About the role:
UPSIDE Foods is building the food system of the future. We produce real meat from animal cells, and we are moving from pre-commercial production toward commercial scale.
This role owns food safety and quality assurance across our production operations, covering both FDA and USDA production. You will be the person accountable for our FDA Food Safety Plan and USDA HACCP plan, our unique integrated quality management system we continue to build from the ground up.
Extending the above, we are in the process of both SQF and ISO-9000 certifications, which you will lead. This is not maintaining an established system. It is designing one, getting an organization of scientists and operators to adopt it, and taking it through certification, all while ensuring regulatory compliance for Food Safety.
This role is for a “working” manager… being on the floor as much as they are at their desk. Multi-tasking from support of basic and challenging floor issues to creating, reviewing all needed documents and data.
If you want a QA role where the systems are already written and your job is to sustain them, this is not it. If you want to build them, read on.
What you'll do:
Food safety systems
- Own the FSP and HACCP end to end — preventive controls, hazard analysis, critical control points, monitoring, verification, and reassessment under 9 CFR 417
- Maintain Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures and the sanitation verification program under 9 CFR 416
- Own the Environmental Monitoring Program (EMP), including zone-based sampling design, trend analysis, and the investigation and corrective action process when results move the wrong direction
- Maintain preventive controls and the food safety plan for FDA-regulated stages of production under 21 CFR 117
- Own allergen control, sanitation chemical management, pest control oversight, and the master sanitation schedule
- Lead recall readiness, including mock recalls, traceability exercises, and hold-and-release procedures
Regulatory compliance
- Serve as the primary point of contact for USDA-FSIS in-plant inspection personnel and manage the daily working relationship on the USDA production floor.
- Maintain the establishment's Grant Of Inspection (GOI) and all conditions attached to it
- Manage regulatory correspondence, including responses to USDA Noncompliance Records, and drive the corrective and preventive actions that close them
- Own label review and FSIS label approval submissions
- Lead FDA Inspections and pre-market consultation activity for new cell lines, media formulations, and process changes
- Track food safety regulatory developments across a category where the rules are still forming
Quality Management System
- Lead the design, documentation, and rollout of a quality management system conforming to FDA and USDA-FSIS food safety standards
- Buildout the documented information architecture — document control, revision control, record retention, and the approval workflows that keep them current
- Implement risk-based thinking as a working practice rather than a paperwork exercise, including risk and opportunity registers tied to actual process decisions
- Stand up the internal audit program: auditor training and qualification, audit schedule, audit execution, and finding closure
- Establish the management review process and prepare the inputs that make it a decision-making forum rather than a status report
- Own nonconforming output control, the CAPA system, and root cause analysis methodology — and coach the organization on using them properly
- Build supplier and external provider controls, including qualification criteria, approved supplier lists, incoming material controls, and performance monitoring
- Own calibration and measurement traceability across production and laboratory equipment
- Select and manage the accredited certification body, and lead the organization through Stage 1 and Stage 2 certification audits
- Drive continual improvement as an operating habit, using data from audits, nonconformances, customer feedback, and process metrics
Team and cross-functional leadership
- Lead, develop, and grow the FSQA team, including hiring as the function scales
- Partner with Manufacturing, Process Engineering, Facilities, and R&D so quality requirements are built into processes rather than inspected in afterward
- Own FSQA training content and delivery for production personnel, including onboarding and annual refreshers
- Serve as a quality voice in change control, ensuring process and equipment changes are assessed for food safety and regulatory impact before implementation
- Report quality performance to leadership with metrics that drive decisions
Qualifications:
Required
- Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Biology, Chemical Engineering, or a related technical field
- 7+ years in FDA food safety and quality assurance, including 3+ years leading people
- PCQI certified with experience building and implementing Food Safety Plans
- Working knowledge of 9 CFR 416 and 417, and 21 CFR 117
- Hands-on experience implementing or substantially building a quality management system — ISO 9001, a GFSI-benchmarked scheme, or equivalent
- Proven ability to write clear procedures that people actually follow, and to get adoption in an organization that has not previously worked to a formal system
Preferred
- Direct experience in a USDA-FSIS inspected establishment, including day-to-day interaction with in-plant inspection personnel
- HACCP certification and demonstrated ownership of a HACCP plan through reassessment
- ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditor certification
- Experience taking an organization through initial ISO 9001 certification
- Background in cell culture, fermentation, biopharmaceutical, or other aseptic manufacturing environments
- Experience in a startup or scale-up moving from pilot to commercial production
- Familiarity with GFSI schemes (SQF, BRCGS, FSSC 22000)
- Statistical process control and data analysis capability
Working conditions:
This role is based on site and requires daily presence in production areas. Expect to gown into controlled environments, work around processing equipment, and be available for occasional off-shift or weekend coverage during production runs, audits, or incidents. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this role.
Compensation Range: $150,000 - 170,000
*Pay may vary depending on factors including job-related knowledge and skills.
UPSIDE Foods is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Our company-wide mission is to create a product for everyone, so we are deeply committed to having teams and leaders that reflect this mission.