Sr Manager, Third Party Quality

Are you passionate about quality, food safety, and building strong supplier partnerships? Join Utz as the Senior Manager, Third Party Quality, where you'll lead quality and food safety programs across our global network of raw material suppliers and contract manufacturing partners.

This is a high-impact role responsible for shaping and managing our Quality Management System (QMS), Food Safety Management System (FSMS), and related standards to ensure that every product-regardless of where it's made-meets our high expectations for safety, consistency, and customer satisfaction.

What You'll Do

• Set the Standard: Define and enforce quality and food safety requirements for third-party manufacturers, raw materials, and finished goods.
• Drive Supplier Excellence: Oversee the qualification, auditing, and performance monitoring of external manufacturing partners.
• Be the Technical Expert: Support compliance with internal QMS, FSMS, FSMA, and regulatory standards. Offer guidance on product quality and risk mitigation.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner with R&D, Sales, Marketing, and Ops to support commercialization, site qualification, and product changes.
• Lead Continuous Improvement: Use audits, trend analysis, and KPIs to identify issues and drive corrective actions across the supply chain.
• Manage Issues & Incidents: Lead resolution efforts for SCARs, held inventory, recalls, and customer complaints.
• Own the Data: Maintain internal specification libraries, supplier documents, and risk-based evaluation systems.
• Champion Change: Lead change management initiatives with third-party sites to ensure alignment with evolving quality standards.

What You Bring

• Education: Bachelor's degree required.
• Experience:
• 5 years in food manufacturing.
• 3-5 years managing quality for third-party suppliers or contract manufacturers.
• Proven track record implementing supplier monitoring, crisis management, and change control systems.
• Strong background in cross-functional collaboration and audit leadership.
• Skills:
• Highly organized with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Clear communicator and effective influencer across all organizational levels.
• Proficient in analyzing data to drive decisions and improvements.
• Certifications:
• HACCP Certification required.
• SQF Practitioner certification strongly preferred.
• Experience with GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) standards required.

Why Join Us?

We're not just looking for someone to enforce standards-we want a partner who can elevate them. This is your chance to be a key voice in the integrity and success of our products as they reach consumers across the globe.

Our Recruitment Process

• Apply: Submit your resume and answer a few key questions to get started.
• Chat Interview (20-25 mins): Share your experiences in an online chat, highlighting how your values align with ours.
• Live Interview: Selected candidates will meet with the hiring manager to see how they fit into the team and wider business with Utz.

Continuously Pursuing Excellence!

Here at Utz, we have a passion for exciting and delighting consumers with delicious snack foods made from high quality ingredients. After over a century with a strong family heritage, our diverse portfolio of brands includes Utz, Zapp's, Boulder Canyon, and On the Border. Our associates are the reason for the success of this company, so it is important we provide a supportive, caring and inclusive environment that offers opportunities for career growth and advancement. We also help take care of our associates by providing benefits, resources, and programs that ensure they live their healthiest lives. Our benefit package includes medical, dental, and vision plans, an employer match 401k, profit sharing plan, employee stock purchase plan and much more. Join our world class team and help us become the fastest growing pure-play U.S. snacking company of scale!

Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.