Associate Director of FSQA Downstream (m/f/x)

at  HelloFresh

At HelloFresh, we want to change the way people eat forever by offering our customers high-quality food and recipes for different meal occasions. Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen this mission spread around the world and beyond our wildest dreams. Now, we are a global food solutions group and the world’s leading meal kit company, active in 18 countries across 3 continents. So, how did we do it? Our weekly boxes full of exciting recipes and fresh ingredients have blossomed into a community of customers looking for delicious, healthy, and sustainable options. The HelloFresh Group now includes our core brand, HelloFresh, as well as: Green Chef, EveryPlate, Chefs Plate, Factor_, and Youfoodz.
About the role
We’re looking for a highly motivated Food Safety & Quality Assurance Associate Director with experience, who is strategically and analytically minded. We need someone with a proven track record of elevating and embedding food safety & quality culture and processes throughout a complex organization.The FSQA Downstream Director will be tasked with developing and executing a long term strategy for the downstream team, elevating it beyond mere food safety compliance achieving a level of exceptional quality that delights HelloFresh customers.
Our international FSQA Downstream Team collaborates closely with International teams based in Berlin as well as local teams across 10 markets and 17 production sites. It covers Distribution Center compliance, establishing standards and controls, as well as ensuring the safety and quality of ingredients throughout the inbound, storage and production, outbound until the box reaches the customer through the delivery network.
As meal kits remain HelloFresh’s core business, the company is also diversifying into new verticals such as Ready-to-Eat and Ready-to-Heat meals. Given its status as a nascent vertical, establishing robust standards from the outset is essential to facilitate HelloFresh’s successful expansion.
This role will actively influence various stakeholders fostering close relationships to drive business wide initiatives and impact.

What you’ll do:

• Ensure all FSQA risks are understood and that prioritized strategies are developed and implemented across the international business with clear communication to relevant stakeholders
• Provide technical expertise and guidance on all relevant matters linked to downstream operations to ensure legal compliance and building of internal capability by sharing knowledge, raising awareness and accountability amongst relevant teams
• Develop and communicate our food safety & quality strategy programs to ensure they remain fully relevant and effective at risk mitigation, whilst driving systemised quality improvements
• Establish and maintain standardized processes and controls across all sites to ensure consistency and compliance with company policies and regulatory requirements but also to evolve ingredient handling practices eventually elevating the product quality
• Lead the BRCGS certification program and internal audit framework
• Ensure data analytics is used for decision making, by utilizing and evolving further key business metrics such as quality errors , food safety complaints, warm complaints, NPS score and trust pilot reviews
• Work closely with the local FSQA teams across international to align and implement our international FSQA strategy, OKRs and KPIs
• Collaborate with the culinary and product, procurement, packaging, operations and logistics team to drive improvements to product and operational standards while also working with the sustainability, PR, Legal and Customer Care team on strategic topics
• Lead the business crisis management team when incidents linking to Food Safety and Health & Safety occur, supporting business continuity and customer, employee and brand protection
• Build strategic relationships with industry stakeholders and relevant authorities such as the GFSI and Global GAP, representing the company when required
• Keep up to date with future legislative changes and industry best practices, incorporating this thinking into our systems, processes and strategies
• Support new country and vertical launches, developing strategies to manage risks including Ready to Eat food manufacturing
• Elevate, drive and embed a safety and quality culture throughout all teams

What you’ll bring:

• A degree in Food Science or a similar subject
• An in-depth working knowledge of food safety and quality management systems (HACCP, BRCGS etc.)
• Proven experience in a leadership role within an FSQA function, ideally across some or all of manufacturing, supply chain, and retail environments
• Ideally experience with ready to heat/ready to eat food manufacturing
• Confident stakeholder management skills and ability to influence and communicate at all levels, flexing your style to the different audiences
• Strong leadership and communication skills
• Experience building strategies with demonstrated ability to drive and implement impactful change
• Highly organized, detail-oriented with the skills to manage multiple projects
• Excellent data analysis and understanding capabilities
• Willingness to travel
• Energy, enthusiasm, commitment, and a can-do flexible attitude

About HelloFresh
We believe that sharing a meal brings people of all identities, backgrounds, and cultures together. We are committed to celebrating all dimensions of diversity in the workplace equally and ensuring that everyone feels a sense of inclusion and belonging. We also aim to extend this commitment to the partners we work with and the communities we serve. We are constantly listening, learning, and evolving to deliver on these principles. We are proud of our collaborative culture. Our diverse employee population enables us to connect with our customers and turn their feedback into meaningful action - from developing new recipes to constantly improving our process of getting dinner to our customers’ homes. Our culture attracts top talent with shared values and forms the foundation for a great place to work!
At HelloFresh, we embrace diversity and inclusion. We are an equal-opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of an individual’s race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived. As part of the Company’s commitment to equal employment opportunity, we provide reasonable accommodations, up to the point of undue hardship, to candidates at any stage, including to individuals with disabilities.
We want to adapt our processes and create a safe space that welcomes everyone so please let us know how we can accommodate our process. In case you have any accessibility requirements you can share that with us in the application form.
To learn more about what it’s like working inside HelloFresh, follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn.

HelloFresh is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity and providing reasonable accommodations to candidates with disabilities. If you need an accommodation during the application process, please reach out to us at:

• Europe: EUaccommodations@hellofresh.com.
• APAC: APACaccommodations@hellofresh.com
• United States: USCandidateAccommodations@hellofresh.com
• Canada: CAaccommodations@hellofresh.com

• Ensure all FSQA risks are understood and that prioritized strategies are developed and implemented across the international business with clear communication to relevant stakeholders
• Provide technical expertise and guidance on all relevant matters linked to downstream operations to ensure legal compliance and building of internal capability by sharing knowledge, raising awareness and accountability amongst relevant teams
• Develop and communicate our food safety & quality strategy programs to ensure they remain fully relevant and effective at risk mitigation, whilst driving systemised quality improvements
• Establish and maintain standardized processes and controls across all sites to ensure consistency and compliance with company policies and regulatory requirements but also to evolve ingredient handling practices eventually elevating the product quality
• Lead the BRCGS certification program and internal audit framework
• Ensure data analytics is used for decision making, by utilizing and evolving further key business metrics such as quality errors , food safety complaints, warm complaints, NPS score and trust pilot reviews
• Work closely with the local FSQA teams across international to align and implement our international FSQA strategy, OKRs and KPIs
• Collaborate with the culinary and product, procurement, packaging, operations and logistics team to drive improvements to product and operational standards while also working with the sustainability, PR, Legal and Customer Care team on strategic topics
• Lead the business crisis management team when incidents linking to Food Safety and Health & Safety occur, supporting business continuity and customer, employee and brand protection
• Build strategic relationships with industry stakeholders and relevant authorities such as the GFSI and Global GAP, representing the company when required
• Keep up to date with future legislative changes and industry best practices, incorporating this thinking into our systems, processes and strategies
• Support new country and vertical launches, developing strategies to manage risks including Ready to Eat food manufacturing
• Elevate, drive and embed a safety and quality culture throughout all team