Head of Quality (f/m/d)

Planted combines proprietary structuring and fermentation technologies to produce meat from plant proteins, focusing on delicious taste, meaty and juicy texture, while only using clean ingredients. Planted is setting a completely new standard in the plant-based meat category, making it a healthy, delicious and sustainable choice for all. Truly better than meat from animals.

As Head of Quality, you will lead Planted’s quality organization across our sites in Kemptthal and Memmingen, as well as at suppliers and co-manufacturers. You will drive food safety, regulatory compliance, and continuous improvement while enabling innovation, strengthening our quality culture, and supporting Planted’s continuous growth.

This position is based either in Kemptthal (Switzerland) or Memmingen (Germany) and requires regular travel between both sites to maintain a strong on-site presence and close collaboration with local teams.

Your Mission:

• You lead and develop Planted’s Quality team across all aspects of food quality, food safety, and regulatory compliance.

• You ensure that product quality and food safety consistently meet Planted standards, IFS requirements, and applicable legal frameworks across our production sites in Kemptthal and Memmingen, as well as at suppliers and co-manufacturers.

• You strengthen and foster a strong quality culture throughout the organization.

• You continuously develop and optimize our Quality Management System to support our growing portfolio of products, technologies, production footprint, suppliers, markets, and customers.

• You ensure that quality standards, control systems, certifications, and compliance measures meet the requirements of existing and future customers and markets.

• You establish scalable processes and ways of working within the Quality team and across Operations, R&D, Commercial, suppliers, and customers to enable sustainable growth while maintaining the highest quality standards.

• You take full ownership of quality at our production sites, including customer, certification, and regulatory audits, as well as audits at suppliers and co-manufacturers.

• You build and expand expertise in quality and food safety topics, with a particular focus on fermentation technologies.

• You drive process optimization, automation, and digitalization initiatives, leveraging AI-powered tools where appropriate.

• You lead the organization through quality-related issues and crises and chair the crisis management team when required.

• You manage quality-related budgets and drive cost optimization initiatives without compromising quality or food safety.

• You lead or contribute to key quality and food safety working groups, including HACCP, Food Defense, and Food Fraud.

You:

• Hold a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Microbiology, Food Science, Food Technology, or a related field.

• Bring 8+ years of experience in Quality Management within the food industry, ideally across multiple production sites. Experience with plant-based meat, animal-based meat and fermentation is a plus.

• Demonstrate deep expertise in Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and Quality Management Systems; experience with fermentation processes and meat alternative products is a plus.

• Have proven experience managing quality incidents, audits, and stakeholder communication in complex environments.

• Combine strong leadership skills with the ability to balance operational excellence, continuous improvement, and transformational change.

• Adopt a customer-focused and service-oriented mindset paired with a pragmatic, solution-driven approach.

• Take ownership, work hands-on when needed, and thrive in collaborative and fast-paced environments.

• Make sound, risk-based decisions and communicate clearly and confidently, even in high-pressure situations.

• Bring an entrepreneurial mindset and a passion for scaling and professionalizing a fast-growing organization while building and developing high-performing teams.

• Communicate fluently in both German and English; additional languages are a plus.

• Flexibility to travel regularly between our production sites in Kemptthal (Switzerland) and Memmingen (Germany) to maintain a strong on-site presence and close collaboration with local teams.