Director, QSE SQM

Director QSE SQM  

Reports to: Sen Director QSE Operations 
Direct Reports: 0 

Role Purpose 

This role is responsible for the end-to-end definition and execution of QSE programs, ensuring operational robustness and strict compliance with European food safety, quality, environmental, occupational health & safety, and social responsibility regulations for ingredients and primary packaging suppliers.  Based on the global and OU QSE strategy, set goals and roadmap for suppliers for Europe for achieving QSE excellence goals.  

Operating under the governance of the Senior Director QSE Operations, the Director drives delivery excellence and execution discipline, ensuring suppliers and markets remain QSE-ready and compliant with both internal strategies and external relevant regulatory requirements. 

What you will do for us

Strategic QFS Leadership & Continuous Improvement 

• Define and steward the technical Quality and Food Safety (QFS) strategy, policies, commitments, initiatives and prioritization to implement in line with the global and OU QFS agenda with suppliers. Influence the QFS agenda and investments at suppliers. 

• Innovation: Contribute to the global networked organization QSE Innovation pipeline and ensure the regional/OU innovation agenda is in place, drive top and bottom-line growth and create competitive advantage through suppliers’ development. Lead supplier authorization processes with the implementation of all technical operational QSE aspects that protect and enhance our corporate reputation.  

• Supplier Guiding Principles: Communicate and obtain supplier commitments and demonstrated compliance with supplier guiding principles. 

• Technical sustainability strategy: Define initiatives and prioritization to implement global and OU sustainability agenda, connected with business needs. Ensure accelerated progress of sustainability commitments across KO priorities – including water, carbon/climate and WWW/packaging while ensuring OU sustainability-by-design leadership in innovation and across the supply chain. In collaboration with OU sustainability this role influences the sustainability agenda and investments at suppliers. 

• Operational Robustness: Establishes and maintains the discipline required to execute QSE programs with precision across suppliers and European markets. 

Franchise & System Capability Development 

• System Partnerships: Work directly with bottling partners, CEPG and cross-functional OU teams to verify that system capabilities meet company standards, regulatory requirements, and consumer expectations. 

• OU QSE network orchestration at suppliers: Ensure knowledge sharing management routines in place across the suppliers to achieve OU QSE goals  

• Capability Building: Develop and scale OU capabilities to manage quality and food safety requirements for new product categories and innovative packaging format 

Compliance & Governance:  

• Safeguard the organization’s reputation by managing basic compliance for core Food Safety, Human Rights, Environment and Safety (EHS) at ingredients and primary packaging suppliers to the system.  

• Monitor and analyze QSE and SGP performance data to drive a "Zero Defect" mentality and robust QFS culture through the spirit of Continuous Improvement (CI). 

• Oversee the integration of food safety and quality standards across the full value chain, fostering QSE culture across the enterprise. Execute respective processes and deliver approvals and authorizations as defined by KORE and Technical Governance Framework.  

• Crisis & Incident Management: Own resolution of QFS incidents due to failures at suppliers. Support troubleshooting, Root Cause Analysis (RCA), and Corrective Action Planning (CAP) for QFS-related risks at suppliers. 

Qualification & Experience 

• + 5 years of Quality, Food Safety, Occupational Health and Safety experience in Food & Beverage industry  

• Work with internal functions and networks like R&D, CPS, SRA, SC.  

• Strong hands-on project leadership experience 

• Experience in manufacturing processes 

• Ability to manage complexity within a defined project scope 

• Strong operational problem-solving skills 

• Adaptable and resilient, with growth and continuous learning mindset; comfortable leading through ambiguity and change 

• Proven ability to lead, coach and develop teams and individuals, fostering a culture of collaboration, trust, accountability and high performance 

• Cross-functional communication: Collaborate and coordinate with functions including OU Technical and Supply chain team, CEPG, corporate QSE team, Bottling partners, CPS, external parties, key customers (McDonald’s, Burger King etc.)  

• Senior leadership experience in leading supplier development programs and scale transformation programs, change management, is a plus. 

• French language skills are considered an advantage, but are not essential.

Education 

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Science, Business Administration or a related field is required. An advanced degree is preferred; however, demonstrated leadership impact and relevant experience will be strongly valued. 

Travel Requirements 

• Up to 33 % travel, subject to business needs. 

What We Offer 

• The opportunity to shape and lead the technical and supply chain agenda for a complex, high impact system. 

• Exposure to senior leadership and strategic decision-making. 

• A diverse, multicultural environment with strong growth and development opportunities. 

• The chance to drive meaningful impact across food safety, quality, safety, sustainability, innovation and performance. 

Confidentiality Notice 

This job description outlines the general nature and responsibilities of the role. Duties may evolve based on business needs. All information is confidential and intended for internal hiring purposes within the Europe Operating Unit.