Country Lead - Food Quality & Compliance

Americold is a global provider of temperature-controlled infrastructure. We partner with farmers and food producers to ensure their perishable and frozen product reaches food suppliers, restaurants, and your local grocery store without spoilage. Our customers, which include some of the most respected brands in the food industry, rely on our expertise and commitment to safety in order to delivery on their commitments.

Country Lead Food Quality & Compliance

Goal

As Country Lead Food Quality & Compliance you will lead the food safety and quality compliance agenda across our Dutch sites. You are the subject matter expert and regional lead for food quality systems, certifications, audits, and compliance, supporting site teams while holding functional accountability for the implementation and continuous improvement of food quality standards.

This role ensures that legal, regulatory, and customer requirements are consistently met across all sites, fostering a proactive food safety culture and enabling operational teams to succeed within a structured compliance framework.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate the deployment of food safety and quality systems across the sites, ensuring alignment with BRC, IFS, HACCP, and legal standards.
• Own and continuously improve the Quality Management System, including policies, processes, and document control for food safety compliance.
• Prepare for and lead site support for internal and external audits (e.g. certifications, customer visits, regulatory inspections), ensuring readiness and consistent outcomes.
• Act as the main point of contact for certification bodies, customers, and local authorities on all food safety and quality matters.
• Champion a culture of food safety by delivering training, coaching, and awareness programs across all levels of the organization.
• Lead root cause analysis and corrective/preventive action plans in response to incidents, customer complaints, or audit findings.
• Monitor microbiological trends, pest control measures, hygiene standards, and validation of key food safety processes across sites.
• Maintain oversight of required permits, licenses, certifications, and site documentation to ensure continued operational compliance.
• Partner with local EHS teams to support safe working practices in food storage and handling, aligning quality and safety objectives.
• Collaborate with operational site leaders to integrate quality compliance into day-to-day processes without assuming direct site ownership.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Food Science, Food Safety, or a related field.
• Minimum of 5 years' experience in food safety and quality roles, ideally within cold chain logistics, food manufacturing, or distribution environments.
• Strong working knowledge of HACCP, IFS, BRC, and regulatory food safety requirements.
• Proven experience leading or coordinating multi-site certification audits and QMS implementation.
• Strong influencing skills with the ability to lead without direct authority and drive performance across functions.
• Experience engaging with external stakeholders including customers, authorities, and certification bodies.
• Excellent communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Proficiency in Dutch and English, both written and verbal.
• Willingness to travel between sites (approximately 40-50%).