Quality, Food Safety & Regulatory; Q&FSR 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., Trace Gains, 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…