Food Safety & Scientific Affairs Manager

Job Summary:

The Food Safety & Scientific Affairs Manager will oversee key areas of the business related to laboratory operations, live production, and sanitation practices. This role will support research initiatives focused on novel sample matrices, antimicrobial technologies, live operations practices, preharvest interventions, and sanitation strategies. The Food Safety & Scientific Affairs Manager will play a crucial role in regulatory affairs, ensuring compliance with government regulations, supporting audits, and overseeing animal welfare assessments. Success in this role requires a comprehensive understanding of food safety, production processes, and live operations, along with the ability to apply scientific expertise to solve complex challenges and drive business improvements.

Essential Functions, Duties & Responsibilities:

* Partners with Quality Assurance (QA), Production Management, Sanitation and Live leadership to review procedures, audit sanitation practices, and provide feedback for continuous improvement and root cause analysis.

* Acts as a process authority in response to process deviations and unforeseen incidents.

* Engages with third-party vendors to evaluate and implement emerging technologies for microbial control, sanitation best practices, and pathogen mitigation.

* Researches and assesses innovative technologies related to food safety, laboratory processes, sanitation, and live operations.

* Participates in internal and external audits, providing expertise on pathogen prevalence, mitigation strategies, sanitation, and laboratory methodologies.

* Analyzes and interprets data to develop strategies that align with Company food safety objectives.

* Audits the development, implementation, and maintenance of on-farm food safety intervention programs and microbiological monitoring programs within live operations.

* Provides recommendations and oversight for food safety trials, process improvements, and technology implementations.

* Attains and maintains PAACO certification and conducts internal ACWB audits.

* Performs other duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

* Excellent verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills for cross-functional collaboration.

* Thorough understanding of food safety regulations (e.g., USDA, FDA, HACCP, GFSI, FSMA).

* Familiarity with poultry food production processes, microbiology, laboratory processes, live operations, and sanitation practices.

* Strong leadership and team management skills.

* Exceptional problem-solving, attention to details, and analytical skills for root cause analysis and corrective action.

* Ability to implement and enforce food safety and quality programs.

* Effective time management and project management skills to oversee multiple initiatives and meet deadlines.

* Previous experience related to the design and execution of challenge studies, validation studies, etc.

* Maintains current knowledge on food safety and scientific advancements.

* Solid knowledge of utilization with on-line tools for data capture and reporting.

* Proficient with Microsoft Suites (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, etc.), Power BI, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems such as SAP, and quality management systems.

Education & Experience:

* Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Biology, Microbiology, Poultry Science, or related field. Advanced degree preferred.

* 5+ years of experience serving in food safety, quality assurance, or regulatory affairs within the food/meat/poultry processing industry.

* Minimum of 3+ years of experience in a leadership position specializing in food safety, quality assurance, or regulatory affairs supervising and leading a multifaceted team of five (5) or more direct reports.

* Candidates possessing certification(s) such as HACCP, PCQI, SQF, GFSI, Lean Six Sigma, PAACO or similar is desired.

Working Conditions:

* While performing the duties of this job, the employee may be regularly required to stand, sit, talk, hear, reach, stoop, kneel, and use hands and fingers to operate a computer, laboratory instruments, telephone, keyboard, and occasionally lifting up to 50 pounds.

* Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, depth perception, color vision and the ability to adjust focus.

* Work will be performed in a variety of conditions including climate-controlled office environment(s), laboratory environment(s) (containing various chemical reagents and microbiological organisms), manufacturing plant environment(s) with varying conditions, such as cold areas, warm areas, chemicals, and other site conditions and in a farm environment including working outdoors in season conditions with live animals and at times in dusty environments.

* This position requires the individual to wear and work in personal protective equipment (PPE) while in manufacturing, farm, and laboratory environments. This individual may be working around sick or diseased animals where additional precautions may need to be taken.

* The noise level of the office, farm, and laboratory environments is usually moderate; the noise level in the manufacturing environment may exceed 85 DBA. Showering in and out of farm locations may be required.

* Frequent regional travel will be required; additional travel will be required up to 25% and on an as needed basis.

The statements herein are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees and are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of what is required of personnel so classified. Furthermore, they do not imply or establish a contract for employment and are subject to change at the discretion of the employer.

Butterball, LLC is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to the fair and impartial treatment of all employees and applicants for employment without regard to gender, age, race, religion, color, national origin, physical or mental disability, military/veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, genetic information, marital status, parental status, pregnancy, or any other status protected by law. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.