Director Quality Food Safety

Business Unit Overview: Headquartered in Lakeville, Minn.
, Post Consumer Brands, a business unit of Post Holdings, Inc.
, is dedicated to providing people and their pets with delicious food choices for every taste and budget.
The company’s portfolio includes beloved brands such as Honey Bunches of Oats®, PEBBLES®, Grape-Nuts® and Malt-O-Meal® cereal, and Peter Pan® peanut butter, as well as Rachael Ray® Nutrish®, Kibbles ‘n Bits® and 9Lives® dog and cat food.
As a company committed to high standards of quality and to our values, we are driven by one idea: To make lives better by making delicious food accessible for all.
For more information about our brands, visit www.
postconsumerbrands.
com and follow us on LinkedIn for the latest news.
Brand: It’s an exciting time in pet food! Post Holdings, Inc.
, recently announced an agreement to acquire Perfection Pet Foods, a leading manufacturer of private label and co-manufactured pet food and baked treats.
The transaction is anticipated to close by the end of the calendar year in 2023.
This role is part of the Perfection Pet Foods team of 250+ employees who will soon join the Post family to help grow the pet food business.
Location Description: Visalia, CA is home to 360,000 square feet of manufacturing, packaging, warehouse, and office space.
Approximately 250 employees work here, utilizing the latest technologies and systems, capable of producing extensive, diverse, and innovative pet food products.
Visalia is in California’s San Joaquin Valley and the gateway to Sequoia National Park, part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
It also has a minor league baseball team, the Visalia California Oaks, and several colleges and universities.
Responsibilities: This is an exciting opportunity to lead food safety and quality for Perfection Pet Foods (PPF), a recent acquisition by Post Consumer Brands (PCB) following PCB’s entry into the pet food category.
This role will provide strategic direction and guidance for Quality & Food Safety (QFS) at PPF, while also guiding and developing the existing QFS team.
This role reports to the Operations Vice President of PPF, with dotted line reporting to the SVP of R&D/QFS for PCB.
This role is located at the Perfection Pet Foods location in Visalia California for two years, then is planned to be located at the Post Consumer Brands headquarter location in Lakeville, Minnesota ongoing (following the integration of Perfection Pet Foods into Post Consumer Brands).
Responsibilities and Accountabilities Comply fully with all regulatory compliance requirements, position the company as an industry leader in Quality Assurance and Food Safety in the pet food industry.
Responsible for creation and implementation of food safety culture, strategic documentation, standardizations, and initiatives.
Ensure critical QFS mature programs and Food Safety Plans are in place, eg micro testing, sanitation, HACCP, CAPA and supplier quality.
Ensure the success of internal auditing programs and overall SQF compliance.
Provide food safety and quality subject matter expertise for continuous improvement and strategic growth plans.
Create risk assessments and justification for needed tools, including software, hardware and other equipment.
Develop metrics and reporting to drive data-based decision-making regarding division-wide FSQA priorities to Senior Leadership.
Build, coach, manage, train, and promote a high-performing FSQA leadership team and department culture.
Evaluate gaps in FSQA programs through the use of multi-disciplinary team root cause analysis, ensuring that corrective actions are effective.
Prioritize projects within the department, assess accountability loops, and drive for project completion.
Partner with the Sales Team on effectiveness of QA systems in achieving customer satisfaction.
Review and approve customer specifications, host customer audits, and provide technical support for the sales and marketing teams when resolving customer issues.
Oversee cost assessments, budgeting/capitalization, and resource management to guarantee ability to carry out the mission of delivering safe, quality food to our customers.
Communicate regulatory changes to all relevant parties and Senior Leadership to maintain compliance and adherence to local, state and federal requirements including FSMA.
Liaise with Post Consumer Brands and Post Holdings Quality leadership and functional experts (eg micro food safety, sanitation, supplier quality).
Work in tandem with the PPF Executive Team to prepare the company and sites on crisis communication.
Serve as corporate liaison for food safety crisis management.
Serve as PPF recall coordinator, audit coordinator, provide overall direction for a robust track and trace/ recall plan.
Qualifications: Requirements Strong written and verbal communication skills, analytical ability, leadership strengths, influencing and coaching skills, and ability to work effectively with a team.
Self-motivated, proactive, and learning agile.
Able and willing to work effectively in both corporate and plant floor environments, with a regular presence on the plant floor.
Strong ability to collect data, analyze information, define problems, identify solutions, and make decisions.
Advanced expertise in Quality management systems & analytics, and change control.
Demonstrated professionalism with a dedicated work ethic and ability to prioritize/manage multiple projects.
Advanced HACCP, Preventative Control Quality Individual, and SQF Practitioner certifications.
Critical Leadership Expectations: Learning Agile, Leads Change, Drives Execution, Works Collaboratively, Interpersonal Agility, Conflict Resolution.
Travel as needed, with ~25% travel once position is located in Lakeville.
Education BS degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Agricultural engineering or other closely related field; Master’s degree preferred.
Experience Minimum 15 years’ experience in the food industry including quality assurance, food production, food safety, 5+ years experience in supervision of professional staff, and operations leadership experience in Quality.
Extensive knowledge of quality and food safety systems related to food hygiene, HACCP, sanitation, root cause analysis, verification/validation, compliance standards, and cGMPs.
Experience with State and Federal regulatory agencies (FDA) and 3rd party/customer food safety audits.
Offers of employment will be determined by factors including but not limited to job-related skills, experience, relevant education and/or training and geographical location of the open position.
Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, gender, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, marital status or any other characteristics protected by law.
Pay: The pay range for this position is $128,932-175,348 annually We offer competitive benefit plans and programs to eligible employees, including but not limited to: Medical Prescription drug Dental Vision Life Insurance Disability coverage Employee assistance programs (includes counseling, coaching, online programs, etc.
) 401(k) plan Paid time off Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: At Post Consumer Brands, we are genuinely committed to diversity, equity, AND inclusion and understand that the presence of diversity alone does not create an inclusive and equitable workplace.
Furthermore, our commitment to DEI is rooted in our values and how we work.
Our DEI Advisory Committee works to bring our beliefs and commitments to life through our four focus pillars: Community, Workforce, Workplace, and Marketplace.