Food Safety & Quality Specialist
Job Location: Trabzon
About the Role:
At Ferrero, we are committed to delivering quality in everything we do. To ensure consistent standards for our consumers and maintain their trust, we prioritize safety and traceability at the highest level.
As a Food Safety and Quality Specialist, you will oversee procedures and guidelines related to food safety, ensuring optimal quality measures within the plant. In addition to these responsibilities, you will manage all laboratory operations—including physical, chemical, and sensory analyses—while ensuring compliance with documentation and standards.
This role reports directly to the Plant Food Safety & Quality Manager and is based in Trabzon, home to one of our hazelnut plants.
Main Responsibilities:
- Establish and enforce rules aligned with Ferrero Corporate Quality standards and external regulatory bodies to ensure full product traceability and timely identification of quality-related issues
- Develop, maintain, and continuously improve the Food Safety Management System in compliance with FSSC 22000, BRC, and Ferrero standards, ensuring certification is upheld in collaboration with Corporate Quality
- Design and regularly update HACCP plans using risk-based analysis methodologies.
- Conduct validation and verification activities for preventive controls to ensure their effectiveness
- Implement and monitor corrective and improvement actions based on audit findings and nonconformities
- Identify and manage Quality-related Opex/Capex requirements, overseeing the PR/PO processes accordingly
- Oversee all laboratory operations—including physical, chemical, and sensory analyses—ensuring compliance with documentation standards and initiating corrective actions when necessary.
- Ensure timely and accurate entry of laboratory results into digital systems
- Perform and report analyses on nonconforming or returned products, incoming raw materials, and final product inspections
- Coordinate activities with external laboratories and manage supplier evaluations, while ensuring proper inventory control and storage of laboratory materials
- Ensure regular maintenance and calibration of laboratory equipment to prevent operational delays or customer complaints
- Review and evaluate periodic records related to production, sanitation, GMPs, and food safety practices
- Lead external food safety audits and inspections, act as an internal auditor, prepare audit reports, and ensure timely closure of corrective actions
- Conduct root cause analyses for customer complaints within your scope and ensure effective implementation of corrective actions
About You:
- Bachelor’s degree, preferably in Food Engineering
- Preferably +5 years of experience in a related department
- Hands-on experience in quality systems and operations, with strong knowledge of HACCP, BRCGS, and FSSC 22000 standards
- Strong analytical and organizational capabilities, with a proactive, solution-oriented mindset
- Effective communication and presentation skills, with the ability to deliver engaging training sessions
- Skilled in managing multiple tasks while meeting deadlines
- Proficient in SAP and related digital systems
- Fluent in both written and spoken English and Turkish
Our Benefits & Perks:
Careers with caring built in - discover our benefits here.
About Ferrero:
Ferrero began its journey in the small town of Alba in Piedmont, Italy, in 1946. Today, it is one of the world’s largest sweet-packaged food companies, with many iconic brands sold in countries all over the world. Find out more about Ferrero at ferrero.com.
DE&I at Ferrero:
Ferrero is committed to building a diverse and inclusive culture in which all employees feel welcomed and appreciated and have the same opportunities. We believe all our people are equally talented in their own way. In nurturing the curiosity and natural abilities of our employees, we provide them, generation after generation, the means to succeed personally and professionally, enabling them to craft their journey at Ferrero. The diversity of our talents is what makes our work environment multicultural, innovative, and highly rewarding.
Find out more here.