What are the responsibilities and job description for the Quality and Food Safety Manager - Shared position at The Lauridsen Group?
Why This Role Matters
As Quality & Food Safety Manager, you'll have the opportunity to influence quality and food safety programs across multiple North American manufacturing facilities rather than being limited to a single site. You'll partner with plant leaders, quality teams, and business leaders to strengthen food safety culture, drive continuous improvement, and help shape the future of our corporate quality systems.
About Us
The Lauridsen Group, Inc. (LGI), is a collection of six independent companies with each dedicated to discovering and producing products to enhance health and nutrition. These companies have the ability and charge to be entrepreneurial, to seek out new markets, to develop new products and applications, and to discover new ways to add value through fractionation and novel applications. LGI is headquartered in Ankeny, IA and maintains fifty manufacturing and sales locations in twenty countries and sales in more than sixty countries.
Key Accountabilities
1. Corporate Quality & Food Safety Program Leadership
Guide implementation and compliance with corporate quality and food safety requirements, including SOPs, SSOPs, formulas, FSMA requirements, recall procedures, HACCP programs, and Food Safety Plans.
Support consistent application of quality and food safety expectations across North American manufacturing locations.
Monitor industry, customer, and regulatory developments and recommend enhancements to quality and food safety programs.
Provide technical guidance related to food safety, quality systems, and regulatory requirements.
2. Audits, Certifications & Compliance Readiness
Collaborate with manufacturing teams to implement quality and food safety requirements for third-party certification programs, including SQF, Safe Feed/Safe Food, and similar standards.
Perform corporate internal audits of manufacturing facilities and partner with sites to address and close audit findings.
Serve as a corporate representative during customer and regulatory audits.
Support audit readiness efforts and ensure timely follow-up on corrective action requests.
3. CAPA, Corrective Action & Continuous Improvement
Oversee the Corporate Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) program.
Support resolution of audit findings, customer complaints, and nonconforming material issues.
Facilitate meetings focused on process improvement, quality system effectiveness, and food safety performance.
Partner with sites to identify opportunities that improve product quality, compliance, and operational effectiveness.
4. Site Partnership, Food Safety Culture & Subject Matter Expertise
Collaborate with manufacturing sites to strengthen food safety culture and quality performance.
Provide subject matter expertise to plant quality and manufacturing teams regarding food safety, quality systems, and regulatory requirements.
Influence, coach, and train employees on quality, food safety, and compliance expectations.
Build strong partnerships that support consistent execution of quality and food safety standards across locations.
5. Cross-Functional Support & Business Partnership
Partner with customers, suppliers, sales, customer service, and internal stakeholders to resolve quality and food safety concerns.
Prepare and facilitate management review meetings for LGI businesses.
Manage and support projects that advance corporate quality and food safety objectives.
Provide support to the Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs team as business needs require.
Scope & Impact:
Supports quality assurance and quality control teams across LGI’s North American manufacturing locations.
Provides corporate leadership and subject matter expertise in quality systems, food safety programs, audit readiness, and CAPA management.
Influences quality and food safety performance across manufacturing, quality, sales, customer service, regulatory, and corporate functions.
Supports customer, regulatory, and third-party certification audits.
Requires up to 45% travel.
Key Capabilities:
Quality & Food Safety Expertise: Applies technical knowledge of food safety, quality systems, microbiology, chemistry, FSMA, HACCP, and regulatory requirements.
Audit & Compliance Management: Supports audit readiness and compliance across internal, customer, regulatory, and third-party certification programs.
Problem Solving & CAPA Management: Identifies root causes and drives effective corrective and preventive actions.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Builds productive relationships across manufacturing, quality, regulatory, commercial, and corporate teams.
Communication & Influence: Clearly communicates technical requirements and effectively trains and influences others.
Continuous Improvement: Drives enhancements to quality systems, food safety programs, and organizational performance.
Project & Organizational Effectiveness: Manages multiple priorities and projects while maintaining attention to quality and compliance.
Job Qualifications
Education
Bachelor's degree in Food Technology, Chemistry, Microbiology, Biology, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Experience
7 years of experience auditing quality and food safety programs within the food or feed industry.
3 years of leadership or supervisory experience in manufacturing quality and food safety environments preferred.
Working knowledge of microbiology.
Experience supporting animal food, pet food, and/or human food manufacturing operations preferred.
Preferred
SQF Practitioner certification.
Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) certification for human and/or animal food.
HACCP certification and training experience.
Internal Auditing certification.
ISO 9001 training or certification.
Equivalent combinations of education and experience will be considered.