Founded in San Antonio, Texas, in 1952, Church's Texas Chicken® is a highly recognized brand name in the Quick Service Restaurant industry and is one of the largest quick service chicken concepts in the world. Church's Texas Chicken serves up a rich tradition of gracious Southern hospitality and freshly prepared, high quality, authentic home-style fare, to help people provide affordable, complete meals for their families. Church's menu includes its world famous Original and Spicy chicken, Tender Strips® and chicken sandwiches with classic sides and hand-made from scratch honey-butter biscuits. The Church's system consists of more than 1400 locations in 25+ countries and system-wide sales of $1.8 billion. Throughout the world the company operates two brands: Church's Texas Chicken and Texas Chicken.
Role: Senior Manager Quality Assurance & Commercialization – EMEA (Texas Chicken)
Location - EMEA, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Egypt
Senior Manager Quality Assurance & Commercialization role plays a critical role in ensuring all food products meet brand standards, regulatory requirements, and operational expectations across the international food service supply chain. This role leads end‑to‑product commercialization—from feasibility and formulation through scale‑up, validation, and market launch—while maintaining rigorous quality assurance oversight of suppliers, processors, and finished products.
The position is responsible for developing and maintaining manufacturing ready product specifications, validating supplier capability, overseeing food safety and QA programs, and supporting continuous improvement initiatives that drive quality, consistency, and cost efficiency. The role partners closely with R&D, Supply Chain, Procurement, and Operations to ensure products are commercially viable, process‑capable, and operationally executable in restaurants. Additionally, the role provides subject‑matter expertise in food safety, regulatory compliance, and product performance to support successful new product introductions, Limited Time Offers (LTOs), new market entry, and ongoing category optimization.
Primary Responsibility: Quality Assurance & Supplier Plant Compliance
- Oversee supplier and processor plant compliance for all product categories, ensuring facilities meet standards for food safety, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance.
- Conduct routine and risk-based facility audits, including GMP, GHP, HACCP, traceability, sanitation practices, and overall operational readiness.
- Monitor supplier performance using KPIs, monthly finished good QA reports, complaint data, foreign material incidents, yield/product specification deviations, and plant-level corrective action performance.
- Maintain and update approved supplier lists for all processor-level ingredients including suppliers in-process, on probation, or under increased monitoring.
- Validate and track Halal certification compliance, ensuring suppliers maintain certification.
- Conduct product evaluations (sensory, physical, microbiological, and shelf-life) through internal and third-party laboratories, ensuring compliance with specification tolerances and regulatory expectations.
- Maintain QA tools including production guidelines, cut sheets, spec-support documents, grading tools, KPI templates, and evaluation calendars.
- Support market visits by conducting product quality reviews, equipment validation checks, temperature monitoring, and restaurant-level food safety assessments.
New Product & LTO Commercialization – Responsibilities
End‑to‑End Commercialization Leadership
- Lead full commercialization workflow for new products and Limited Time Offers (LTOs), ensuring concepts move from ideation to market‑ready execution with consistent quality, cost control, and operational feasibility.
- Translate R&D concepts into commercially viable products by finalizing specifications, Bills of Materials (BOMs), quality parameters, processing limits, and packaging requirements.
Feasibility & Capability Assessment
- Conduct feasibility reviews with suppliers and processors to confirm production capability, raw material sourcing, yields, and scalability.
- Evaluate plant readiness through capability assessments, equipment fit reviews, and trial planning.
Pilot Runs, Scale‑Up & Validation
- Lead pilot tests, first production runs, and scale‑up activities to validate product performance, processing behavior, and food safety compliance.
- Document findings, identify risks, and implement corrective actions to ensure process capability and repeatability.
Specification & Documentation Development
- Develop and maintain all commercialization documentation including:
- Final product specifications
- Technical data sheets
- Production guidelines
- Cut sheets and portioning guides.
- QA control points and testing standards
- Ensuring specifications reflect brand standards, regulatory requirements, and operational needs.
Cross-Functional Alignment & Timeline Management
- Manage end‑to‑end commercialization timelines across R&D, Supply Chain, Procurement, Marketing, and Operations to ensure on‑time launch.
- Facilitate alignment meetings, track milestones, and maintain clear communication with all stakeholders throughout development.
Production & Validation
- Attend production trials for all key product categories to validate yields, sensory attributes, food safety parameters, and spec adherence.
- Conduct restaurant‑level validation, including cook‑and‑hold testing, equipment checks, and operational execution to ensure product performance in real conditions.
Quality & Food Safety Integration
- Review QA paperwork, and KPI reports to ensure ongoing product stability during and after launch.
- Support development of corrective and preventive actions when deviations are identified.
Training & Operational Support
- Support Operations and Training teams by developing product handling guides, cooking protocols, station job aids, and LTO implementation training materials.
- Provide food safety guidance to ensure compliance during product rollout.
Supplier Engagement & Continuous Improvement
- Partners with suppliers to refine formulations, improve yields, enhance quality consistency, or address challenges identified during commercialization.
- Lead post‑launch reviews to capture learnings and drive continuous improvement for future product introductions.
Core Competencies for a Quality Assurance & Commercialization Role
1. Managing Execution
- Effectively prioritizes multiple projects and tasks, using goals to guide actions and detailed planning.
- Organizes and schedules people, timelines, and resources to meet business objectives.
2. Critical Thinking
- Analyzes complex issues objectively, evaluating alternatives using data, observation, and experience.
- Approaches problems systematically to drive sound business decisions.
3. Influencing Others
- Persuades cross‑functional partners in positive or challenging circumstances.
- Responds effectively to objections and communicates ideas with tact.
- Acts proactively, addressing opportunities and issues without waiting for direction.
- Demonstrates enthusiasm, ownership, and a continuous‑improvement mindset.
5. Persuasion & Negotiation
- Use data, facts, and structured arguments to influence decisions.
- Maintains open‑mindedness during discussions and drives toward mutually beneficial (win‑win) outcomes.
6. Relationship Management
- Builds strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
- Demonstrates credibility, manages conflict professionally, and contributes to a positive team culture.
7. Problem Solving
- Identifies appropriate actions to resolve technical and strategic QA challenges.
- Utilizes analytical skills to influence diverse groups toward aligned solutions.
8. Project Management
- Demonstrates advanced project management skills and manages multiple initiatives simultaneously.
- Closes projects on schedule with minimal supervision while navigating complex scopes.
- Works through complex, multi‑factor problems using structured evaluation.
- Understands business trends and applies operational policies to select the right methodologies.
- Develops and administers project schedules and performance requirements.
Education
Bachelor's Degree from an accredited international university with a minimum of 5 years in direct experience in Food Science, Food Technology, or Business with technical experience in food manufacturing
Physical Requirements:
- Employees must be able to perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.
Travel
- Fifty percent within the Middle East and Northern Africa countries
