Food Safety Quality Manager IL

This Regional Manager will oversee locations in Lake Mills, Palmyra, and Whitewater/Elkhorn, WI, as well as Grant Park, IL.

About the Role

The Regional Food Safety & Quality (FSQ) Manager leads, implements, and continuously improves food safety, quality, animal welfare, and biosecurity programs across multiple egg operations, including shell egg grading/packing plants and liquid egg breaking facilities. This role ensures compliance with USDA FSIS, FDA, state regulations, SQF certification, and customer-specific requirements while driving best-in-class performance aligned with industry-leading and retailer expectations. The position serves as a key technical and leadership resource for operations, corporate teams, regulatory agencies, auditors, and customers, with a strong focus on risk management, audit readiness, continuous improvement, and a proactive food safety culture.

Responsibilities

• Provide regional oversight of food safety systems for shell egg and liquid egg operations, including raw and pasteurized products.
• Ensure compliance with USDA FSIS, FDA (Egg Safety Rule), APHIS, state regulations, and applicable animal food regulations where inedible streams are present.
• Lead development, implementation, and maintenance of HACCP, Preventive Controls, SSOPs, GMPs, Sanitation, and Environmental Monitoring Programs as applicable by facility.
• Act as primary technical liaison with USDA FSIS inspection personnel and regulatory officials.
• Support regulatory interactions, enforcement actions, NR responses, and corrective action development.
• Serve as the regional owner for SQF systems across assigned facilities, ensuring ongoing SQF certification readiness, including document control, internal audits, corrective actions, and management reviews.
• Lead or support SQF audits, surveillance audits, unannounced audits, and customer audits.
• Train site teams on SQF Code requirements and best practices.
• Lead preparation and execution of third-party, regulatory, animal welfare, biosecurity, and customer audits.
• Ensure alignment with customer-specific standards, specifications, and "best-in-class" expectations.
• Review audit findings, drive root cause analysis, and ensure timely and effective corrective and preventive actions.
• Monitor and trend audit results, complaints, and key FSQ KPIs across the region.
• Provide oversight and verification of animal welfare programs in accordance with regulatory requirements, industry standards, and customer commitments (e.g., cage-free, Prop 12, UEP, AHC, and customer-specific standards).
• Support animal welfare audits and assessments at company-owned and contract farms.
• Partner with operations, live production, and veterinary teams to ensure humane handling and related practices.