Sr. Food Safety Manager

Company Description

Wonderful Citrus is America's largest integrated grower, shipper and packer of fresh citrus, including clementine/mandarin, navel and Valencia oranges; lemons; limes; grapefruits; and other citrus varieties. Wonderful Citrus owns, cultivates and harvests more than 58,000 acres of fresh citrus and ships around the world each year to ensure a year-round supply. Our citrus can be found in all channels of distribution, with our consumer brands most visible in the produce department of grocery stores across America under the flagship consumer brands of Wonderful Halos mandarins and Wonderful Sweet Scarletts Texas Red grapefruit.

Job Description

Overview:

Responsible for all areas related to food safety compliance for Wonderful Citrus’ California third-party growers, owned ranches and packinghouses. This would include developing, improving, managing, monitoring and verifying the food safety programs, in accordance with company, federal, state and local food safety standards. Work directly with growers and packinghouse staff in providing technical support and assistance, training, and technical issue resolution, as needed to sustain company and regulatory food safety requirements.

Here's what you’ll do:

• Create, update, and enforce food safety policies and procedures in compliance with local counties, state, and federal food safety standards, including (but not limited to) FDA, USDA and CDFA requirements.
• Ensure that the processes and systems of California third-party growers, owned ranches and packinghouses are adequate to implement, achieve and maintain GFSI certifications, for all growing regions and its lines of products.  
• Deliver training to Wonderful Citrus’ grower base, owned ranches, and packinghouse staff in food safety regulations and requirements, best practices for compliance, food safety procedures, and any relevant topics that contribute to them having an effective and compliance food safety program.  
• Perform regular audits and inspections of production areas, storage, farms, and facilities to ensure compliance with food safety regulations and company protocols. Train staff in conducting internal audits and support in external audit preparation.
• Work closely with growers and packinghouses in the areas of program management, inspection coordination and testing requirements, including microbiological testing and pest control programs.
• Support implementation of necessary systems and databases, including but not limited to: document control, internal non-conformance tracking/resolution and SOP writing.
• Develop scalable program with third-party growers and packinghouses to allow for future growth in acreage and volume. 
• Manage Foreign Supplier Verification Program and ensure ongoing compliance with FDA regulations.
• Maintain current knowledge of trends and changes affecting food safety and develop and recommend appropriate program changes, to ensure customers and governmental compliance.
• Advise management and staff of any food safety issues in addition to presenting plausible solutions.
•  Analyze test results from environmental monitoring programs to ensure product quality and safety.
• Maintain a team environment among department and supervisory staff.
• Adheres to budget and communicates out of budget requirements in a timely manner.
• Maintain an active role in internal Continuous Improvement teams.
• Provide direction and coaching to staff to strive for compliance of all food safety requirements

Qualifications

Here’s what you’ll bring to the table:

• Four-year degree (BA or BS), Food Safety/Science, Plant Science or other agriculture related field. A combination of practical experience and education will be considered as an alternative.
• Minimum of 2 years’ experience in a farming and/or food processing environment.
• 4 years experience in Food Safety management positions is required.
• Must have some packinghouse and/or processing food safety experience.
• Must possess a deep understanding of GFSI certification standards.
• Experience in generating food safety and quality documentation and reporting, including submitting and implanting corrective action plans.
• Technical knowledge of quality and food safety systems, and solid understanding of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP’s) and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP’s).
• Experience dealing with regulatory agency audits (i.e. USDA, FDA, etc.).
• Proven ability to lead teams and initiate constructive changes without daily direction.
• Computer proficient in Excel, Access, Word and capable of quickly learning and interacting with structural databases and programs.
• Strong leadership skills, strong verbal and written English communication skills