Our client is a multi-plant manufacturer of high-speed beverages in the New England area. They seek a Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs to manage their regulatory and labeling teams.
The Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs is a strategic leader who ensures the company’s internal systems and practices comply with all federal, state, and local food regulatory requirements. This person must establish processes and integrated systems to ensure the company has accurate, complete, and consistent data from company’s applicable food systems to enable the company to comply with regulatory, company, and customer/partner requirements including nutrition, labeling, and claims compliance. This person must understand and differentiate risks and partner with internal teams to identify solutions to complicated food regulatory issues. This person will provide subject matter expertise regarding food regulatory matters to all levels of the organization, including the leadership team, and collaborate with cross functional partners. This person will lead, motivate, and mentor the Regulatory Affairs team and assure the team has the resources and support necessary to be effective in their roles.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
- Ensure company compliance with federal, state, and local food regulatory requirements; identify and communicate changes in regulatory standards to ensure applicable requirements/adjustments occur in a timely manner on all new and existing products
- Develop and integrate all regulatory strategies into company business goals, accounting for both short-term and long-term matters, to ensure regulatory and customer/partner requirements are met
- Direct/lead all regulatory related activities, including supply chain compliance, documentation and filings with regulatory authorities, and customer/partner communications
- Assess and verify that the company satisfies external and internal standards, including certifying body requirements and customer/company sustainability goals regarding finished products
- Establish policies and provide strategic leadership to ensure the integrity of data from the company’s food systems, including supply chain and business partners
- Assure that all relevant and required data and information are accurately housed in company’s systems, and manage and establish systems to control and manage changes to critical data
- Develop processes and manage systems that complement current ERP systems so that data is efficiently integrated across business and business partners to meet business requirements
- Provide high level strategic insight and guidance to company leadership regarding pending or proposed legislative and regulatory actions, as well as industry trends that affect supply chain and product labeling requirements
- Establish a strong network of internal and external regulatory and industry resources to facilitate the company’s regulatory strategy by partnering with external trade associations as the company’s representative for all food regulatory activities
- Represent company and maintain relationships with regulatory agencies, industry groups, trade associations, and customer/partner regulatory teams; promote company’s positions and influence strategy at trade associations
- Understand and differentiate various levels of regulatory, systems, and process risk and partner with business teams to find solutions
- Protect company, customer, and partner brands through continuous monitoring and improvement
- Interface closely with Food Safety and Quality, Procurement, R&D, Sales, Consumer Affairs, Operations, Supply Chain, Legal, and Marketing
- Provide continued leadership, mentorship, and development to company’s regulatory team and assure that the team has adequate resources and support to be effective in their roles
- Additional duties & responsibilities as assigned
Education and Experience:
- Master’s Degree in a science-based discipline, PhD preferred – Science/Food Science/Nutrition, Regulatory Affairs, or MBA with a Science Focus
- Experience within Consume- Packaged Food, Beverage or Dairy Industry
- At least 15 years of direct experience within Regulatory Affairs in the food industry
- At least 10 years of direct experience managing a team
- Advanced knowledge of FDA and USDA food regulations, food law, and food certifying standards (i.e., Kosher, Halal, Organic, Non-GMO Project, and RSPO)
Skills and Competencies:
Excellent people management and project management skills
- Demonstrated successful strategic leadership
- Demonstrated strength in thought leadership, critical thinking and managing/leading through ambiguity
- Able to effectively collaborate with multiple internal and external stakeholders, including senior leadership
- Experience creating and managing regulatory systems and processes
- Willingness and ability to leverage risk management strategies to balance business needs while ensuring regulatory compliance
- Result and solutions oriented, able to multitask, highly organized, and able to lead a dynamic business process and team within a fast-paced environment
- Strong written and verbal business communication skills, intuitive and analytical, and complimentary interpersonal skills
- Travel Required 10-20% of time
For more information, please contact Moira McGrath, moira@foodscience.com or call (954) 428-3888