A mutually rewarding experience.

Work. Realize your ambitions. And realize there’s more to being in business than just making a profit. That’s the Mars philosophy. And the opportunity we offer every one of our Associates. An opportunity to take what you do and make it mean more for you, for those around you and for the planet.  What you get here is challenging, interesting work. You get the tools you need to do a great job and you get to have the best possible people on your side to help you do it. And at the same time as getting to find ways to do business better today than we did it yesterday and driving a great career, you also get to build a more enlightened business and drive sustainability.

Because it’s never just about a single person, a single project or a single brand. It’s about how you can grab everything that’s within your reach here and use it to pursue mutual, long-term gain. It’s about having ideas. And ideals. Being prepared to risk failure because the promise of success means we’ll all be a little better off. It’s that mix of integrity and ambition that makes Mars such a special place to work. And why working here is always about more than just a job.

About Mars, Incorporated 

Mars is a family-owned business with more than a century of history making diverse products and offering services for people and the pets people love. With almost $35 billion in sales, the company is a global business that produces some of the world’s best-loved brands: M&M’s®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, MILKY WAY®, DOVE®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, WHISKAS®, EXTRA®, ORBIT®, 5™, SKITTLES®, UNCLE BEN’S®, MARS DRINKS and COCOAVIA®. Mars also provides veterinary health services that include BANFIELD® Pet Hospitals, Blue Pearl®, VCA® and Pet Partners™. Headquartered in McLean, VA, Mars operates in more than 80 countries. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire its more than 100,000 Associates to create value for all its partners and deliver growth they are proud of every day.

 

North America Quality and Food Safety Director - Royal Canin Business

(location flexible to Nashville, TN; Lewisburg, OH; Saint Louis, MO; or Newark, NJ)

 

In close collaboration with global, regional and local stakeholders, the North America Quality and Food Safety (Q&FS) Director leads strategic deployment and governance of all quality and food safety processes and standards in all functions of the business from ingredient, through manufacturing, distribution and all functions of the market activity.  The role is responsible to ensure the region is adequately prepared including systems and organizational resources necessary to ensure quality and food safety processes and requirements are consistently delivered.

 

What are we looking for?

• Chemistry, Biology, Engineering or Food Science related degree.
• Master’s and/or other advance degree preferred.
• Ideally 10+ years-experience in a quality related function (food Industry experience is appreciated).
• Strong process expertise/experience in manufacturing-based environment.
• Strong functional expertise in quality and food safety including direct experience in strategic deployment and operation of critical Q&FS systems (HACCP, ISO, etc) across both manufacturing and market activities.
• Must be willing to travel both domestically and internationally on a frequent basis to support all business activity as well as international meetings and seminars abroad as appropriate.
• Must be fluent in English.

 

What would be your key responsibilities?

Deployment and Governance of all quality and food safety standards:

• Work directly within the Value Chain Organization (Supply VP, Commercial Dir, Supply Dir, Finance Dir) as appropriate in the end-to-end supply chain to build and maintain the adequate resource and organizational strategy to be compliant to all current quality and food safety requirements as well as on time deployment of any new requirements – including Mars Standards, local regulatory requirements and Royal Canin global product specifications. Ensure adequate systems are in place to mitigate potential risks to the business.
• Work directly within the Regional Leadership Team (Regional Presidents, Country GM’s, RH VP, Regional CFO, VCO VP) as appropriate in the local markets and regional sub-BU organizational scope to build and maintain the adequate resource and organizational strategy to be compliant to all current quality and food safety requirements as well as on time deployment of any new requirements – including Mars Standards and local regulatory requirements. Ensure adequate systems are in place to mitigate potential risks to the business.

 

Drive Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement in all Quality and Food Safety Systems:

• Lead the Q&FS regional team activity and ensure an adequate regional support organization is in place to provide capable functional support needed in the region.
• In collaboration with the regional VCO team, support the Q&FS and R&D regional activity in Regional TLT and Regional SMR forums of the S&OP+ cycle to manage ongoing business operations and drive continuous improvement.
• Serve as part of the Royal Canin Global Quality Leadership Team to collaborate with other regional quality leaders as well as global quality leaders to build and execute the quality and food safety strategy necessary to support the Royal Canin Global business unit.
• Support all major CAB investment projects through collaboration in each project steering team (Supply VP, Engineering Dir, IE Dir, Site Dir) to ensure all Q&FS requirements are in scope and adequate resource/system capability are in place.
• Complete ownership of the Mars PRIMP process in the region – including robust deployment and training in each local unit, as well as directly leading the PRIMP process in the event of real business crisis/quality/food safety incidents to ensure all product affected is adequately secured and the risk assessment steps of the process are managed directly with each market team (GM & Team), factory (Site Dir & Team) and regional/global stakeholders as necessary to support a comprehensive risk assessment and ultimately manage escalation of proposed actions to Mars Global stakeholders and subsequent communication of aligned actions back to the local units affected.
• Work directly with Mars Global Services (MGS) Laboratory organization in collaboration with Royal Canin Global Q&FS to ensure adequate analytical capability and laboratory (internal and external) reliability, is in place to verify product food safety and performance requirements as well as the capacity to meet the business growth and innovation requirements.
• Work directly with Mars Q&FS functional counterparts in the region to align on common functional strategies to drive efficiency as well as a clear focus on cross business unit talent pipeline development. 

 

What can you expect from Mars?

• The opportunity to learn, develop and take charge of your own career.
• An industry competitive salary and benefits package. 
• To be respected and valued.
• The Five Principles at the center of every decision we make.
• The opportunity to work cross functionally, add value and impact a better world for generations to come.

 

 

If you’re passionate about our brands, a great strategic thinking, deliver high quality decision and have a high drive for results, then we want to hear from you. Click ‘apply’ in this position.

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Mars is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you need assistance or an accommodation during the application process because of a disability, it is available upon request. The company is pleased to provide such assistance, and no applicant will be penalized as a result of such a request.