Director of Technical Services

About the role

Reporting to the COO, this is a senior technical leadership role with broad responsibility across manufacturing, quality, food safety, process improvement, product development, and customer technical support.

Responsibilities

• Lead food safety, quality, microbiology, and R&D, developing the team and strengthening cross-functional collaboration.
• Drive investigation and resolution of microbiological, food safety, and quality issues.
• Strengthen technical systems and documentation, including sanitation, hygiene, change management, corrective actions, and audit preparedness.
• Optimize thermal and aseptic processing to improve product quality, consistency, reliability, and manufacturing performance.
• Support new product development, process improvement, and commercialization.
• Improve customer complaint and corrective action processes in partnership with Operations.
• Serve as a technical resource for customers and translate customer needs into manufacturing and R&D priorities.

Requirements

The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in thermal and aseptic processing with the leadership presence to operate as a trusted partner to senior management. This person will lead a capable technical team, strengthen cross-functional collaboration with plant operations, and bring greater rigor and consistency to quality systems, documentation, and problem-solving.

Candidate Profile

• Significant technical leadership experience within large-scale food manufacturing.
• Deep experience with thermal and aseptic processing.
• Experience leading Quality Assurance, Food Safety, microbiology, and/or R&D functions.
• Demonstrated ability to identify and lead the response to microbiological and food safety issues.
• Experience with evaporators and kill steps is a plus.
• Strong, hands-on leader who can operate autonomously, develop others, and influence across functions.
• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Food Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Microbiology, or a related field; master’s degree preferred.
• Able to work onsite five days per week in Merced County.