JOB SUMMARY

Responsible for ensuring the property achieves and sustains full compliance with all Global Food Safety Audit (GFSA) requirements across every food and beverage operation. Leads the property’s HACCP and food safety management program and serves as the accountable subject matter expert for translating every applicable GFSA audit touchpoint into effective daily controls, assigned ownership, complete evidence, timely corrective action, and continuous operational readiness. Oversees compliance across GFSA Documentation, Facilities, Food Handling, Personal Hygiene, and General requirements, as well as the Global HACCP Plan, prerequisite programs, critical control points, monitoring records, validation, verification, and food safety culture. Partners with Culinary, Food & Beverage, Stewarding, Purchasing, Engineering, Human Resources, Loss Prevention, and property leadership to protect guests and Ladies and Gentlemen and to ensure that gaps are identified, corrected, verified, and prevented from recurring.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Microbiology, Public Health, Hospitality, Culinary Arts, or a related field; 3 years of experience in food safety, HACCP, quality assurance, hygiene, culinary operations, or a related professional area.
• Recognized food safety management certification required; HACCP certification strongly preferred. Certified Food Protection Manager, internal auditor, allergen awareness, or trainer certification is an advantage.
• Demonstrated knowledge of HACCP principles, prerequisite programs, Time/Temperature Control for Safety foods, allergen management, foodborne illness response, food safety records, internal audits, and corrective action management.
• Experience supporting or leading GFSA, brand-standard, regulatory, or third-party food safety inspections in a hotel, resort, restaurant, catering, or similarly complex food service environment.
• Working knowledge of Costa Rican food safety, sanitation, occupational health, waste-management, and public-health requirements applicable to hotel food and beverage operations.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills in Spanish and English, with the ability to train, coach, audit, document, and influence operational leaders and hourly associates.

CORE WORK ACTIVITIES

Leading HACCP and Food Safety Governance

• Leads implementation, maintenance, and continuous improvement of the property HACCP program, including hazard analysis, process flow review, prerequisite programs, CCPs, critical limits, monitoring procedures, corrective actions, validation, verification, and record keeping.
• Ensures the latest Global HACCP Plan, food safety procedures, required posters, forms, logs, and supporting records are current, accessible, controlled, and ready for internal or external review.
• Facilitates HACCP team routines, follows up on open actions, and escalates unresolved food safety risks to property leadership.
• Has the authority to immediately place food or ingredients on hold, reject incoming products, suspend unsafe food-handling processes, quarantine potentially affected products, and escalate conditions presenting an imminent risk to guest or Ladies and Gentlemen health directly to the Hotel Manager. Partners with the Executive Chef and appropriate property leadership regarding product disposition, operational suspension, and corrective action.

Owning GFSA Compliance, Audits, and Continuous Readiness

• Owns the property’s end-to-end GFSA compliance program and ensures every applicable audit requirement is translated into a clear operational standard, responsible owner, verification method, required evidence, review frequency, and corrective-action process.
• Maintains a current GFSA compliance tracker covering all applicable requirements within Documentation, Facilities, Food Handling, Personal Hygiene, and General audit categories; confirms applicability and retains supporting evidence when a local requirement supersedes a global standard.
• Conducts scheduled and unannounced internal inspections using the current GFSA audit content and sampling approach across kitchens, bars, restaurants, banquets, in-room dining, associate dining, receiving, storage, stewarding, waste areas, ice machines, docks, and food transportation points.
• Verifies that all audit-required documents and records are current, complete, correctly filled out, signed or initialed where required, retained for the applicable period, readily accessible, and supported by documented corrective actions for every deviation.
• Ensures sustained compliance with high-priority and point-bearing GFSA controls, including food safety training and management certifications; current foodborne illness procedures; pest prevention; HACCP A-1, A-2, and A-3 logs; cleaning schedules; allergen awareness and disclosure; refrigeration, freezing, cooking, cooling, reheating, hot and cold holding; sanitizer controls; handwashing; illness exclusion; and protection from contamination.
• Coordinates cross-functional readiness for GFSA requirements involving Engineering, Stewarding, Purchasing, Human Resources, Loss Prevention, and operational leaders, including facility condition, equipment performance, preventive maintenance, pest proofing, chemical control, associate training records, and employee health procedures.
• Creates and manages corrective action plans for all identified deficiencies, assigning responsibility and due dates, documenting root cause and evidence of completion, verifying effectiveness through reinspection, and escalating overdue, repeated, or high-risk items.
• Prepares leaders and Ladies and Gentlemen to demonstrate knowledge and correct practices during audit interviews and observations, including cooking temperatures, handwashing, allergen controls, illness reporting, sanitation, and corrective-action requirements.
• Leads audit-day coordination, supports the review of records and operational areas, provides accurate evidence, tracks findings in real time, and coordinates the formal response and closure process after the assessment.
• Reports GFSA readiness, open gaps, recurring findings, completion status, and risk trends to property leadership, maintaining year-round readiness rather than preparing only immediately before an audit.

