Associate Director Food Safety & Quality - West

Universal Pure; Lincoln (NE); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Universal Pure in the United States seeks an Associate Director, Food Safety & Quality to lead FSQA programs regionally across multiple facilities. You will partner with Operations, Supply Chain, Sanitation, Maintenance, and site leadership to ensure products are safe, compliant, and consistent with customer expectations.

This role drives audits, regulatory interactions, CAPA, and continuous improvement, using KPIs and data to reduce risk.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in food science, microbiology, biology, or related field (or equivalent).
• Progressive leadership experience in regulated food manufacturing environments.
• Strong working knowledge of USDA/FSIS and/or FDA requirements, HACCP, PCQI, and quality systems.
• Experience leading audits, regulatory interactions, and CAPA initiatives.
• Ability to influence cross-functional leaders and communicate risk effectively.
• Proficient with Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, SharePoint, and KPI dashboards.

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership and oversight to FSQA managers across multiple locations.
• Ensure compliance with USDA, FDA, FSMA, HACCP, GMP, and related requirements.
• Drive audit readiness and serve as liaison for regulatory and customer audits.
• Standardize FSQA programs and documentation across facilities.
• Use KPIs and root cause analysis to reduce risk and improve performance.
• Support hold/release decisions, labeling, deviations, investigations, recalls, and complaints.
• Collaborate with Operations, Sanitation, Maintenance, and Commercial teams to embed food safety daily.
• Coach FSQA teams and build bench strength with a strong food safety culture.

Skills

Leadership

Regulatory compliance

Analytical thinking

Communication

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor's in food science or related field

Equivalent experience considered

Tools

Excel

PowerPoint

SharePoint

Teams

Job description

Position Purpose

The Associate Director, Food Safety & Quality provides regional leadership for food safety, quality systems, regulatory compliance, audit readiness, sanitation, and continuous improvement across assigned facilities. This role partners closely with Operations, Supply Chain, Sanitation, Maintenance, Commercial, and site leadership to ensure products are safe, compliant, consistent, and aligned with customer and regulatory expectations.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide leadership, direction, and oversight to site-level FSQA managers across multiple locations.
• Responsible for the leadership, oversight, and performance of Food Safety and Quality programs across multiple facilities, ensuring consistent execution of standards, regulatory compliance, operational excellence, and achievement of key business objectives through effective management of site leadership teams.
• Ensure compliance with applicable USDA, FDA, FSMA, HACCP, Preventive Controls, GMP, SSOP, sanitation, allergen, food defense, food fraud, SQF/GFSI, customer, and internal requirements.
• Drive audit readiness and serve as a key liaison for regulatory inspections, customer audits, third‑party audits, and internal assessments.
• Standardize and strengthen food safety and quality programs, policies, procedures, specifications, documentation, and verification systems across facilities.
• Use KPIs, trend data, root cause analysis, CAPA, validation, verification, and risk‑based decision‑making to reduce risk and improve performance.
• Support product hold/release decisions, pre‑shipment review, labeling compliance, escalations, deviations, investigations, withdrawals, recalls, and customer complaints.
• Partner with Operations, Sanitation, Maintenance, Engineering, Warehouse, Procurement, and Commercial teams to embed food safety and quality into daily execution.
• Coach, develop, and hold FSQA teams accountable while building bench strength, consistency, and a proactive food safety culture.
• Provide clear communication to site and senior leaders on risks, priorities, audit outcomes, corrective actions, and continuous improvement progress.

Leadership Competencies

• Food safety mindset with strong ownership, urgency, and accountability.
• Practical, risk‑based decision maker who balances compliance, product integrity, and business needs.
• Collaborative operational partner who builds trust and influences without relying solely on direct authority.
• Clear communicator with strong listening, coaching, documentation, and executive communication skills.
• Analytical, detail‑oriented, adaptable, and committed to continuous improvement.
• Proven ability to build high‑performing teams from the ground up and work effectively at every level, from floor technicians to executive leadership.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

• Associate Director or Senior Manager‑level Food Safety & Quality professional with experience across food manufacturing, processing, distribution, refrigerated, ready‑to‑eat, and related food production environments.
• Several years of leadership experience managing complex food manufacturing operations and cross‑functional teams in highly regulated production environments.
• Bachelor’s degree in food science, microbiology, food safety, biology, or a related field; or equivalent experience may be considered.
• Progressive food safety and quality leadership experience in a regulated food manufacturing or processing environment.
• Strong working knowledge of USDA/FSIS and/or FDA requirements, HACCP, Preventive Controls, GMPs, SSOPs, sanitation, allergens, environmental monitoring, and quality systems.
• Experience leading audits, regulatory interactions, customer requirements, investigations, CAPA, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to influence cross‑functional leaders, communicate risk effectively, and translate technical requirements into practical operating expectations.
• Strong digital capability, including Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Teams, KPI reporting dashboards, and quality system tools.
• Ability to travel up to 30-50% to assigned sites, or as business needs require.

Preferred Qualifications

• Multi‑site FSQA leadership experience.
• HACCP certification required; PCQI, SQF, Internal Auditor, Juice HACCP, Seafood HACCP, or related certifications preferred.
• Experience with refrigerated, ready‑to‑eat, USDA, FDA, export, or customer‑certified environments.

Working Conditions

• Salaried: Travel to assigned facilities and business meetings is required as needed.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Universal Pure is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.

Job Description Disclaimer

The job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change, or new ones may be assigned at any time with or without notice.

Summary

This position can be based out of Arlington, Texas or Lincoln, Nebraska locations and will require travel between 30% and 50%.