SANITATION MANAGER - LENEXA, KS

JOB SUMMARY

WHO WE ARE

About Fresh & Ready

Fresh & Ready Food Group is a fast-paced food manufacturing company focused on producing safe, high-quality products while fostering a culture of teamwork, accountability, and continuous improvement. Every role contributes to delivering exceptional products and supporting operational excellence.

WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS
The Opportunity
The Sanitation Manager leads the facility’s sanitation program, ensuring systems effectively protect Ready-to-Eat product safety, control microbiological risk, and maintain compliance with regulatory and customer requirements. This position provides leadership across sanitation operations, environmental monitoring, chemical management, hygienic design, employee development, and audit readiness.
Success in One Line: Ensure sanitation programs consistently deliver safe, compliant, and effective performance that protects product integrity and food safety.
 
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
What You'll Do
•    Lead and continuously improve the Master Sanitation Program.
•    Establish sanitation standards, SSOPs, cleaning frequencies, verification requirements, and accountability measures.
•    Manage and develop sanitation supervisors, leads, technicians, and associates.
•    Partner with Quality and Food Safety to oversee environmental monitoring and pathogen-control programs.
•    Analyze sanitation and microbiological trends; drive corrective and preventive actions.
•    Lead investigations involving environmental positives, ATP failures, and sanitation-related issues.
•    Ensure effective hygienic zoning, sanitation controls, and chemical management programs.
•    Partner with Maintenance and Engineering to improve hygienic equipment design and eliminate harborage risks.
•    Review facility and equipment changes for sanitation and food safety impacts.
•    Lead sanitation-related activities during USDA, GFSI, customer, and third-party audits.
•    Develop training programs and KPIs related to sanitation effectiveness, labor efficiency, environmental results, and compliance.
•    Manage sanitation budgets, staffing, succession planning, and overall department performance.
 
QUALIFICATIONS

•    Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
•    7+ years of sanitation and/or food manufacturing experience, including leadership responsibility.
•    Strong knowledge of Ready-to-Eat food manufacturing, microbiological controls, environmental monitoring, sanitation chemistry, and pathogen prevention.
•    Expertise in SSOPs, GMPs, HACCP, sanitation verification, ATP/allergen/protein testing, and root-cause analysis.
•    Ability to interpret environmental monitoring data, identify trends, and implement corrective actions.
•    Knowledge of sanitary equipment design, cleaning validation, USDA requirements, and sanitation operating costs.
•    Proven leadership, coaching, employee development, and performance management skills.
•    Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration abilities.

PREFERRED
•    Degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Food Safety, Engineering, Operations, or a related field.
•    Experience in Ready-to-Eat, USDA-regulated, meat/poultry, or other high-care food manufacturing environments.
•    Experience leading supervisors, leads, and hourly sanitation teams.