Head of Quality, Safety and Sustainability

About the role

Six Degrees is recruiting, on behalf of a well-established FMCG food manufacturer, a newly created Head of Quality, Safety and Sustainability. Reporting directly to the CEO, the role leads three managers and sets a 1, 3 and 5-year strategy across the portfolio, combining leadership-level strategy with hands-on involvement across national sites. The position is based in Melbourne's south-east with travel to local and interstate sites.

Key responsibilities

• Safety: raise safety standards and lead a cultural shift where safety is owned by everyone, growing the team and building a stronger ground-floor presence
• Quality: raise the profile of quality across multiple local sites and an overseas supplier network, focusing on prevention and maturing quality systems
• Sustainability: oversee responsible sourcing, packaging, waste water and modern slavery compliance
• Operational partnership: hold standards across factory operations while building trusted relationships with the COO and site leaders
• Growth readiness: ensure standards keep pace with expansion, new equipment and new sites
• Team leadership: support and structure a team of managers to take their functions to the next level

Required profile

• Food manufacturing background, essential, with strong technical grounding in food safety and quality
• Proven experience leading managers and delivering multi-year strategy
• Demonstrated success driving safety culture change in a manufacturing environment
• Confident cross-functional stakeholder management, able to hold operations to account while keeping relationships strong
• Approachable, supportive leadership style
• Interest in sustainability and ethical sourcing