Head of Food Safety, Quality, and Regulatory

Who We Are

The Farmer’s Dog was born from a mission to change the landscape of pet health, providing dogs and their humans with honest, smart, and simple care. We’re starting by radically improving the $90 billion pet food industry, replacing bags of highly-processed pellets with a personalized subscription service that sends complete and balanced, freshly-made dog food directly to customers’ doors. Our ultimate goal is to create innovative, delightful and personalized experiences across all aspects of pet care, and we believe our direct-to-consumer   to shepherd this backwards industry into the future.

To date, The Farmer’s Dog has delivered over 1 billion meals nationwide and raised over $150M in funding to help us build a company as healthy as the dogs who are eating those meals. Join us as we continue to develop ways of bringing peace of mind to customers, health to their companions, and much-needed change to the way people feed and care for their pets.

#LongLiveDogs

What We Stand For and Where You'll Come In

The Head of Food Safety, Quality, and Regulatory will lead all aspects of food safety, quality assurance, compliance, and provide strategic input into Research & Development (R&D) projects. He/she will be a key technical expert, focusing on training, auditing, and troubleshooting microbiological challenges to ensure the integrity of our products and processes. The Sr. Dir Director will act as both a technical expert and thought leader, guiding cross-functional teams and contributing to the advancement of industry standards and practices This individual will ensure the safe and efficient launch of new products while maintaining regulatory compliance, developing quality systems, and driving continuous improvement initiatives for production facilities.

One Team: We don’t think of ourselves as “Acquisition Marketers”, “Engineers”, “Data Analysts”, or “Product Managers”. Beyond denoting skill sets and areas of expertise, we don’t think departments matter. We’d rather align ourselves to the goals we’re working to achieve and make sure we have necessary subject matter expertise to drive meaningful impact. We strive to orient ourselves around customer problems TOGETHER – getting the right people, with the right context, in the right rooms/Zooms to solve problems holistically.

We are skeptical about everything and precious about nothing:  Ideas can and should come from anywhere, and we aren’t tied to our own. We proactively source input. We talk to our customers and leads regularly and are quick to change course if we know there’s a better or more impactful way to solve problems.

We consider the customer journey in all of our decisions:  We know that no interaction exists in a silo and therefore understand how important every single one is.  We ensure our strategy sets prospective and new customers up for success and drives long-term retention.  We answer questions and address problems early and proactively.  We understand the value of different channels, initiatives, and messages and know how to articulate impact and advocate for prioritization holistically.

We Execute For Impact: We don’t subscribe to “best practices” or “industry KPIs”. We’re uninterested in how we compare to “benchmarks”; instead we orient ourselves around being the best we can possibly be. Similarly, we don’t subscribe to rigid or classical expectations of roles – i.e. acquisition is hyper-focused on improving customer retention and experience.

We Are Focused and Work Without Assumption: We are not beholden to ideas. We have goals and believe everything beyond that is a series of hypotheses to validate. To that end, we seek to work in sequence and not in parallel. We constantly ask ourselves, “what’s the most important hypothesis I should be working on right now? How do I confirm or reject that hypothesis as fast as possible?”. We rarely have timelines/deadlines and are constantly taking in new information and adjusting our priorities accordingly. We don’t expect to be perfect the first time.

How You'll Make An Impact

• Develop and implement comprehensive food safety and quality assurance programs across all facilities, including copackers.
• Ensure compliance with FDA, USDA, and other relevant regulatory standards for RTE sliced meats/meals and portable snack trays.
• Oversee food safety audits, inspections, and certifications (e.g., SQF, BRC, HACCP) and ensure corrective actions are completed promptly.
• Collaborate with copackers to ensure they meet company and regulatory food safety and quality requirements.
• Act as a key partner to the R&D team, providing guidance on food safety, quality, and regulatory aspects of new product development and reformulations.
• Evaluate potential risks in new formulations and production processes, ensuring safe and compliant product launches.
• Stay engaged with R&D on ingredient and process innovations, ensuring that quality and safety standards are integrated from concept to commercialization.
• Engage in optimizing the supplier management program to ensure quality, reliability, and cost-effectiveness
• Lead crisis management and recall initiatives, should they arise, ensuring swift and effective resolution.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement in food safety and quality, identifying and implementing best practices.
• Manage and mentor a team of food safety and quality professionals.
• Monitor and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) related to food safety, quality, and compliance.
• Analyze complex microbiological data, providing actionable insights to senior management and relevant departments
• Develop and validate advanced microbiological methods in alignment with industry best practices
• Enhance the data analytics to create a predictive culture
• Stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends, regulatory changes, and food safety technologies to enhance current processes.

We're Excited About You Because

• You have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Food Science, Microbiology, or a related field.
• You have 10+ years of experience in food safety and quality, preferably in the RTE assembly/or meat/bakery/dairy industry.
• You have proven experience working with copackers and managing quality across multiple facilities.
• You have extensive knowledge of food safety regulations (FDA, USDA) and certification standards (SQF, BRC, HACCP).
• You have a strong understanding of the R&D process and how food safety/quality is integrated into product development.
• You have strong leadership and communication skills, with a track record of managing teams and cross-functional collaboration.
• You have experience in handling product recalls and crisis management.
• You can travel as needed to oversee copackers and production facilities.
• You love dogs.

Office Guidelines

We are an in-office culture, made of in-office people who thrive on the collaboration and magnetism of working in a shared space. We are seeking individuals who excel in this type of environment, where being present fosters deeper connections and engagement.

Our DEI Philosophy:

Our company’s mission is rooted in deep, genuine care for dogs – and for the people who love them. As an organization we are full of individuals who are unique in many ways, but all united in a mission of providing true peace of mind to dog lovers everywhere. Fixing this industry and improving the lives of pets and their people will be a difficult, decades-long endeavor. We believe the best use of our time, energy, and resources as a collective team is to focus on this mission, and on supporting our team to do their best work and be their best selves. In support of this we’re committed to hiring and supporting a diverse workforce, and investing in internal structures, opportunities, hiring/promotions processes, and training that create and sustain an inclusive team. We strive to provide an experience at TFD that will be invested, meaningful and memorable as we progress on the journey to reimagine how we feed and care for our pets.

A Few of Our Best Benefits

• Dog-friendly office in Greenwich Village
• Market-competitive compensation and equity packages
• Comprehensive Healthcare, Dental, and Vision
• Company supported mental health benefits
• 12 week paid parental leave
• Competitive 401k plan with company match
• Flexible PTO 
• Discounted fresh food for your pup
• Your pet interrupting video calls (and in-person meetings) is now a feature, not a bug

We commit to building a competitive compensation package and company environment for all individuals to thrive. We believe in competitive base compensation rooted in location specific market data and performance along with equity ownership in the company that allows every team member to build their personal wealth as the company grows, just as much as we believe in fostering a culture that supports our team members personally, professionally, and holistically. For this role the anticipated hiring base compensation range is $210,000 - $240,000 USD Annual and the compensation offered will include a robust market competitive package of base and equity. In addition to your base compensation offer you will also receive equity ownership in the company. More information about the value of this equity will be shared at the time of offer. This range is representative of NYC Market Data if you are applying to this role outside of the NYC area the range may change.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

The Farmer's Dog, Inc. is an equal employment opportunity employer and does not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic or status. For more information, please visit Know Your Rights.