Chief Food Safety & Quality

This role provides strategic leadership and expert oversight for WFP’s global Food Safety and Quality systems, ensuring the highest standards of safety, quality, and compliance across all operations.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive, within delegated authority):

• Lead the global development, implementation, and continuous improvement of Food Safety and Quality (FSQ) role and systems for WFP. This includes also Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Food and Packaging Research and Development.

• Lead the setting and regular update of FSQ policies, standards, FSQ Manual and procedures in line with international benchmarks and organizational objectives.

• Oversee the integration of FSQ systems into all operations to ensure robust governance, risk management, and compliance; drive cross-functional collaboration with internal and external stakeholders to ensure systems are contextually relevant and effective.

• Lead digital innovation, including FSQ-related IT solutions implementation, and data-driven enhancements; and ensure that FSQ systems are embedded across all food modalities and supply chain activities, with clear accountability and capacity building for staff worldwide.

• Manage partnerships with public partners (Other UN agencies, governments…) and technical partners from the private sector, and to leverage those partnerships to enhance WFP food safety and quality processes based on industry best practices.

• Lead operational FSQ support and guidance to the field - this role directly manages key FSQ Global HQ positions in all regional offices and in Rome, which supports and ensures Country offices implement, expand and improve the Food Safety and Quality systems

• Lead the oversight and governance role for FSQ implementation in WFP.

• Lead the food incident management program for WFP, including: investigation and communication of food incidents management, technical research, field visits, advice and decision making liaising with internal and external stakeholders, maintenance of updated repository of incidents. Produce lessons learned reports and implementation strategy to continuously improve FSQ within WFP's operations.

• Prepare and deliver FSQ reports, updates and indicators to WFP Management, represented by the DSC and Risk Committee.

• Act as the key FSQ subject matter expert in WFP, representing the organization in related technical forums as a participant and/or speaker.

• Lead workstreams related to food fraud prevention, including implementation of mitigation measures to improve controls and avoid food fraud within WFP's operations.

• Lead FSQ supplier management program including: definition of the standards for suppliers/product type, management of the audit program and external partner that conducts audits, define risk matrix, audit strategy and ensure fulfillment of the annual audit plan, act as a mediator in cases of conflict or disagreement related to audit outcomes, act as the focal point for supplier audit related topics with stakeholders;

• Perform critical review of supplier related information, analyse trends and implement technical improvements according to opportunities identified.

• Serve as the FSQ lead focal point for Procurement, Insurance and Legal on product deviation occurrences, incidents and liability cases linked to FSQ providing technical recommendations.

• Lead product traceability related improvements through development of procedures, upgrading of practices and IT links.

• Lead IT implementation for FSQ, including FOSTER, DOTs and other related platforms for implementation or integration of systems and data management.

• Supervise FSQ staff in Global HQ including management of daily work, guidance, troubleshooting, PACE and overall development and performance.

• Lead and oversee all financial management activities within the FSQ unit, including the development, monitoring, and optimization of cost recovery rates, budget planning and execution, expenditure tracking, and comprehensive budget management to ensure effective allocation and utilization of resources in support of organizational objectives.

• Lead all FSQ knowledge management activities for WFP globally, including the design and delivery of trainings, development and maintenance of learning materials, and oversight of FSQ-related repositories and resources to ensure consistent capacity building and knowledge sharing across the organization

Education: Advanced University degree in a food or science-related areas, such as Food Science, Engineering, Microbiology, or Food Technology. A PhD degree in a relevant discipline is considered an asset.

Experience: minimum of 11 years of progressively responsible experience in the development, implementation, and management of corporate food safety and quality systems and policies, including significant experience implementing FSQ, Regulatory Affairs and Food/Packaging R&D systems into humanitarian operations.

• Training on internationally recognized FSQ auditing schemes (GFSI)

• IT savviness for FSQ systems implementation

• Technical     knowledge    in     food     science,     contaminants,     statistics, microbilogy and toxicology

• Demonstrated expertise in risk management, incident management, and the application of international food safety standards is essential.

• Hands-on experience with food safety audits, regulatory affairs, and food and packaging research and development.

• Proven track record of leading cross-functional teams.

• Ability to analyse complex food-related incidents and defects and create hypothesis on issue root causes based on food science knowledge.

• Proven track record building technical partnerships with public and private sector stakeholders.

• Strong analytical, communication, negotiation, and leadership skills are required, along with the ability to provide strategic guidance, mentor staff, and represent the organization in technical forums.

• Experience with digital transformation of FSQ systems, advanced data analytics, and capacity building is highly desirable, as is a willingness to travel extensively and respond rapidly to operational needs.

• Private sector food manufacturing operations experience is an asset.

• Experience managing complex projects in emergency and non-emergency contexts is an asset.

Language: Fluency (level C) in English language. Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and/or Portuguese (a WFP working language).