SVP Quality Assurance

Who We Are

At Freshpet, our goal is to change the way people nourish their pets forever. We strive to strengthen the bond between people and our pets so that we both live longer, healthier, and happier lives while being kind to the planet. We believe that if we can create fresh, real foods that pets love and help them live healthier lives that their pet parents will also enjoy the many benefits of a rich life shared with a pet.

We started off with a mission to change the way pet parents feed dogs and cats, but we also wanted to be a company that had a thoughtful approach to how we operate. We wanted to do things differently, make great products but be gentle to the planet, good to the people who touch our business, and leave a positive impact with everything we do. We work hard every day to ensure that the original vision is met, starting with making the highest quality foods in our kitchens to running our business with integrity, transparency, and social and environmental responsibility. IT’S AMAZING WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN YOU START COMPLETELY FRESH!

What You Will Do

As the SVP-Quality Assurance, you will design, build, and continuously improve the quality function and culture throughout the entire company. You will develop and lead the business strategic quality plan in collaboration with the executive leadership team and other business unit senior leaders. You will provide strategic decision making, leadership, planning and prioritization to meet business and quality objectives.

You will play a broad leadership role in the organization with a focus on consistently delighting pets and pet parents with best in category palatability, packaging and the associated claims that communicate healthy value and process consistency that delivers a delightful pet dining experience every day.

How You Will Make an Impact

• Be an entrepreneurial, innovative, results-driven leader with demonstrated career progression in the food and beverage space preferably with refrigerated RTE products
• Bring your passion for cross functional leadership, team development, process improvement and a track record of success
• Contribute directly to the overall value of the organization through continually building the value of the Freshpet brand through the consistent delivery of healthy and delicious meals to our pets
• Maintain a high level of expertise on all technical areas of food quality and food safety that impact or have the potential to impact Freshpet’s business operations
• Provide leadership in the development of food safety/quality strategies that align resources, drive collaboration, and deliver on organizational quality commitments to customers (locally and internationally)
• Provide the change management and cross functional leadership talent and innovative/modern testing methodologies to transition the ownership of day-to-day quality to the operations team
• Leverage data-based information to improve our overall ability to delight pets and consumers in every experience they have with Freshpet
• Provide leadership to assess and enhance current processes in the areas of instrumentation, controls, AI supported by training
• Influence and provide support to third party manufacturers to embrace consumer (pets and pet parents) delight in every Freshpet experience and support process/product validation using a statistically significant approach
• Builds, coaches, develops, and leads a high performing team to drive continuous improvement throughout the organization using comprehensive risk assessment, clear goals and expectations, and a focus on data analysis to identify strategic opportunities for improvement
• Develop and maintain actionable KPI’s; provide access to transparent reporting of these KPI’s
• Oversee crisis management protocols, investigations, and reporting of quality issues, market withdrawals and recalls, and implementation of internal audit control processes. Oversee customer complaint corrective action follow-through and delegation
• Develop strategic roadmap of projects and activities in line with Quality function and purpose and business priorities
• Drive continuous improvement in Quality management system including but not limited to the systems, processes and capabilities involved in management of quality, food safety and regulatory compliance
• Define, communicate, and maintain standards (policies and procedures) to be implemented in all locations that manufacture or handle Freshpet products

What You Will Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in related field (Food Science, Microbiology, Chemistry or Engineering) required, Master’s degree preferred
• Minimum 10 years of leadership experience in a manufacturing and distribution environment, leading teams and interacting with corporate functions
• Demonstrated success in setting the agenda, creating, and maintaining a culture of quality in a growing multi-location company
• Demonstrated expertise in analyzing information, reporting research results, promoting process improvement, developing standards, managing processes, manufacturing methods and procedures
• Strong analytical and critical thinking ability with the strategic ability to think “big picture”
• Excellent communication, organizational and presentation skills
• Strong interpersonal skills including the ability to positively influence team members, support department team members, 3rd party vendors and all levels of leadership
• Strong technical background including understanding of (GFSI) schemes, HACCP, GMP, SOP, SSOP, microbiology and sanitation principles, regulatory compliance, and auditing systems process instrumentation and process improvement
• Creative problem solving with the ability to recommend and implement solutions, relationship building and decision-making skills
• Ability to coach, provide feedback and develop a team
• Experience in managing budget and meeting financial objectives
• Quality management systems and analytics, traceability systems implementation across multiple locations
• Familiarity with regulations governing food safety and quality
• Experience with regulatory and GFSI inspections
• Highly collaborative and solutions oriented with a customer service mindset
• Drive for results using a disciplined use of risk-based prioritization
• Experience with ERP systems, we use D365, various quality software applications and analytical tools, MS Office Suite
• Unquestioned honesty and integrity
• Holds self and other accountable
• An ego-less consensus builder; thick skinned, strong willed and tenacious but not overbearing or divisive; ability to push back diplomatically yet firmly or hold onto and defend positions
• A passion for Freshpet’s values and mission
• Passion for team success

What We Offer

At Freshpet, we offer a competitive salary and an excellent benefits package, including medical, dental and vision insurance, basic and optional life insurance, short- and long-term disability protection, flexible spending accounts, and a 401(k) plan with company match, paid parental leave, pet insurance, tuition assistance, a generous PTO plan and so much more!

Our Commitment to a Diverse Workforce:

At Freshpet, we embrace and encourage our employees’ differences in age, sex, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our employees unique.

Freshpet aims to foster, cultivate and preserve a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion. Our employees are our most valuable assets. The collective sum of the individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, innovation, self-expression, unique capabilities and talent that our employees invest in their work represents a significant part of not only our culture, but our reputation and company’s achievement as well. Freshpet is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Disclaimers

Freshpet is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. Please, no phone calls or emails. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at Freshpet via-email, the Internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of Freshpet. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Freshpet as a result of the referral or through other means.