Job Description

Senior FSQA & Culinary Assurance Lead - Global Events, Innovation & Foodservice
Hybrid - Leicester HQ / Flexible UK Base | Up to 50-65,000 + Car Allowance + Bonus + Excellent Package + career opportunities
Global Client | High-Growth Platform | Field-Facing, Strategic, Collaborative
Are you a food safety and quality leader who thrives outside the factory gates and inside restaurants, hotels, quick service restaurant chains, foodservice providers, hospitality, events or pubs? Do you have the operational pragmatism to embed best practice in kitchens, food trucks, fan zones, and concept restaurants-without ever pulling rank?
We're working exclusively with a global powerhouse-an instantly recognisable consumer brand with a bold and rapidly scaling "Away From Home" (AFH) strategy. This business is transforming how its products are experienced beyond retail-from pop-up eateries at Champions League finals to branded culinary activations at major festivals, sporting events, and premium QSR environments.
As part of this growth, they're hiring a Senior FSQA & Culinary Assurance Lead to join their European R&D function. The role will combine food safety oversight with strategic enablement, culinary credibility, and global stakeholder collaboration.
Why This Role?

• It's in a high impact culinary environment. This is food safety where the action is on the ground, in kitchens, at events, and in customer-facing culinary settings.
• You'll shape a global playbook. The FSQA toolkit is being built live and globally. You'll capture lessons from each activation and help define how this business assures quality at scale.
• Huge growth potential. AFH is doubling in size. This is a platform role with serious international visibility and future expansion.
• Flexibility baked in. Based from the East Midlands (Hybrid 1-2 days per week) but with travel across the UK and Europe (1-2 trips per month), the role offers hybrid working and a high level of autonomy for the right individual.

The Work You'll Lead

• Act as the food safety and quality voice for the AFH business across Europe-supporting innovation launches, culinary trials, and commercial activations.
• Embed safe and scalable practices across formats: pop-ups, ghost kitchens, QSR outlets, food trucks, event catering, and high-volume hospitality.
• Provide on-site and remote assurance during pilot launches, adapting to unfamiliar formats with commercial sensitivity and customer focus.
• Partner with culinary leads, R&D, marketing, legal, and operations to translate great ideas into safe, compliant, and delightful food experiences.
• Shape a global FSQA 'Playbook'-collating insights from activations and codifying tools, guidance, and risk frameworks for global rollout.
• Influence external vendors, event partners, and non-technical stakeholders with calm authority and real-world practicality.

What We're Looking For

• Degree educated, or equivalent work experience, gained in a FSQA environment
• Deep experience in operational food safety, preferably in complex multi-site or decentralised environments (QSR, contract catering, foodservice, hospitality, hotels, pubs, high-end hospitality, or major events).
• The ability to assess kitchens, menus, recipes and prep environments quickly balancing regulation, brand standards, and practical delivery constraints.
• Commercial fluency and stakeholder confidence-able to coach without commanding, and influence where you don't control.
• Culinary sensibility or back-of-house experience highly valued-you must speak the same language as chefs, not just auditors.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and capable of building frameworks from scratch in fast-moving environments.
• Strong communication skills across cultures, with the maturity to adapt your approach to suit chefs, marketers, scientists, and legal teams alike.
• Experience in brands like McDonald's, KFC, Compass, Sodexo, Aramark, Merlin, Costa, Whitbread or Pret would be highly relevant.

Ready to Join the Front Line of Global Food Innovation?
This is a rare opportunity to lead food safety and quality from the ground up-not from a desk or a lab. You'll help one of the world's most admired brands bring bold new formats to life safely, delightfully, and at scale.
To express your interest, contact our executive search team HPRtalent.