Food Safety/Compliance Team Leader

Relocation Assistance Offered Within Country
Job Number #168824 - Orangeburg, South Carolina, United States

Who We Are

Colgate-Palmolive Company is a global consumer products company operating in over 200 countries specializing in Oral Care, Personal Care, Home Care, Skin Care, and Pet Nutrition. Our products are trusted in more households than any other brand in the world, making us a household name!

Join Colgate-Palmolive, a caring, innovative growth company reimagining a healthier future for people, their pets, and our planet. Guided by our core values—Caring, Inclusive, and Courageous—we foster a culture that inspires our people to achieve common goals. Together, let's build a brighter, healthier future for all.
 

Hill's Pet Nutrition is looking for a dedicated and experienced Food Safety & Compliance Quality Team Lead to join our team in Orangeburg, SC. This role is crucial in upholding our commitment to delivering safe, high-quality pet nutrition products that meet and exceed all internal, regulatory, and government standards.

This position is a key part of our mission, leading the execution, maintenance, and continuous improvement of our site's food safety and regulatory compliance programs. You will work across departments to embed a strong culture of quality throughout our manufacturing operations, directly contributing to our brand's reputation and our promise to pet parents.

Responsibilities:

• Leading Food Safety & Compliance Programs: Drive the effective implementation and continuous improvement of the plant's food safety and compliance programs, including HACCP, cGMP, and FSMA. This includes ensuring robust validation and calibration practices.
• Ensuring Documentation Excellence: Manage comprehensive documentation control, ensuring all records, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and quality system documents meet stringent internal, regulatory, and Global Quality Standards.
• Managing Audits & Inspections: Lead and coordinate all internal, customer, and external audits (e.g., FDA, USDA, AIB, State) and regulatory inspections, serving as a key point of contact.
• Overseeing Sanitation & Environmental Monitoring: Direct internal auditing activities and environmental monitoring programs (swabbing/testing), and ensure the highest level of compliance for all sanitation and cleaning programs.
• Investigating Non-Conformances: Conduct thorough investigations into all food safety, compliance, and quality non-conformance incidents, utilizing the CAPA (Corrective and Preventive Action) process to identify root causes and implement effective solutions.
• Facilitating Product & Process Changes: Play a key role in product release and validate testing and documentation for all process changes that impact product compliance and safety.
• Driving Customer Complaint Resolution: Supervise the management of customer complaints related to quality and food safety, driving effective corrective actions and site-level business improvements.
• Ensuring Regulatory Adherence for Change: Guarantee robust Management of Change (MOC) processes are followed, aligning with all regulatory requirements for the site's product portfolio.
• Delivering Quality Training: Develop and deliver engaging food safety and quality training to plant personnel, including new hires and training on new processes or equipment.
• Collaborating on Sanitary Design: Partner with the Engineering team on sanitary equipment design and introduce process improvements to enhance regulatory and food safety compliance.
  
  

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Biology, Engineering, Microbiology, Biochemistry, or a closely related scientific field
• 3+ years of progressive manufacturing experience, with at least 1+ years specifically in a food safety, compliance, or quality leadership role within the food or pet nutrition industry
• Proven experience with cleaning and sanitation programs, HACCP, FSMA, and the CAPA process
• Direct experience leading and coordinating internal and external audits
• Prior supervisory experience, demonstrating the ability to guide and mentor
• Knowledge of FDA regulations
• Experience  in managing regulatory inspections