Senior Director, Food Safety & Quality Assurance

Flagstone Foods:

At Flagstone Foods, we believe appreciation grows goodness. We have an appreciation for our customers, our employees, and the communities in which we live. Appreciation is our main ingredient! 

Headquartered in the North Loop of Minneapolis with plants in Robersonville, North Carolina, El Paso, Texas, and Dothan, Alabama, we are one of North America’s largest manufacturers and distributors of “feel good snacks,” like flavorful snack nuts, innovative trail mixes and wholesome dried fruits…and we are adding to our team! We hire creative, thoughtful, and entrepreneurial team members. If you share our enthusiasm and appreciation for goodness, you too may find a home with Flagstone Foods. 

POSITION: Senior Director, Food Safety & Quality Assurance

REPORTS TO:   VP, Research & Develop and Food Safety Quality Assurance 

Position Summary: 

The Senior Director, Food Safety and Quality works with Plant Operations, QA Leaders, and Sanitation Managers in the Plant to help design and lead Food Safety and QA programs across regional production, storage, and distribution facilities. Responsibilities include the development and implementation of Corporate and Regulatory programs, procedures, and continuous improvement programs to ensure production, warehouse and distribution facilities maintain the highest level of Sanitation, Hygiene and Food Safety control. The successful candidate will engage Plant Quality Assurance, Manufacturing Operations, and Engineering teams to ensure successful program adoption. The Senior Director, Quality Assurance, will work closely with the R&D Team, supporting successful design of products to meets customer requirements and internal capabilities. 

 Job Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement consistent Quality Assurance, Food Safety and Sanitation strategy across the company.
• Lead the refinement and or development of quality processes including standards of critical tasks such as supplier certification, inbound inspection, microbiological testing, lot tracking, daily and periodic sanitation, HACCP, pest control, food safety and quality documentation.
• Manages seven direct reports including Corporate Quality teams and Plant QA Managers (El Paso, Dothan, Robersonville).
• Manage all regulatory compliance initiatives including food safety, quality assurance and sanitation and ensure compliance with state, federal and local regulations.
• The Senior Director will build capability through training and knowledge transfer to facility associates through Quality Assurance Managers and their teams.
• Establish industry leading standards for quality assurance metrics including reporting accurate and timely metrics such as customer complaint frequency, product evaluation scores, audit scores, regulatory compliance, etc.
• Act as needed to refine and adjust the type and frequency of the metrics that are used to track the quality performance of the business.
• Ensures raw material standards compliance and issues with raw material specifications by conferring and negotiating with suppliers, and research and development to devise testing methods, procedures, and alternatives.
• Develop and foster interactions with R&D scientists, engineering, and manufacturing partners to provide guidance on food safety and quality programs to assure appropriately designed processes, products, and equipment.
• Ensuring food safety and quality expectations are built into key cross functional processes from concept through commercialization.
• Leverage continuous improvement tools and industry best practices to improve quality and food safety processes.
• Achieves financial objectives by preparing quality assurance budget, scheduling, expenditures, analyzing variances, and initiating corrective actions.
• If a quality system failure occurs, the Senior Director will facilitate root cause analysis, helping formulate a plan of action in support of senior management’s decision making.
• Engage with the sales team and customers to support the business as it relates to product issues and technical opportunities.
• Provide guidance, leadership, and recommendations to the Senior Leadership team of the business to assure Flagstone Foods is viewed as a world class leader in food safety.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Quality Assurance, Chemistry, or related field and/or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum 10 years of Quality Management and Quality Systems experience in food manufacturing management with demonstrated success at the Director, Quality Assurance level.
• Experience in successfully developing and implementing a Quality Assurance, Food Safety and Sanitation strategy company wide.
• Quality certification preferred (e.g., GFSI, PCQI, BRC, SQF, etc.).
• Strong project management skills.
• Self-direction with the ability to work independently, as well as with groups.
• Global vendor/supplier relationship experience viewed as a plus.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to adapt to changing organizational and operational needs and the ability to lead others through change.
• Sense of urgency and ownership regarding role and needs of organization.
• Strong quantitative skills, interpersonal skills, and ability to think critically.
• Strong team player and leader with the ability to work across multiple functions and disciplines.
• Experience with nut products is a plus.
• Ability to travel up to 30-50%.

Physical Requirements:

The physical demands described within the Essential Functions section of this job description are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform this job. Other duties or tasks may be assigned as required. Management may modify, change, or add to the duties of this description at any time without notice. 

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to:

• Communicate with others both verbally and in writing. 
• Be independently mobile.
• Use a computer and keyboard.
• Regularly sit, stand, walk, reach, stretch, stoop, bend, for extended periods.
• Ability to lift/carry 25 to 50 lbs.
• Exposure to noise levels requiring hearing protection.

Supervises - Yes

FLSA Designation: This position is a Salaried Exempt and not eligible for overtime.

Work Location: Minneapolis, MN – travel expected less than 30-50%

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.