NorAm Quality Director - Coman & Integration

At Bel, we are not just a company—we are a company on a Mission, built on 160 years of bold innovation, family values, and a commitment to social purpose. With beloved brands like Babybel®, GoGo squeeZ®, The Laughing Cow®, and Boursin®, our snacking solutions bring more than joy; they want to serve as a force for good. Our U.S. Mission? To help close the critical 80% nutrition gap by making it easier for Americans to eat more fruits, veggies, and dairy as part of their daily lives. The company has headquarters in Chicago and New York City and operates 4 manufacturing plants in Little Chute, WI; Brookings, SD; Traverse City, MI; and Nampa, ID.

About the role

This position is responsible for providing strategic leadership for Contract-Manufacturing Quality across North America. The incumbent owns the governance model and executive relationships with Contract Manufacturing partners to enable business growth, quality excellence, and consumer trust. The position also leads and develops two Quality Managers.

Responsibilities

• Define, own, and execute the Co-Manufacturing Quality strategy for North America, ensuring alignment with business priorities, growth plans, innovation agenda, and risk management expectations.
• Establish and continuously improve the governance model for Contract Manufacturing partners, including KPI framework, escalation routines, business reviews, and performance management standards.
• Lead Quality due diligence for new Contract Manufacturers, manufacturing transfers, strategic sourcing decisions, and M&A opportunities, ensuring risks, capabilities, and compliance requirements are clearly assessed before commitment.
• Act as the upstream Quality lead in the assessment of future partnerships and new business integrations, partnering with M&A/Business Development, Co-Manufacturing Sourcing, Supply Chain, R&D, and Operations to evaluate strategic fit, quality maturity, integration complexity, and potential risks early in the decision process.
• Own enterprise-level quality risks across the external manufacturing network, ensuring robust mitigation plans, appropriate executive visibility, and timely decision-making on critical issues.
• Build and maintain executive relationships with strategic Contract Manufacturing partners to strengthen accountability, transparency, continuous improvement, and long-term collaboration.
• Develop organizational capability by setting standards, coaching quality managers, clarifying roles and expectations, and building talent pipelines.
• Sponsor network-wide continuous improvement initiatives to increase maturity, standardization, audit readiness, and quality performance across the Contract Manufacturing portfolio.
• Directly manage 2 Quality Managers by setting clear objectives, defining priorities, and ensuring accountability for business and quality results.
• Lead the managers’ performance and development through regular coaching, feedback, performance reviews, and individual development plans.
• Build team capability and continuity through talent development, succession planning, effective resource allocation, and collaboration across the Quality organization.

Performance Expectations

• Drives quality performance
• Successful onboarding of new partners
• Governance maturity

Requirements

• Master’s degree in food science or chemistry, and/or equivalent training.
• Over 10 years’ experience in FMCG in operational quality roles (food safety, quality management systems, …).
• Proven experience of external partners management (suppliers, sub-contractors, …).
• Proven experience of cross-functional management (Procurement, Operations, R&D, …).

Skills

• Strong business acumen (partnership opportunities, integrations, operational risks identification, …).
• Strong experience with suppliers’ qualification, audit strategies, risk assessment.
• Knowledge of quality operations process (hygiene, …).
• Good knowledge of audit methods and quality improvement tools (Statistics).
• Good knowledge of certification standards (ISO, GFSI), quality management tools, and food risks.
• Solid experience in crisis management and decision-making during a crisis.
• Ability to manage several projects simultaneously.
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to set direction, create alignment, and mobilize senior stakeholders across functions and geographies.
• Excellent communication and influence skills—with ability to simplify complex quality topics, articulate options to executive level.
• Ownership mindset, daring to take accountability.
• Transformation/change management skills.
• English required, French and/or Spanish a plus.
• 30% Travel required.
• International experience preferred.