maintaining a strong attention to detail.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office Tools (Word, Excel, Outlook and PP)
Preferred Qualifications
- Completion of Better Process Control School Aseptic Packaging
- Six Sigma Certification
- Experience with aseptic processing and packaging of food or beverage products
- Experience with microbiology and testing methodology
