Global Head of Food Safety

Job Introduction

As a leading global provider of food services, food safety is a critical foundation of our Love of Food. We are recruiting a Global Head of Food Safety who will be responsible for driving improvement in food safety in coordination with our global businesses and functions.

You will have a mix of integrity and ambition with experience of working in a senior level food safety role for a large multinational organisation. You will coordinate with a wide range of stakeholders to assure food safety for all consumers of our food and promote a continuous improvement culture impacting the mindset and behaviours of our teams. You will co-ordinate a global network of specialists in food safety and utilise their expertise to deliver industry sector leading food safety standards and performance.

The successful execution of the role requires both strategic thought leadership and tactical implementation.  You will have the ability to navigate a complex organisation on a global scale and build relationships with senior level stakeholders.  Mindful of the different cultures and environments in which we operate, you will drive consistency and standardisation and be a strong and passionate leader who lives and breathes food safety. You will directly report into the Global VP HSE and have a dotted line into the Global SVP Food Platform with overall responsibility for our end-to-end food systems and processes.  Your ability to influence, engage and bring people together will be essential to your success.

Joining Sodexo as our Global Head of Food Safety will be rewarding, challenging and will open many doors of opportunity. You’ll be surrounded by a highly capable and technically skilled team and have the chance to work with some of our most talented leaders across the globe.

Role Responsibility

Service and Process Deployment

• Coordinate the development and implementation of global food safety initiatives and reporting
• Provide input/support to embed food safety best practices via global food safety standards that can be integrated into SOPs and the end-to-end ‘farm to fork’ processes
• Provide food safety technical support and coordination to other parts of Service Operations and Segments, such as Supply Management and Food Platform to enable the management of food safety risk
• Develop and improve food safety metrics for regional and global analysis and consolidation of performance.

Leadership, behaviour and culture

• Design global initiatives to improve food safety behaviours and culture.
• Lead, support and encourage global communications and sharing on food safety matters, best practices and incidents
• Represent and promote Sodexo externally for technical aspects of food safety with global client technical leaders, and internally with food safety stakeholders at the Group level.

Compliance and Improvement

• Monitor food safety risk on behalf of VP HSE: Identify the major risks and propose strategic responses.
• Support segments and regions by providing expert advice and guidance including for incidents of Group significance.
• Identify and encourage adoption of best practices by food safety stakeholders.

The Ideal Candidate

• Proven food safety leader with experience in multinational catering business.
• Ability to think and act strategically and at the same time be able to understand the details of the operations and coordinate implementation of key processes and tools.
• Influencing key stakeholders and senior leaders is essential to success as the role requires coordination of different internal stakeholders including, Food Platform, Supply Management, Segments, Regions.
• A pro-active, pragmatic, solution-oriented, and business-focused approach is essential for success
• This will be a highly visible and influential role within the organisation which will demand rigorous organisation skills, prioritisation and decision making abilities.

About the Company

In the UK and Ireland, Sodexo employs some 35,000 employees to deliver integrated facilities management services to clients at over 2,000 locations in the corporate, healthcare, education, leisure, Defence and justice sectors. With an annual turnover of over £1bn, we provide everything from catering, cleaning and reception to security, laboratory and grounds maintenance services, enabling our clients to focus on their core business.

Sodexo and our clients are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults within a regulated activity. Certain roles will require applicants to undergo screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and/ or Disclosure Scotland.

We are building on our support to the Armed Forces community through the development of specific pathways within our recruitment process to further engage ex-forces personnel and reservists.  Those applying for roles with us who meet the essential criteria advertised under the ‘ideal candidate’ on the vacancy advertised are guaranteed to progress within the selection process.