Director, Food Safety Supply Chain

The Director, Food Safety Supply Chain provides strategic leadership to the Food Safety and Quality Assurance (FSQA) teams responsible for ensuring robust food safety and quality controls for all raw materials, ingredients and finished products entering Boar’s Head manufacturing and distribution facilities. Acting as a Subject Matter Expert, this role drives continuous improvement and compliance across the supply chain, participates in corporate-level strategic initiatives, and collaborates with cross-functional teams—including Local Purveyors, Divisional Sales, and Corporate Departments—to uphold and advance the company’s food safety standards.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Leads the Food Safety and Quality Assurance Supply Chain team to achieve key aspects of food safety and quality, including but not limited to remote and/or onsite audits and review of 3rd party audit programs, HACCP programs/Preventive Control programs for incoming product, and all other related activities.

• Defines and communicates all food safety and quality expectations for raw material, ingredient and co-manufactured products produced under the Boar’s Head brand.

• Ensures all required Food Safety and Quality programs are being executed by raw material and ingredient suppliers as well as co-manufacturers as required by both internal quality programs/systems as well as by FDA and USDA.

• Works with the Family Foods team, the Channel team and Procurement on approving new suppliers based on business needs and holding these partners accountable to following established expectations.

• Partners closely with the business on exploration of new product lines and innovation to ensure needed suppliers are identified and approved to keep product launches on schedule.

• Oversee food safety and quality auditing of existing and new suppliers using a risk-based prioritization model to effectively manage risk to the company.

• Work with Customer Service, Procurement, Family Foods and Marketing teams to address consumer and customer complaints related to raw materials, ingredients or co-manufactured products. Monitor and react to trends to prevent additional consumer and customer complaints.

• Establish and maintain an FSQA scorecard for all suppliers to provide objective guidance to Procurement and Family Foods teams on supplier performance throughout the year.

• Collaborate with Corporate FSQR Retail Counterparts to collaborate on Industry Trends.

• Work with the Food Safety Culture Manager and appropriate training teams to ensure food safety training content is updated with current Industry Food Safety Requirements for Sales & LPs.

• Working with the Chief Food Safety Officer and peers, actively participate in strategic planning and goal setting for the overall FSQA program.

• Hire, manage and develop a team of diverse high performance food safety professionals within the FSQA Supply Chain team who will actively contribute to the success of the organization.

• Represent the company in appropriate industry and professional organizations as needed.

• Lead other duties as assigned.

Education and/or Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in food science, or related discipline; master’s degree or higher preferred.

• +10 years of experience with Food Safety, Quality Assurance, R&D, or other process science discipline in the food industry; 5-10 years’ experience as a manager in Quality Assurance, R&D, Food Safety, or other similar disciplines.

• A working knowledge of food science, a wide variety of production processes, and government regulations pertaining to meat, cheese, and condiment processing is necessary.

• Candidate must have a complete understanding of all USDA FSIS HACCP & FDA FSMA regulatory requirements.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office programs is necessary.

Language Skills

• Must be fluent in oral and written English, be able to report, and understand scientific data.

• Must be able to read and interpret FSIS and FDA regulations concerning all aspects of meat and poultry processing, cheese processing, and condiment processing.

• Must be able to communicate with and train people of various educational levels on quality and regulatory-related subjects.

• Candidate must communicate effectively with all levels of company personnel as well as customers, Distributors, and regulatory agencies.

• Must be able to read, write, analyze, and interpret complex technical reports.

Mathematical Skills

• Technical-level mathematical skills are necessary for chemical, microbiological, and statistical data interpretation. Knowledge of statistical process control would be helpful.

• The ability to use formulations and calculate ingredient percentages is required.

• Must be able to perform and understand mathematical calculations associated with meat, cheese, and condiment processing and laboratory testing such as product formulations, percent yield, added ingredients, and protein fat free calculations.

• Must be able to read and analyze process data, charts, graphs, and logs.

Reasoning Ability

• Technical reasoning and analytical skills are extremely important.

• Complex problem-solving skills are essential.

Certificates, Licenses, and Registration

• HACCP Training class meets the requirements of 9 CFR 417.

• Formal training as an auditor against a GFSI recognized certification program in lieu of direct experience conducting audits will be required.

• ASQ Certification in one &/or all of the following: Certified Food Safety Quality Auditor, Certified Quality Auditor, Certified Supplier Quality Professional

Physical Demands

• Extended periods of walking and standing should be expected. Lift up to 50 lbs. infrequently; capable of walking up and down four flights of steps.

Work Environment

• Standard office conditions as well as manufacturing plant environmental conditions (refrigerated temperatures, some damp conditions). Travel requirement is approximately 35%.