Associated Wholesale Grocers

FSQA (Food Safety Quality Assurance)

Title: Food Safety Manager

Reports to: Executive Director Food Safety

Location: 5000 Kansas Avenue Kansas City, KS 66106

Department: Food Safety

Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc. (AWG) is the nation’s largest cooperative food wholesaler to independently owned supermarkets, serving over 1,100 member companies and over 3,400 locations throughout 31 states from 9 wholesale Divisions. The consolidated run-rate sales for AWG are $12.3billion. In addition to its cooperative wholesale operations, the company also operates subsidiary companies that provide certain real estate and supermarket development services, print and digital marketing services, health and beauty care, general merchandise, pharmaceutical products, specialty foods, and natural and organic products.

Basic Functions: The Food Safety Manager will serve as a critical asset to the Support Center Food Safety Team providing leadership towards continual improvement of those programs designed to exceed regulatory compliance, meet organizational standards, and ensure private brands quality.

Position Description:

• Strategic leadership and deployment of global sanitation systems and pest control programs by developing and managing processes and procedures to support excellence in food safety hygiene practices and comply with established food safety regulations.
• Develop and drive digitization and automation of sanitation recordkeeping across divisions.
• Leverage data tools to monitor food safety analytics, identify trends and establish robust corrective/preventive action plans to improve performance metrics.
• Design and execute training programs to support strong food safety culture in alignment with AWG global programs such as cross contact, cross contamination, sanitation, pest control and food defense.
• Manage issues with non-conformances to ensure proper control, minimize losses and provide analysis to drive the elimination of future occurrences.
• Partner with internal sites to conduct in depth program reviews, support third-Party audits and generate continuous improvements in our programs and program execution at facilities.
• Provide technical and instructional support for distribution teams for food safety, sanitation, and integrated pest management programs.
• Help drive and support organization sustainability initiatives.
• Assist in product recalls and customer complaints.
• Assist with completing various projects by performing other duties as assigned to support AWG’s food safety mission and objective.
• Serve as the primary liaison to key partners, specifically collaborating closely with safety, security, category management, and operations to ensure alignment on strategic goals and execution of projects.

Additional Information:

• This position is subject to irregular hours and will involve working outside of a traditional schedule to support AWG distribution centers (e.g., early mornings, overnights, or split shifts).
• This role requires working in warehouse environment with moderate noise due to industrial mobile equipment operation and varied temperatures. Temperatures will vary based on outside temperatures for the non-air-conditioned section and cool temperatures ranging from -20 to the upper 40's for the perishable sections.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, stand, walk, stoop, and kneel.

Relocation Required:

This position is located at the Associated Wholesale Grocers Support Center in Kansas City, KS. Up to 50% of travel is required for this position.

Requirements:

• Experience: Minimum 5 years’ experience of food warehousing in a management position with functional food safety knowledge.
• Preferred Education: Bachelor’s degree in food science or related field
• Possess strong knowledge of: Cold Chain Policies; Sanitary and Safe Food Handling Practices
• General understanding of the regulations affecting our industry, including the Bioterrorism Act, Food Safety Modernization Act, Foreign Supplier Verification, Sanitary Transportation, among others.
• Seafood HACCP Certification
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
• Prior experience with supply chain management/ERP systems, warehouse management, in transit temperature monitoring, Content Manager, PeopleSoft software a plus

Benefits:

• Medical, Dental, & Vision Insurance
• Health Savings Account
• Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account
• Paid Vacation, Holiday, and Sick Time
• 401(k) with 4% match along with 3 other contributions
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Basic & Supplemental Life and AD&D
• Employee Assistance Program
• Short-Term and Long-Term Disability
• Wellness Program
• Discretionary annual holiday bonus