Vice President, Food Safety & Quality Assurance

BUILT ON FLAVOR.  FUELED BY PEOPLE.

What’s it like to work at Kinder’s? Well, there’s a lot of snacking and geeking out over what we all cooked over the weekend. Beyond that, there’s also plenty of hard work. Because we don’t just like flavor, we’re obsessed with it.     

With over 100 products sold nationwide, we’re now a top-five brand in multiple flavor categories at Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods, and more. We’re not your typical CPG company. Privately held and founder-led, we like to think of ourselves as a pirate ship in a sea of cruise ships. Our crew is adventurous and fearless. We chart our own course and chase big ideas to make food unforgettable.  

As we expand globally and approach $1 billion in revenue, we need more smart-and-scrappy, flavor-obsessed people to come aboard. If you’re looking for a place where you can see the real impact of your work... this is it! Every day, you’ll be part of a journey to add flavor to millions of meals and lives. 

About the Role:

The Vice President of Food Safety and Quality Assurance is responsible for overall Food Safety and quality assurance for our high-growth brand and plays a critical role in both defining and driving compliance with our high-quality standards and strategy. You will partner with Kinder’s leaders and cross-functional teams to build an organization and processes that ensure Kinder’s delivers high quality and amazing tasting products consistently while adhering to industry best practices for food safety and quality assurance.

Key Responsibilities of this Role Include:

Quality Assurance Strategy and Execution

• Build, develop, and inspire a high-performing Corporate Quality Assurance team, ensuring they have the resources, processes, and leadership and short-term and long-term strategy to support Kinder’s growth.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, risk mitigation management, accountability, and collaboration across teams and with manufacturing partners.
• Development of key food safety and quality assurance programs driving Kinder’s quality program to a high performing organization
• Lead quality assurance teams including
  • a. Regulatory Compliance
  • b. QA/FS
  • c. Contract Manufacturing Quality

Quality/Food Safety Procedures

• Evaluate and optimize food safety and quality processes to ensure they are proactive, scalable, and aligned with industry best practices while addressing risk mitigation
• Drive short/mid/long-term strategy and continuous improvement within food safety and quality assurance while ensuring day to day activities are effectively managed to drive quality and food safety at Kinder’s
• Implement a data-driven decision-making framework to track and improve performance. Optimize quality and regulatory programs to manage and optimize food safety and quality while mitigating risk
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive clear understanding of quality standards and establish robust capabilities to drive compliance with the goal of consistent quality at our manufacturing partners and the Kinder’s product line.
• Assist continuous improvement programs to ensure consistent elevation of quality standards enhancing consumer satisfaction

Testing Program

• Evaluate and optimize company testing procedures and develop robust, effective, balanced programs to ensure compliance with key standards.

Consumer Quality Support

• Track, develop and maintain database of consumer feedback or other quality opportunities.
• Identify trends in consumer issues and where applicable, develop corrective action plans for vendor partners or work with internal product development team to develop reformulation strategies.

Crisis Response

• Develop and lead Kinder’s Crisis Response Strategy for food safety and quality situations, ensuring rapid and decisive action to protect consumers, partners, and the brand. Develop scenario-based training and proactive risk assessments to improve response effectiveness and reduce business risk.

Raw Material and Packaging Vendor Management; Audit / Compliance

• Lead and drive company audit processes and documentation and develop clear, effective communication strategies with key suppliers.
• Collaborate with operations and PD teams regarding the approval process of new contract manufacturing partners.

Regulatory / Documentation

• Develop “best in class” regulatory methodology and systems ensuring compliance for all materials and formulations with applicable third parties and agencies.
• Ensure that there are strong systems for ensuring that all products/packaging are compliant with all regulatory requirements and are accurate based on product formulations, ingredients etc.
• Develop and implement “best in class” documentation/specification/routing management systems for “raw materials”, “packaging materials”, “finished goods” and “formulations” and labels
• Optimize internal graphic routing methodology.
• Optimize finished goods specifications, providing critical information to key internal and external stakeholders to ensure that there is one “source of truth” within the organization.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Lead internal cross-functional quality team to ensure quality standards are met while simultaneously supporting and achieving aggressive commercialization timelines for new items.
• Drive clear cross-functional understanding of key quality issues/drivers and help team make intentional, active trade-offs to balance quality, brand, and commercial objectives.
• Identify sources of potential food safety risk and drive clear organizational understanding and alignment on how to achieve “zero-tolerance” goals.
• Identify key sources of business risk from quality issues (e.g. variance in appearance, flavor profile, packaging look / feel) and highlight trade-offs to senior management

Skills + Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree is required with a strong preference for a degree in food science, chemistry, and microbiology.
• 15+ years relevant leadership role experience in QA/FS in the CPG Food industry.
• Advanced level of quality assurance/food safety technical leadership skills including demonstrated knowledge of microbiology, allergen management, FDA/USDA labeling, HACCP, FSMA and FDA food regulations.
• Experience leading a quality organization driving rapid innovation, product launches and product development is a strong plus.
• Experience with food manufacturing quality assurance programs/audit procedures required.
• Track record of agile creative thinking, risk mitigation processes, generation of product standards, specifications, processes and working with internal and external partners (i.e. contract manufacturers, raw and packaging suppliers).
• Very strong sense of urgency to address high priority issue and very strong communication skills
• A proven strategic, self-starter, results-driven leader who thrives in an innovation-led, high growth environment.
• Ability to translate technical food safety expertise into clear, actionable strategies drive business results.
• Strong leadership and analytical & quantitative skills with the ability to collect and use data to drive more effective decision-making and problem solving.

Pay Transparency:

The expected starting salary range for this role is $275,000 - $300,000 per year. The salary range posted for this role reflects the good-faith base pay range Kinder’s reasonably expects to offer at the time of posting and may vary based on the location of the role. Individual compensation within the posted range will be determined based on factors such as relevant education, experience, qualifications, skills, and business needs.

SEASONED FOR SUCCESS:

• No two days here are the same. 
• We try to be good team members and good communicators, but we don’t live by hierarchy and structure – everyone is a difference maker here. 
• We make a lot of decisions in the face of incomplete information – our team embraces ambiguity and tries to make good decisions fast rather than great decisions slow. 
• We believe our job is to take smart risk, not to eliminate risk. 
• We believe in growing our skills and becoming a better company with more managerial expertise, but we are an entrepreneurial company at heart. 
• We aren’t trying to be average – we want to do exceptional things, and we are willing to work hard to achieve them. 

BENEFITS THAT BRING MORE TO THE TABLE:

We offer a range of total rewards that may include paid time off, 401k, bonus / incentive eligibility, equity grants, competitive health benefits, and other family-friendly benefits, including parental leave. Kinder’s benefits vary based on eligibility and can be reviewed in more detail during the interview process.  

OUR RECIPE FOR BALANCE:

We believe great culture starts with people. We’re a people-first company built on connection, collaboration, and balance. Most of our work happens in the office to spark creativity and community, but we also offer flexibility so team members have the autonomy to work outside the office when needed to support their work-life balance and personal commitments.

WHERE EVERY INGREDIENT MATTERS:

Kinder's is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, gender, citizenship, marital status, religion, age, disability, gender identity, results of genetic testing, veteran status, as well as any other legally-protected characteristic. If you have a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act or similar law, and you need any accommodation during the application process or to perform these job requirements, please reach out to us at careers@kinders.com