Animal Welfare and Biosecurity Superintendent

Pilgrim's; Guntersville (AL); On-site; USD 69,000 - 84,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Vision, Medical & Dental after 60 days

Paid Time Off

401(k) company match

Annual bonus eligibility

Career development opportunities

Better Futures

Job summary

Pilgrim’s is seeking an Animal Welfare and Biosecurity Superintendent to lead welfare, biosecurity, and compliance across processing and live operations. The role emphasizes training, auditing, and continuous improvement within a safety-focused culture.

The role requires experience in poultry-related settings, auditing, and supervisory capabilities, with PAACO certification preferred. Base salary and benefits are highlighted in the posting.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related field preferred or equivalent experience.
• PAACO Certification or ability to obtain certification.

Responsibilities

• Lead and oversee animal welfare, biosecurity, compliance, training, auditing, and continuous improvement initiatives across facilities.
• Serve as subject matter expert for animal welfare and humane handling; provide training and corrective action oversight.
• Monitor compliance with welfare policies and conduct audits and inspections.
• Investigate incidents and coordinate corrective actions; maintain records and prepare reports.

Skills

Animal welfare

Biosecurity

Auditing

Training

Regulatory compliance

Education

Bachelor's degree (Animal Science / Poultry Science / Agriculture / Biology)

PAACO Certification

Job description

Animal Welfare and Biosecurity Superintendent

Position Summary

The Animal Welfare and Biosecurity Superintendent is responsible for leading and overseeing all animal welfare, biosecurity, compliance, training, auditing, and continuous improvement initiatives across processing facilities, live operations, and contract grower operations. This position ensures adherence to company animal welfare standards, regulatory requirements, customer expectations, and industry best practices.

The role serves as the facility's subject matter expert for animal welfare and humane handling, providing training, auditing, corrective action oversight, and operational support while promoting a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Monitor and verify compliance with company animal welfare and biosecurity policies, procedures, and standards.
• Liaising with Plant, Production, and Hatchery teams to drive the animal welfare and biosecurity culture.
• Conduct routine animal welfare and biosecurity observations, inspections, and audits.
• Monitor live receiving, hanging, stunning, and harvest operations to ensure humane handling.
• Investigate animal welfare and biosecurity incidents and coordinate corrective actions.
• Serve as facility contact during customer, third-party, and regulatory audits.
• Maintain records, audit documentation, and training records.
• Conduct trend analysis and prepare performance reports. This includes tracking, trending, and responding to all animal welfare and biosecurity non-conformances to mitigate risk.
• Deliver animal welfare training and certification programs. Contribute to training with Plant, Production and Hatchery teams on animal welfare and biosecurity. This may range from re‑training for welfare infractions to onboarding training for new growers.
• Partner with operations and maintenance teams on equipment compliance.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives. Providing support for animal welfare and/or biosecurity trials including, but not limited to, sampling, organizing, and analysis of data.
• Verify corrective and preventive actions.
• Promote employee awareness and accountability.
• Support emergency response activities.
• Work with welfare team to update welfare documents including training and SOPs.
• Training on audits, audit expectations, preparedness annually or on an as needed basis
• Provide support for salmonella or disease-specific biosecurity assessments to review risk factors.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Animal Science, Poultry Science, Agriculture, Biology, Veterinary Technology, or a related field preferred.
• Equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.

Experience

• Minimum 2 to 5 years of experience in poultry production, live operations, animal welfare, quality assurance, food manufacturing, or related fields.
• Experience in poultry processing or live production environments preferred.
• Previous supervisory or leadership experience preferred.
• Internal or external audit experience strongly preferred.

Required Certification

• PAACO (Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization) Certification or ability to obtain certification.

Why Work for Pilgrim’s?

• Benefits: Vision, Medical, and Dental coverage begin after 60 days of employment;
• Paid Time Off: sick leave, vacation, and 6 company observed holidays;
• 401(k): company match begins after the first year of service and follows the company vesting schedule;
• Base Salary range of $69,135.00 - $83,998.80
• Incentive Pay: This position is eligible to participate in the Company’s annual bonus plan; the amount of bonus varies and is subject to the standard terms and conditions of the incentive program; and
• Career Development: Our company is dedicated to supporting professional growth by offering continuous learning opportunities and a focus on career growth through various learning and development programs;
• Better Futures

The Company is dedicated to ensuring a safe and secure environment for our team members and visitors. To assist in achieving that goal, we conduct drug, alcohol, and background checks for all new team members post-offer and prior to the start of employment. The Immigration Reform and Control Act requires that verification of employment eligibility be documented for all new employees by the end of the third day of work.

About us: Pilgrim’s is a leading global food company with more than 62,000 team members worldwide. The company processes, prepares, packages, and delivers fresh, frozen, and value-added food products for customers in more than 100 countries. Pilgrim’s operates protein processing plants and prepared foods facilities in 14 states, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the U.K, the Republic of Ireland and continental Europe.

Our mission: To be the best in all that we do, completely focused on our business, ensuring the best products and services to our customers, a relationship of trust with our suppliers, profitability for our shareholders and the opportunity of a better future for all of our team members.

Our core values are: Availability, Determination, Discipline, Humility, Ownership, Simplicity, Sincerity

EOE, including disability/vets

Unsolicited Assistance: JBS and its companies do not accept unsolicited assistance from any recruitment vendors for any of our open jobs. All resumes or candidate profiles submitted by recruitment vendors or headhunters to any employee at JBS and its companies or via the applicant tracking system, in any form without a valid written request and search agreement previously approved by HR, will be solely owned by JBS and its companies. No fees will be paid should the candidate be hired by JBS and its companies because of an unsolicited referral.