Senior Product Safety Assurance Analyst - Perishables, Product Safety Assurance Team, Worldwide Grocery Stores (WWGS), Whole Foods Market NA

About the role

The Senior Product Safety Assurance (PSA) Analyst - Perishables, is responsible for vetting the safety and quality of new and existing Whole Foods Market (WFM) and Amazon Private Brands (PB) products.

Responsibilities

• Enables commercialization activities and provides technical guidance to ensure products meet WFM quality and regulatory standards by:
  • Developing appropriate chemical, microbiological, physical, and shelf-life testing requirements based on supplier data, existing testing profiles, regulatory requirements, safety risk, and WFM requirements
  • Reviewing Supplier Food Safety Plans and product risk assessments
  • Partnering with WFM Legal team on regulatory requirements
  • Reviewing applicable product claims/statements and determining claim validation criteria
  • Developing and negotiating shelf-life study validation parameters
  • Partnering with Product Developers to incorporate characterizing product attributes into testing profiles
  • Reviewing Supplier documents and test results for WFM and regulatory compliance
  • Reviewing Supplier Quality Reports, Supplier Visit Reports, and Facility Risk Assessments
  • Reviewing First Production test results
• Engages with suppliers and customers to evaluate and resolve complex, recurring, and business-critical issues and concerns.
• Advises the stores, operational areas, suppliers, and leadership up to the executive level on any local, state, federal, and international regulatory and compliance issues.
• Leads development and implementation of advanced technical solutions using programming, data analytics, and automation tools to enhance food safety and quality systems
• Maintains oversight of formulation and label review for WFM, identifying product or cross-product issues, identifying root causes, and driving sustainable resolutions.
• Oversees or advises others on the management of multiple Product Safety & Quality analyses, tests, documentation, and reporting.
• Provides expert technical consulting, leveraging advanced software tools and cross-functional relationships to develop innovative solutions for emerging issues
• Works with all levels of operational leadership toward continuous improvement of food and product safety/quality standards and operational excellence.
• Advise leadership on functional progress, status, trends, and issues.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of compliance, audit or risk management experience
• 5+ years of program or project Management experience
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office products and applications at an advanced level
• Experience working independently with minimal supervision
• Bachelor's degree in Food Science or related field
• 10+ years CPG and/or food retail experience
• 6 + years' experience in food or non-food consumer goods production facility that produces high risk products (including the categories listed in the job description)
• HACCP certification and PCQI certification
• Advanced knowledge of Product/Food Safety for complex products categories and processing environments + Quality Assurance and control processes and workflows
• Knowledge of regulatory compliance (local, state, federal, North America)
• Proficiency with quality and food safety data systems (e.g., LIMS, SPC software, supplier compliance platforms such as FoodLogiQ or Repositrak, quality management platforms) with the ability to configure automated workflows, build custom reports, and extract actionable insights from large testing and compliance datasets
• Demonstrated ability to build sophisticated dashboards, develop advanced metrics-based reporting, and leverage Business Intelligence (BI) tools to analyze complex quality and safety data, uncover trends, and communicate the full stories behind the data to drive informed decision-making
• Advanced understanding of Retail product lifecycle management, Project leadership skills, Cross-functional team leadership skills
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with experience advising senior leadership and managing relationships across suppliers, legal, and operations partners
• Expert ability to leverage market understanding for project decisions, demonstrate knowledge of WFM operations
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally up to 30% of time, including overnight stays
• Have fun and enable others to have fun while achieving results

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leveraging technology and implementing lean principles / Six Sigma methodologies to drive process improvements or equivalent
• Graduate degree in science or relevant field
• Experience with natural and organic foods, including understanding of clean-label formulation and ingredient sourcing standards
• GFSI or Quality Systems and Product Safety Auditing Experience
• Sensory evaluation experience and skills
• Experience managing supplier qualification programs and conducting risk-based supplier assessments across diverse product categories
• Experience leading or supporting product recalls, market withdrawals, or food safety incident investigations
• Familiarity with international food safety standards and global supply chain quality requirements (e.g., BRC, SQF, FSSC 22000, IFS)
• Experience building and managing quality/safety dashboards and reporting frameworks using BI platforms (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, QuickSight) or enterprise quality management systems (e.g., ETQ, Veeva, TraceGains)
• Experience with workflow automation tools (e.g., Power Automate, Smartsheet, SAP QM) to streamline quality monitoring, supplier compliance, and food safety processes
• Knowledge of emerging food safety technologies (e.g., blockchain traceability, rapid pathogen detection, predictive shelf-life modeling)
• Experience with food labeling compliance, claims substantiation, and regulatory label review (FDA, USDA, FTC)