FSQA Manager (RTE/COOKED)

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced FSQA Manager to lead Food Safety and Quality Assurance activities within a high-volume ready-to-eat/cooked meat manufacturing operation.

This is a key leadership position responsible for ensuring the facility consistently produces safe, high-quality products while maintaining compliance with USDA/FSIS regulations, HACCP requirements, customer standards, and internal food safety and quality programs.

The successful candidate will have strong experience within ready-to-eat meat, cooked meat, poultry, or prepared foods manufacturing, with a proven ability to lead food safety programs in a fast-paced production environment.

Key Responsibilities

Food Safety & Regulatory Compliance

• Lead and manage the site's Food Safety and Quality Assurance programs.
• Ensure compliance with USDA/FSIS regulations and applicable federal, state, and local requirements.
• Maintain and continuously improve the site's HACCP and Preventive Controls programs.
• Oversee environmental monitoring, pathogen control, sanitation verification, allergen control, foreign material prevention, and other prerequisite programs.
• Ensure accurate completion, review, and maintenance of food safety and quality documentation.
• Serve as a key point of contact for USDA/FSIS personnel, customer representatives, auditors, and regulatory authorities.
• Manage responses to regulatory findings, non-conformances, corrective actions, and follow-up activities.

Quality Assurance

• Establish and maintain quality standards for raw materials, in-process production, finished products, packaging, and labeling.
• Lead investigations into customer complaints, product defects, deviations, and quality incidents.
• Develop and implement effective Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPA).
• Monitor quality trends and use data to identify recurring issues and opportunities for improvement.
• Partner closely with Production, Operations, Maintenance, Sanitation, R&D, and Supply Chain teams to resolve quality and food safety issues.

Ready-to-Eat / Cooked Product Controls

• Provide technical leadership for ready-to-eat and cooked meat processing operations.
• Ensure effective control of critical food safety risks associated with cooking, cooling, chilling, handling, slicing, packaging, and post-lethality environments.
• Oversee validation and verification of thermal processing, lethality, cooling, and other critical food safety controls.
• Lead environmental pathogen control programs, including Listeria control and post-lethality exposure prevention.
• Ensure appropriate controls are in place to prevent cross-contamination and recontamination of finished RTE products.
• Work with technical and production teams to investigate microbiological and process-related issues.

Audits & Customer Requirements

• Lead preparation for and execution of USDA/FSIS, GFSI, customer, and third-party audits.
• Maintain the facility's food safety and quality certification requirements.
• Coordinate corrective actions arising from internal, customer, regulatory, and third-party audits.
• Ensure compliance with customer-specific specifications, standards, and food safety requirements.
• Develop audit readiness programs and ensure the site remains continuously prepared for unannounced inspections and audits.

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, develop, and mentor the FSQA team.
• Establish clear objectives, performance expectations, and accountability across the Quality and Food Safety function.
• Recruit, train, and develop FSQA personnel as required.
• Build a strong food safety culture across the manufacturing facility.
• Deliver food safety, GMP, HACCP, allergen, sanitation, and quality training to employees.
• Work collaboratively with plant leadership to ensure food safety remains a shared operational responsibility.

Continuous Improvement

• Drive continuous improvement across food safety, quality, sanitation, and manufacturing processes.
• Use data, trend analysis, root-cause analysis, and risk assessment to improve site performance.
• Identify opportunities to reduce waste, rework, deviations, customer complaints, and food safety risks.
• Support new product introductions, process changes, equipment installations, and facility improvements from an FSQA perspective.

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will have:

• 5+ years of progressive Food Safety/Quality experience within food manufacturing.
• Strong experience in ready-to-eat, cooked meat, poultry, processed meat, or prepared foods manufacturing.
• Experience working within a USDA/FSIS-inspected facility.
• Strong knowledge of HACCP, GMPs, SSOPs, environmental monitoring, sanitation, allergen control, and microbiological testing.
• Demonstrated experience managing food safety and quality teams within a manufacturing environment.
• Experience with RTE/post-lethality processing and pathogen control, particularly Listeria control.
• Experience preparing for and managing GFSI and customer audits.
• Strong understanding of regulatory requirements and the ability to work effectively with USDA/FSIS personnel.
• Proven experience conducting root-cause analysis, investigations, CAPA, and corrective actions.
• Strong leadership, communication, and influencing skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in a high-volume, fast-paced manufacturing environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Animal Science, Quality, or a related discipline.
• HACCP certification.
• PCQI certification.
• Experience with SQF, BRCGS, FSSC 22000, or another GFSI-benchmarked standard.
• Experience with environmental monitoring programs and pathogen control.
• Experience with thermal process validation/verification.
• Experience with customer-specific food safety programs and specifications.
• Experience leading or supporting USDA/FSIS regulatory responses.
• Strong knowledge of statistical process control and quality improvement methodologies.