Food Safety & Quality Cooler Manager

Duties/Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the facility food safety programs to ensure compliance with Fresh Express requirements, regulatory standards, and applicable GFSI scheme requirements.
• Maintain compliance with customer food safety expectations and support customer visits, audits, and follow-up actions as needed.
• Ensure regulatory compliance across cooler and cooling operations, including implementation and verification of required food safety programs.
• Manage and maintain organic certification for each facility, ensuring full compliance with program requirements and documentation standards.
• Ensure food safety records, investigations, corrective actions, and verification activities are complete, accurate, and audit-ready.
• Manage environmental monitoring and related verification programs, including Listeria, APC, sanitation, and other required sampling activities.
• Ensure proper collection of samples, documentation of results, timely investigation of findings, and effective corrective actions.
• Lead food safety culture initiatives that drive accountability, awareness, and consistent execution across departments.
• Lead internal, third-party, regulatory, and customer audits and visits, including preparation, participation, corrective action response, and follow-up closure.
• Oversee daily cooler quality operations, including inspection activities, staffing, scheduling, workload balancing, and shift coverage.
• Lead and develop quality inspectors and supervisory staff through coaching, training, performance management, and clear accountability.
• Ensure raw product and cooled product inspections are completed accurately, consistently, and in a timely manner.
• Verify timely and accurate reporting of inspection findings, product conditions, and quality concerns to appropriate teams.
• Review inspection data, identify trends, and communicate quality risks, recurring issues, and improvement opportunities.
• Assess supplier, grower, harvester, and raw material performance through routine data review and field-to-cooler feedback.
• Partner with operations, harvest, maintenance, sanitation, procurement, and other cross-functional teams to resolve quality issues and improve execution.
• Make or support product disposition decisions related to quality, food safety, and specification compliance.
• Escalate significant food safety or quality concerns in a timely manner and ensure appropriate containment and follow-up actions are taken.
• Analyze quality and food safety data to identify trends, root causes, and opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Drive corrective and preventive actions to address recurring defects, inspection gaps, audit findings, and process breakdowns.
• Develop, update, and implement cooler-related food safety and quality procedures, work instructions, and program requirements.
• Maintain accurate systems, records, and databases used for inspection reporting, trending, and compliance verification.
• Provide regular summaries of cooler quality, food safety performance, and emerging risks.

Continuous Improvement And Systems Management

• Analyze quality and food safety data to identify trends, root causes, and opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Drive corrective and preventive actions to address recurring defects, inspection gaps, audit findings, and process breakdowns.
• Maintain accurate systems, records, and databases used for inspection reporting, trending, and compliance verification.
• Develop, update, and implement cooler-related food safety and quality procedures, work instructions, and program requirements.
• Maintain employees' training on applicable food safety, quality, organic, and inspection procedures and verify ongoing compliance.
• Monitor key performance indicators and provide regular summaries of cooler quality, food safety performance, and emerging risks.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Agriculture, or a related field preferred.
• Minimum of 3 years of experience in food safety, quality, food production, agriculture, or a related operational environment.
• Working knowledge of GMPs, GAPs, SOPs, SSOPs, HACCP, and GFSI requirements.
• Experience with regulatory compliance, inspections, audits, corrective actions, and food safety documentation.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, Word, and Outlook.
• PCQI certification required or attained within the first 6 months of employment.