Quality Control & Food Safety Leader

About the role

Lead the quality and food safety strategy for a PepsiCo manufacturing plant, ensuring compliance with corporate standards, local and international regulations, and consumer expectations. You will be responsible for delivering safe, consistent, high‑quality products through robust quality management systems and continuous improvement.

Key responsibilities

• Implement and sustain PepsiCo corporate quality and food safety standards.
• Lead the plant’s Food Safety Management System, covering HACCP, GMP, sanitation, food defense, food fraud and risk‑based preventive controls.
• Serve as the primary technical resource for all quality and food safety matters.
• Ensure compliance with FDA, USDA, Puerto Rico Department of Health, and other applicable regulations.
• Maintain and verify effectiveness of preventive control programs, environmental monitoring, allergen management, supply‑chain controls, recall & traceability, and sanitation controls.
• Act as lead during regulatory inspections, customer audits, corporate audits and certification audits.
• Supervise laboratory operations, process inspections and product release activities.
• Monitor critical quality and safety parameters continuously.
• Manage product holds, deviations, investigations and disposition of materials.
• Lead internal quality and food safety audits as well as external AIB, GFSI and corporate audits.
• Drive CAPA implementation from audit findings, consumer complaints, regulatory observations or process deviations.
• Conduct risk analyses and vulnerability assessments to prevent food safety events.

Required profile

• Proven experience leading quality and food safety functions in a manufacturing environment.
• Strong knowledge of HACCP, GMP, FSMA, FDA and USDA regulations.
• Demonstrated ability to drive continuous improvement and lead cross‑functional teams.
• Excellent problem‑solving, decision‑making and leadership capabilities.

Required skills

• HACCP
• GMP
• Food Defense
• Food Fraud
• FSMA compliance
• FDA regulations
• USDA regulations
• Preventive Controls
• Environmental Monitoring
• Allergen Management
• Recall & Traceability
• Sanitation Controls
• CAPA management
• Risk Analysis
• Laboratory supervision
• Process inspection
• Product release
• Internal audit
• AIB audit
• GFSI audit