Strong, growing produce company seeking Director of Quality to oversee their Farming and Harvesting operations.

Responsibilities-

Provide direction and leadership to Farming Quality Assurance Department personnel.
Provide assistance to Sales staff in investigating and handling product complaints from both external and internal sources.
Support Harvesting and Farming compliance with Food Safety and Quality programs.
Stay current with fresh produce industry developments, new regulations, guidance documents, and best practices.
Responsible for government, regulatory and customer audit administration.
Report on Quality and Food Safety KPIs to cross-functional teams.
Develop, train, and assess the performance of Quality Assurance staff.
Provide recommendations to management in relation to regulatory and internal compliance.
Additional projects and duties as assigned by the VP of Quality Assurance.

Qualifications-

Minimum of 2 years of staff management experience.
Minimum educational background of a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology, Food Science, Biochemistry, Biological Sciences or related field.
Able to lead internal/external audits and provide insights on improvements for gaps or weak points of safe farming of fresh produce, and compliance management.
Able to develop and improve food safety and quality plans, implementing and tracking preventive controls, validating, and verifying food safety standards against FSMA, LGMA, or similar requirements.
Able to coordinate with vendors and auditors, timely communication with management on food safety or quality issues and decisions impacting cross functional teams and interaction with all levels of the organization.
Travel about 25% - 50% of the time

Preferred experience

Willing to be certified in PCQI, HACCP, and GFSI programs with a clear understating of produce safety rule requirements.
Experience in food safety management along with GMPs, GAPs, regulatory compliance, food safety audits, and fresh produce quality programs.
Experience and expertise in fresh produce safety and quality, document control, microbiology, irrigation water treatment, and food production regulatory compliance.
Bi-lingual English/Spanish.