Food Safety Operations Manager

Job Description

This role leads food safety operations across a large, complex fulfillment network, ensuring that all sites meet stringent food safety criteria and regulatory requirements. You will manage large-scale food safety programs, respond to incidents, and drive continuous improvement through metrics, technology, and cross-functional collaboration. The position combines strategic program management, hands-on incident response, and stakeholder influence to protect product safety for millions of customers and support scalable business growth.

Responsibilities

• Maintain a robust set of compliance metrics and key performance indicators to measure performance, track progress, and identify areas for improvement in food safety programs across multiple sites.
• Execute rapid response protocols for food safety incidents, including investigation, containment, resolution, and documentation of comprehensive corrective actions.
• Project manage complex, large-scale food safety escalations across multiple facilities, establishing clear action plans, tracking deliverables, and driving accountability for timely closure.
• Provide regular, structured communication to leadership on critical incidents, program status, resource needs, and risk mitigation efforts.
• Influence and manage relationships with diverse stakeholders at all levels, from site operations teams to leadership, effectively balancing competing priorities while maintaining food safety compliance standards.
• Drive program adherence and standard work across multiple facilities, ensuring consistent implementation of food safety policies, procedures, and training.
• Analyze escalation patterns, incident data, and root causes to identify systemic issues, inform audit priorities, and recommend targeted improvements.
• Investigate and analyze customer complaints and trending data related to food safety, ensuring thorough documentation, timely resolution, and identification of systemic issues for continuous improvement.
• Leverage deep knowledge of regulatory frameworks, including the Code of Federal Regulations, Food Safety Modernization Act, FDA guidelines, and Food Code requirements, to ensure audit processes and corrective actions align with current standards.
• Compose and edit detailed business review documents and written narratives that clearly communicate food safety improvement initiatives, program outcomes, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Participate in an on-call rotation, including weekend coverage, to support food safety incidents and program implementation across the network.
• Conduct and support site audits, protocol updates, and cross-functional incident analyses to strengthen food safety management systems.
• Use technology and data tools to monitor KPI dashboards, identify trends, and drive process improvements in food safety and quality control.
• Provide guidance and support to site managers, answering food safety questions, documenting corrective actions, and ensuring alignment with regulatory and internal standards.
• Train and coach cross-functional teams via video conference and other channels to embed food safety standards, culture, and best practices across the network.
• Work proactively and independently to meet deadlines, deliver on projects and tasks, and ensure that food safety programs are executed effectively at scale.

Essential Skills

• At least 3 years of experience managing food safety and quality in a large-scale retail or manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated experience working at scale across multiple sites or large organizations, particularly in environments with complex fulfillment or production operations.
• Experience leveraging technology to drive process improvements in food safety, quality control, or operational programs.
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office products and applications for analysis, reporting, and documentation.
• Ability to travel up to 80% of the time to support food safety incidents, audits, and program implementation across the network.
• Experience interacting with local food safety regulators and navigating regulatory requirements at local, state, and federal levels.
• Strong knowledge of food safety management systems, food quality, quality control, and manufacturing environments.
• Familiarity with USDA, GMP, FDA, and related regulatory and industry standards.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision while maintaining strong analytical skills, attention to detail, and effective communication abilities.
• Capability to work proactively, meet deadlines, and deliver on multiple projects and tasks in a fast-paced environment.

Work Environment

This role operates within a dynamic North American food safety operations environment that supports a large fulfillment network. You will spend significant time working across multiple sites, both remotely and on location, with travel up to 60–80% depending on incident response and program needs. The workday typically begins with reviewing overnight incidents, monitoring KPI dashboards, and joining daily food safety status calls. Mornings often focus on responding to site managers’ questions and documenting corrective actions, while afternoons may involve leading cross-functional incident analyses, conducting site audits, updating protocols, and training teams via video conference. The environment is fast-paced and can change quickly when critical incidents arise, requiring immediate containment, coordination, and stakeholder communication. You will collaborate closely with diverse internal stakeholders to implement comprehensive policies and procedures and translate food safety initiatives into clear, actionable guidelines that are adopted seamlessly across the network. The culture emphasizes high standards, ownership, delivering results, bias for action, frugality, and data-driven decision-making. Work is primarily performed in professional office and fulfillment site settings, using standard business technologies, data tools, and communication platforms, with a strong focus on metrics, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.

Job Type & Location

This is a Contract position based out of Tempe, AZ.

Pay and Benefits

The pay range for this position is $26.00 - $26.00/hr.

Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job
classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be
subject to specific elections, plan, or program terms. If eligible, the benefits
available for this temporary role may include the following:

• Medical, dental & vision
• Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital
• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available
• Life Insurance (Voluntary Life & AD&D for the employee and dependents)
• Short and long-term disability
• Health Spending Account (HSA)
• Transportation benefits
• Employee Assistance Program
• Time Off/Leave (PTO, Vacation or Sick Leave)

Workplace Type

This is a fully onsite position in Tempe,AZ.

Application Deadline

This position is anticipated to close on Sep 22, 2026.

About Aston Carter

Aston Carter provides world-class corporate talent solutions to thousands of clients across the globe. Specialized in accounting, finance, human resources, talent acquisition, procurement, supply chain and select administrative professions, we extend the capabilities of industry-leading companies. We draw on our deep recruiting expertise and expansive network to meet the evolving needs of our clients and talent community with agility and excellence. With offices across the U.S., Canada, Asia Pacific and Europe, Aston Carter serves many of the Fortune 500. We are proud to be a ClearlyRated Best of Staffing® Platinum Award winner for both client and talent service.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications without regard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any characteristic protected by law.

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, such as the modification or adjustment of the job application process or interviewing process due to a disability, please email [email protected] for other accommodation options.

San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, for all positions located in the city and county of San Francisco, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Massachusetts Lie Detector: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): We may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support parts of our hiring process, including sourcing, screening, and evaluating candidates. AI helps assess applications and qualifications, but final decisions are made by our hiring team. By applying, you acknowledge and agree that your application may be reviewed using AI tools.