Quality, Food Safety & Regulatory Leader

Job Description: Quality Food Safety & Regulatory (Q&FSR) Leader

Our client is hiring a Senior Director Quality Food Safety & Regulatory to lead a mission-critical function at the center of growth innovation and consumer trust in a growing CPG organization.

Role Overview

The Quality Food Safety & Regulatory (Q&FSR) Leader will own and lead the end-to-end Quality Food Safety and Regulatory function for a growing consumer packaged goods (CPG) company manufacturing through third-party partners. This role is responsible for setting strategy building scalable programs and systems and ensuring consistent execution across all quality food safety regulatory compliance certification and supplier/co-manufacturer activities.

This Senior Director Q&FSR role will have one direct report and serve as the primary owner of regulatory review processes manage external regulatory consultants and oversee industry and customer certification programs including GFSI Organic Non-GMO Gluten-Free Kosher and related standards.

This is a highly influential role with oversight of external partners and the opportunity to build and lead a dedicated Quality and Regulatory team as the company continues to grow/scale.

This role is ideal for a hands-on strategic leader who enjoys building and scaling partnering cross-functionally and operating in a fast-paced high-growth CPG environment.

The Q&FSR Leader plays a critical role in protecting brand integrity enabling innovation and maintaining consumer trust while supporting growth across a multiple network of manufacturing partners.

Role Scope & Impact

1. Quality & Food Safety Program Leadership

• Set and lead the company-wide Quality Food Safety & Regulatory strategy policies standards and risk management frameworks.
• Maintain and continuously improve the Q&FS Management System ensuring compliance with FDA FSMA CFIA GFSI and customer requirements.
• Serve as the primary point of contact internally and externally for all quality and food safety matters.

2. Regulatory Oversight & Third-Party Consultants

• Own all regulatory compliance processes including label review ingredient and nutrition compliance claims substantiation formula documentation and regulatory recordkeeping.
• Manage relationships with third-party regulatory consultants ensuring timely accurate regulatory reviews and approvals for new and existing products.
• Stay current with emerging regulations and proactively update internal and co-man processes.
• Ensure co-mans maintain required regulatory documentation and processes consistent with company standards.

3. Certification Management & Oversight

• Own all product and facility-related certifications (e.g. Organic Non-GMO Gluten-Free Kosher Halal Fair Trade).
• Manage certification renewals documentation inspections and communication with certifying bodies.
• Ensure co-mans and suppliers comply with certification requirements and maintain required documentation.
• Lead the internal tracking and update cadence of certification timelines statuses and deliverables.

4. Third-Party Manufacturing (Co-Man) Oversight

• Own Quality Agreements co-man specifications testing protocols and compliance requirements.
• Monitor daily/weekly production data including COAs CCP/PC monitoring holds defects and deviations.
• Conduct annual co-man audits routine site visits and ongoing quality performance reviews.
• Lead investigations and CAPAs for any production food safety or regulatory deviations.

5. Ongoing Quality & Food Safety Monitoring

• Review and trend production and testing data; identify risks and drive continuous improvement.
• Maintain dashboards and KPIs (complaint rates RFT defects audit scores incidents CAPA performance).
• Conduct risk assessments and issue escalation processes.

6. Vendor Assurance Program

• Build and own the companys Vendor Assurance program for all raw materials ingredients packaging and service providers.
• Stand up and manage a digital quality and compliance platform (e.g. TraceGains Repositrak FoodLogiQ).
• Qualify new suppliers through documentation review risk assessments and audits.
• Maintain supplier scorecards and perform periodic supplier reviews.

7. Complaint Monitoring & Consumer Feedback

• Own the complaint collection trending investigation and CAPA process.
• Provide monthly/quarterly analytics to leadership.
• Partner with co-mans and suppliers to eliminate recurring issues.

8. Audit Management

• Manage all third-party audits including GFSI customer audits supplier audits and regulatory inspections.
• Ensure co-mans and suppliers remain audit-ready.
• Lead internal audit processes and continuous improvement activities.

9. Documentation Specifications & Change Control

• Own product and packaging specifications version control and distribution to co-mans.
• Manage formula/packaging changes through a structured change control process.
• Ensure traceability document retention and regulatory documentation completeness.

10. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with R&D Supply Chain Operations Commercial and Customer Service.
• Support product development reformulations packaging updates and new market introductions from a Q&FSR standpoint.

Professional Experience & Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Food Science Biology Microbiology Chemistry Regulatory Affairs or related field.
• 10 years of progressively responsible experience in Quality Food Safety and/or Regulatory roles within CPG food manufacturing strongly preferred in co-manufacturing environments.
• Deep knowledge of FDA FSMA (including Preventive Controls) CFIA GFSI (SQF BRC FSSC) HACCP and food labeling regulations.
• Experience managing third-party regulatory consultants and overseeing regulatory reviews.
• Experience managing certification programs such as Organic Non-GMO Gluten-Free Kosher or similar.
• Proven ability to implement digital quality platforms (TraceGains Repositrak FoodLogiQ etc.).
• Strong leadership with the ability to influence external partners.

Leadership Capabilities

• Strategic and operational leadership
• Strong technical understanding of quality/food safety/regulatory systems
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to influence without authority
• High attention to detail and documentation accuracy