FSQ Manager

About Link Snacks

At Link Snacks, we show up hungry, roll up our sleeves, plaid or otherwise, and dive straight into the hard work. We don’t hide from challenges; we hunt them down. We push harder, move faster, and take the kinds of big swings that built this business in the North Woods of Wisconsin four decades ago. We’re everyday people who deliver extraordinary results. Innovation, creativity, and urgency aren’t buzzwords, they’re expectations. Our global house of brands—Jack Link’s®, Lorissa’s Kitchen®, Golden Island®, BiFi®, Peperami®, and KOOEE!®—produces real protein snacks, and there’s nothing artificial about us: humble, gritty, passionate people who show up every day ready to move faster, innovate harder, and keep raising the bar in the meat snack industry.

About the Role

The FSQ Manager leads the Food Safety and Quality (FSQ) Team and oversees the development, implementation, review, and maintenance of the SQF Quality System at our USDA-inspected meat snacks manufacturing facility as an SQF Practitioner. This role has primary responsibility for the site’s HACCP-based food safety system and compliance with regulatory, customer, and company quality requirements. As a member of the Senior Site Leadership team, this role drives food safety culture, continuous improvement activities, and ensures all Team Members have the training, resources, and awareness needed to meet our food safety and quality standards.

Direct reports: HACCP Coordinator, FSQ Supervisor(s).

Responsibilities

• Train, coach, and directly observe all Team Members to build the behaviors, actions, and awareness needed to meet the high standards of our food safety and quality system; performance management and supervision of the FSQ Team.
• Provide strategic direction and manage the site SQF Quality System, including program development, implementation, review, and maintenance of HACCP plans, sanitation procedures, prerequisite programs, and other policies.
• Lead appropriate resolution of food safety and quality issues by serving as the onsite subject matter expert in regulatory, customer, and company requirements.
• Establish and maintain processes to trend progress in food safety and quality performance against benchmarks; develop and lead plans for continuous improvement.
• Serve as a member of the Senior Site Management Team to drive food safety culture in site initiatives and across departments; regularly report on specification compliance, process and product variation, customer requirements, continuous improvement activities, and matters impacting the SQF Quality System.
• Manage on-site relationships and compliance with USDA FSIS and other regulatory and certification organizations.

Requirements

• Associate Degree or higher (Bachelor’s Degree preferred, with a focus in Food Science, Microbiology, Meat Science, or Animal Science).
• 5+ years of leadership experience in Food Safety and Quality Assurance in the Meat and Poultry Industry (more than 5 years preferred).
• Certified in HACCP and competent in implementing and maintaining food quality plans using risk-based methodology.
• Understanding of Safe Quality Foods (SQF) Quality Code and the requirements to implement and maintain a quality management system as an SQF Practitioner or similar.
• Competency in process control and/or other quality tools to reduce process variation and achieve regulatory, customer, and consumer requirements.
• Demonstrated leadership, team management, and training skills in a food manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated knowledge of continuous improvement methodologies and tools.

Skills

• Must work effectively, respectfully, and collaboratively with all levels of management and Team Members.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English; bilingual (Spanish) preferred.
• Proficient in Internet navigation and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook).

Pay

The pay range for this role is $85,000 – $110,000 annually. Actual wage will vary based on external market data, internal equity, location, and candidate skill set and experience.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits.
• Life and disability insurance.
• 401k participation.
• Paid holidays and paid time off.
• Annual incentive and program-specific awards.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described are representative of those required to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions.

• Regularly required to sit, use hands to finger, handle, or feel, and talk or hear.
• Occasionally required to stand, walk, and reach with hands and arms.
• Must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities required include close vision.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.

• Plant/office setting with varying degrees of temperatures and noise levels.
• Exposure to manufacturing equipment movement and wet/slippery floors, though most work is conducted in a climate-controlled office.
• Travel may be required.