FSQ Raw Manager
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. And just like the real protein snacks we make across our global house of brands—Jack Link’s®, Lorissa’s Kitchen®, Golden Island®, BiFi®, Peperami® and KOOEE!®—there’s nothing artificial about us. What you see is exactly what you get: humble, gritty, passionate people who show up every day ready to not just participate in the meat snack industry that the Link Family created, but to move faster, innovate harder and keep raising the bar so high, the rest of the world needs a ladder just to see it.
About the role
The FSQ Raw Manager is responsible for controlling all upstream biological, process, and supplier risks before they propagate into downstream or RTE operations. This role ensures raw operations are: stable, controlled, and predictable. It is the first control point in the plant’s food safety system and a key contributor to both food safety and operational performance (OEE stability).
Responsibilities
- HACCP & CCP Execution
- Own HACCP plans across raw processes
- Ensure CCPs are monitored in real time, corrected immediately
- Audit operator understanding and compliance
- Raw Material & Supplier Risk Management
- Control incoming risks: temperature, pathogen load (assumed risk), ingredient compliance
- Identify supplier variability trends
- Drive corrective actions
- Process Control & Variability Reduction
- Stabilize grinding, mixing, stuffing
- Eliminate shift-to-shift variability
- Standardize operating parameters
- Raw-to-RTE Containment
- Enforce separation across boundaries
- Prevent contamination transfer via personnel, equipment, materials
- Allergen & Ingredient Control
- Ensure correct usage and segregation
- Validate changeover cleaning
- Ingredient specs and raw product compliance
- Raw Sanitation Alignment
- Ensure removal of heavy soil loads
- Prevent contamination spread during cleaning
- Risk Decisions (Pre-Cook)
- Rejecting incoming product
- Managing contamination risks
Requirements
- 5+ years FSQ experience in food manufacturing
- Strong HACCP and process control expertise
- Experience in protein/raw environments preferred
- Strong analytical and floor leadership skills
KPIs
- CCP compliance rate
- Process variability (shift-to-shift consistency)
- Supplier defect rates
- Raw contamination trends
- Impact on downstream stability (indirect KPI)
Pay
The salary range for this role is $94,000 - $106,000. Actual salaries will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to 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 here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- Regularly required to stand, walk, use hands to finger, handle, or feel, lift and/or move up to 25 pounds, and talk or hear
- Occasionally required to sit, reach with hands and arms, and lift and/or move up to 50 pounds
- Specific vision abilities required include close vision
Work Environment
The work environment characteristics described here 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
- Travel may be required