Sr. Manager, Consumer Affairs

Ferrara; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 114,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Comprehensive benefits

Paid time off

Job summary

Ferrara is seeking a Sr. Manager Consumer Affairs & Customer Quality to lead the global strategy, governance, and performance across brands, customers, and markets.

You will interface between consumers, strategic customers, and Ferrara’s FSQAR organization to ensure effective complaint management, risk identification, and strong relationships. This leadership role requires 10+ years in quality/consumer affairs within a global CPG setting, with travel and in-person collaboration.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive experience in Quality, Consumer Affairs, Customer Quality, Food Safety, or related CPG functions.
• Demonstrated experience managing strategic customers and consumer complaint programs in a complex, multi-site or global organization.
• Strong experience with complaint management, root cause analysis, CAPA, customer escalations, and performance improvement.
• Strong executive communication, business judgment, analytical capability, and cross‑functional influence.
• Experience with CRM, complaint management, and business intelligence platforms preferred.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the global Consumer Affairs and Customer Quality strategy, standards, processes, and governance.
• Establish consistent requirements for complaint management, customer quality engagement, escalation, investigation, and closure.
• Drive standardization, simplification, and digitalization of consumer and customer quality processes globally.
• Provide global oversight of consumer complaints, inquiries, adverse events, and emerging concerns.
• Partner with Commercial teams to proactively manage customer quality expectations, requirements, and performance.
• Lead significant customer quality escalations, performance reviews, and improvement plans.
• Translate customer requirements into scalable and sustainable operational solutions.
• Establish and monitor global consumer and customer quality KPIs, complaint trends, service levels, and performance expectations.
• Identify systemic and recurring issues by product, brand, customer, facility, geography, and defect type.
• Ensure effective root cause analysis and corrective and preventive action for significant or recurring issues.
• Partner with Manufacturing, R&D, Supply Chain, Food Safety, Regulatory, and Commercial teams to drive measurable improvement.
• Support recalls, withdrawals, crisis events, and other significant consumer or customer matters.
• Provide business leadership for consumer complaint and customer quality systems, analytics, reporting, and data governance.
• Develop insights and early-warning mechanisms to proactively identify emerging risks and opportunities.
• Lead and develop Consumer Affairs, Customer Quality, and external consumer contact center resources.
• Build capability in complaint management, customer engagement, risk assessment, investigation, and escalation.
• Represent Consumer Affairs and Customer Quality within global FSQAR governance and executive business reviews.
• Build strong partnerships across Commercial, Marketing, Operations, R&D, Supply Chain, Legal, Regulatory, and Food Safety.

Skills

Complaint reduction

Customer quality

Escalation responsiveness

CAPA effectiveness

Service level

Insights trends

Quality risks

Actionable insights

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Food Science/Technology or related field

Tools

CRM software

Business Intelligence

Job description

Work Location: Chicago

Due to the highly interactive and team-based nature of this role, in-person attendance for most of the workweek (i.e., 3 days or more) is essential for: effective communication including during in-person meetings, strong supervision, real-time problem-solving, and participation in cross-functional initiatives.

Want to make an impact?

The Sr. Manager Consumer Affairs & Customer Quality is responsible for leading Ferrara’s global consumer affairs and customer quality strategy, governance, and performance across brands, customers, and markets.

This role serves as the global interface between consumers, strategic customers, and Ferrara’s Food Safety, Quality & Regulatory organization, ensuring consistent complaint management, proactive risk identification, strong customer relationships, and effective resolution of quality issues. The Sr. Manager translates consumer and customer insights into actionable improvements that strengthen product quality, protect business continuity, enhance trust, and support sustainable growth.

Travel Requirement

• 20% travel to facilities within the network
• Must have valid passport

Ways you will make a difference

Global Strategy & Governance

• Define and lead the global Consumer Affairs and Customer Quality strategy, standards, processes, and governance.
• Establish consistent requirements for complaint management, customer quality engagement, escalation, investigation, and closure.
• Drive standardization, simplification, and digitalization of consumer and customer quality processes globally.

Consumer Affairs

• Provide global oversight of consumer complaints, inquiries, adverse events, and emerging concerns.
• Ensure significant food safety, quality, regulatory, reputational, or business risks are promptly identified and escalated.
• Establish standards for timely, accurate, empathetic, and brand-appropriate consumer communication.
• Translate consumer complaint trends into actionable improvement priorities.

Customer Quality

• Serve as the senior quality interface for strategic customers and key accounts.
• Partner with Commercial teams to proactively manage customer quality expectations, requirements, and performance.
• Lead significant customer quality escalations, performance reviews, and improvement plans.
• Translate customer requirements into scalable and sustainable operational solutions.

Performance, Risk & Continuous Improvement

• Establish and monitor global consumer and customer quality KPIs, complaint trends, service levels, and performance expectations.
• Identify systemic and recurring issues by product, brand, customer, facility, geography, and defect type.
• Ensure effective root cause analysis and corrective and preventive action for significant or recurring issues.
• Partner with Manufacturing, R&D, Supply Chain, Food Safety, Regulatory, and Commercial teams to drive measurable improvement.
• Support recalls, withdrawals, crisis events, and other significant consumer or customer matters.

Systems & Insights

• Provide business leadership for consumer complaint and customer quality systems, analytics, reporting, and data governance.
• Ensure consistent coding, data quality, and integration with broader FSQAR and business intelligence platforms.
• Develop insights and early-warning mechanisms to proactively identify emerging risks and opportunities.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Lead and develop Consumer Affairs, Customer Quality, and external consumer contact center resources.
• Build capability in complaint management, customer engagement, risk assessment, investigation, and escalation.
• Represent Consumer Affairs and Customer Quality within global FSQAR governance and executive business reviews.
• Build strong partnerships across Commercial, Marketing, Operations, R&D, Supply Chain, Legal, Regulatory, and Food Safety.

Skills that will make you successful

• Consumer complaint reduction and recurrence
• Strategic customer quality performance
• Customer and consumer escalation responsiveness
• Complaint investigation and closure performance
• CAPA effectiveness
• Customer service level performance
• Consumer and customer satisfaction trends
• Identification of emerging quality risks
• Quality and actionability of consumer and customer insights

Experiences that will support your success

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Food Technology or related field
• 10+ years of progressive experience in Quality, Consumer Affairs, Customer Quality, Food Safety, Regulatory, or related CPG functions.
• Demonstrated experience managing strategic customers and consumer complaint programs in a complex, multi-site or global organization.
• Strong experience with complaint management, root cause analysis, CAPA, customer escalations, and performance improvement.
• Strong executive communication, business judgment, analytical capability, and cross‑functional influence.
• Experience with CRM, complaint management, and business intelligence platforms preferred.

What We Offer

At Ferrara, we're proud to support our employees with comprehensive benefits that enhance health, financial wellness, and include paid time off (PTO). Eligible employees may also receive an annual bonus based on company performance. Learn more about our benefits at https://flimp.live/Ferrara-Benefits-Resource-Center

Compensation

The salary range for this role is $114,450 - $160,230 annually.