Director FSQA - Poultry

This role oversees Food Safety and Quality Assurance (FSQA) operations for a fresh poultry processing facility, ensuring alignment with corporate FSQA policies, programs, procedures, and initiatives. Responsibilities include providing leadership and coordination in the development and execution of FSQA systems to support critical business objectives, key customer relationships, and quality improvement efforts across poultry manufacturing operations.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Direct the FSQA team and programs within a fresh poultry food processing facility.
• Collaborate in the development and effective implementation of corporate FSQA policies, programs, and procedures to ensure product safety and quality.
• Develop Food Safety and Quality metrics (KPIs) to measure and report progress toward FSQA objectives while driving continuous improvement initiatives.
• Lead incident management activities, including product holds, deviations, foreign material control, and recall/traceability exercises.
• Ensure root cause analysis and corrective/preventive actions (CAPA) are effectively implemented.
• Interface with and provide technical support to corporate and facility team members, customers, regulatory authorities, and industry representatives. This includes the creation and delivery of training programs to support sound food safety and quality practices and quality improvement initiatives.
• Lead and develop a diverse team of FSQA professionals to ensure strong performance, continuous growth, and professional development.
• Develop and execute the organization's FSQA strategic vision to support business growth, customer expectations, and regulatory compliance.
• Ensure compliance with HACCP and applicable food safety regulations.
• Manage FSQA compliance with key customer requirements.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor of Science degree required; Master of Science or terminal degree preferred. Major studies should include Food Science, Food Safety, Meat/Poultry Science, or a related field. Minimum of 5 years of management experience required (or 10 years for candidates holding a Bachelor's degree) leading teams of Food Safety and Quality Assurance professionals.
• Comprehensive technical knowledge of food safety, food processing, applicable FDA and USDA regulations, crisis management and prevention, quality standards and systems, sanitary design and processing principles, GMPs, meat and/or poultry science, food chemistry, food microbiology, process and quality improvement methodologies, and statistical process control/data analysis.
• Proven leadership and team development experience with a demonstrated history of achieving goals, setting team objectives, and advancing individual and team performance.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including effective interaction with cross-functional teams and regulatory authorities. Excellent interpersonal, analytical, and critical-thinking capabilities required.
• Strong problem-solving, project management, and execution skills.
• Ability to travel up to 10% as needed.