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Salary: USD 150,000 - 170,000 / annual
UPSIDE Foods is the world's leading cultivated meat company, producing real meat from animal cells. The company has achieved FDA and USDA regulatory approval and commercialization milestones, with $600M+ in funding from investors including Cargill, SoftBank, Temasek, Tyson, and Whole Foods.
This role owns food safety and quality assurance across production operations, covering both FDA and USDA production. You will be accountable for the FDA Food Safety Plan and USDA HACCP plan, and will lead the design and implementation of an integrated quality management system being built from the ground up.
Key responsibilities include:
**Food Safety Systems:** Own the FSP and HACCP end-to-end—preventive controls, hazard analysis, critical control points, monitoring, verification, and reassessment under 9 CFR 417. Maintain Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures and verification programs under 9 CFR 416. Own the Environmental Monitoring Program including zone-based sampling design, trend analysis, and investigation/corrective action processes. Maintain preventive controls and food safety plans for FDA-regulated stages under 21 CFR 117. Own allergen control, sanitation chemical management, pest control oversight, and master sanitation scheduling. Lead recall readiness including mock recalls, traceability exercises, and hold-and-release procedures.
**Regulatory Compliance:** Serve as primary point of contact for USDA-FSIS in-plant inspection personnel and manage daily working relationships on the USDA production floor. Maintain the establishment's Grant of Inspection (GOI) and all attached conditions. Manage regulatory correspondence including responses to USDA Noncompliance Records and drive corrective/preventive actions. Own label review and FSIS label approval submissions. Lead FDA inspections and pre-market consultation activity for new cell lines, media formulations, and process changes. Track food safety regulatory developments in this emerging category.
**Quality Management System:** Lead design, documentation, and rollout of a quality management system conforming to FDA and USDA-FSIS standards. Build the documented information architecture—document control, revision control, record retention, and approval workflows. Implement risk-based thinking as working practice, including risk and opportunity registers tied to actual process decisions. Stand up the internal audit program: auditor training, audit schedule, execution, and finding closure. Establish the management review process as a decision-making forum.
This is a "working" manager role requiring daily presence on the production floor as much as at a desk, multi-tasking from basic and challenging floor issues to creating and reviewing all needed documents and data. This role is for building systems from scratch, not maintaining established ones.
Working conditions: On-site, daily presence in production areas. Expect to gown into controlled environments, work around processing equipment, and be available for occasional off-shift or weekend coverage during production runs, audits, or incidents.
**Requirements:**
- 10+ years of food safety and quality assurance experience in regulated manufacturing environments
- 5+ years in a management or lead role
- Deep knowledge of FDA food safety regulations (21 CFR 117) and USDA-FSIS regulations (9 CFR 416, 417)
- SQF Level 3 certification or equivalent GFSI scheme certification
- ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditor certification
- Experience taking an organization through initial ISO 9001 certification
- Background in cell culture, fermentation, biopharmaceutical, or other aseptic manufacturing environments
- Experience in a startup or scale-up moving from pilot to commercial production
- Familiarity with GFSI schemes (SQF, BRCGS, FSSC 22000)
- Statistical process control and data analysis capability
