Job Description

About Kerry

Kerry is the world's leading taste and nutrition company for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Every day we partner with customers to create healthier, tastier and more sustainable products that are consumed by billions of people across the world. Our vision is to be our customers' most valued partner, creating a world of sustainable nutrition. A career with Kerry offers you an opportunity to shape the future of food while providing you opportunities to explore and grow in a truly global environment.

About the role

The Food Safety and Quality Director, Food Cluster will lead food safety & quality across 8 sites in the Food cluster, which make dairy, cheese, dry blend and seasoning ingredients utilizing spray dry, blending, packaging and wet processing.  The Food cluster has 4 sites in Wisconsin, 2 in Minnesota and 2 in Ontario, Canada and preferably the individual will be located near our headquarters in Beloit, WI OR near one of the Food cluster manufacturing sites.  A minimum of 50% travel will be required.

Key responsibilities

• This role will drive quality improvement, advance food safety and sanitation, achieve Key Performance Indicators, coach root cause and preventive action to drive improvement trends, ensure sanitation excellence, and develop FSQ Managers in an effective partnership with integrated operations leadership.
• The Food Safety and Quality Director will proactively engage with strategic customers, building trust and rapport, while preventing and resolving challenges to support business growth in alignment with commercial leadership.
• Oversee, guide, and verify deployment of Kerry food safety and sanitation standards across sites in alignment with GFSI, FDA, CFIA. Review and consult on HACCP and Food Safety Plans, and the preventive controls that support them to ensure effective food safety controls.
• Review analytical and sensory programs, providing guidance to enhance and reduce variation, to meet customer expectations consistently. Engage team in the commercialization process to verify end to end food safety and process capability for quality parameters.
• Conduct and review internal audits and closure of corrective actions, verifying readiness for external audits and compliance to regulatory requirements and Kerry standards.
• Coach, onboard, develop the Food Safety and Quality Managers at each site to build capability and ensure successful delivery of results.
• Plan and lead quality culture initiatives, driving a Safety First, Quality Always, Right the First Time, continuous improvement culture in partnership with operations leadership.
• Understand and apply PCQI, SQF, SPC, HACCP, GMP and food/beverage technology knowledge to identify opportunities and guide improvement plans. Apply knowledge of dairy processing, microbiology, spray dry and sanitation/CIP to drive improvement.
• This role requires frequent travel to sites to develop team, provide technical expertise in food safety & quality, and to verify/enhance programs and practices.

Qualifications and skills

• Bachelor of Science degree from an accredited institution in Microbiology, Food Science or a related science or engineering discipline.
• 12+ years-experience in food safety and quality leadership, with prior experience over multiple sites. Strong food safety commitment, with a collaborative style of execution.
• Experience in dairy, dry blending, and spray drying in a complex environment
• Customer savvy and demonstrated success building strategic customer relationships
• Ability to develop and action strategic improvement plans, bringing others along and influencing for success.
• Competent in root cause analysis, corrective action, verification and validation. Understanding of good laboratory procedures.
• Knowledgeable in food safety, HACCP, GMP's, Prerequisite Programs, sanitation, and environmental monitoring.
• GFSI Certification - SQF, BRC or FS22000. PCQI Trained.
• Familiarity with using Statistical Process Control to drive quality improvement

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