Controlling Time, Temperature, and Critical Records

• Verifies proper completion and retention of key food safety records, including receiving logs, HACCP A-1 temperature logs, A-2 cooling logs, A-3 refrigerator/freezer logs, thermometer checks, calibration records, TPHC records, thawing logs, and corrective action logs.
• Monitors compliance with food receiving, cold holding, hot holding, cooking, reheating, cooling, freezing, thawing, transport, buffet, room service, and off-site catering requirements.
• Confirms that out-of-range temperatures, incomplete logs, missing corrective actions, and equipment failures are investigated, corrected, documented, and followed to closure.

Managing Prerequisite Programs and Operational Controls

• Oversees food safety prerequisite programs, including personal hygiene, employee illness reporting, handwashing, allergen controls, supplier approval, receiving, food storage, FIFO/FEFO, pest prevention, waste management, chemical control, water and ice safety, calibration, sanitation, and preventive maintenance.
• Partners with Stewarding and Engineering to verify dish machine performance, sanitizer concentrations, pot sink compliance, ice machine cleaning, exhaust hood cleaning, equipment condition, ventilation, drains, floors, walls, ceilings, storage areas, and pest-proofing.
• Coordinates with Purchasing and Culinary to ensure approved suppliers, supplier documentation, product specifications, shellfish tag retention, lot traceability, receiving criteria, and product rejection processes are properly managed.
• Liaises with the company’s environmental and microbiological verification program and supports its implementation at the property by establishing and coordinating risk-based verification, as applicable, for potable water, ice, food-contact surfaces, ready-to-eat foods, high-risk food production, and microbiological verification following significant sanitation concerns. Coordinates laboratory result trending and corrective actions following unacceptable results.
• Reviews new food and beverage concepts, equipment, and facility projects from a food-safety perspective and provides food-safety approval within the scope of the role. Identifies equipment and facility deficiencies presenting recurring or significant food-safety risks and prepares evidence-based recommendations for repair, replacement, or capital investment in partnership with Engineering, Culinary, and property leadership.

Allergen, Guest Safety, and Incident Response

• Maintains allergen management controls, including menu and ingredient information, allergen awareness training, prevention of cross-contact, signage, guest communication protocols, dedicated tools where required, and incident response.
• Leads the initial response and documentation for suspected foodborne illness, allergen incidents, contamination concerns, recalls, foreign material findings, vomitus events, glass or brittle plastic breakage, and other significant food safety events.
• Preserves evidence, supports product isolation, coordinates sampling or laboratory review when required, completes root-cause analysis, and tracks corrective and preventive actions.
• Serves as a member of the property crisis-response team and participates in implementing emergency and business-continuity food-safety procedures for extended power outages, potable-water interruptions, boil-water advisories, sewage or drainage events, major refrigeration failures, hurricanes or severe weather, pest infestations, chemical contamination, major food recalls, and multiple simultaneous illness complaints.
• Coordinates mock recalls to verify product traceability and evaluates performance to identify and address gaps in recall readiness.

Training, Coaching, and Food Safety Culture

• Develops, coordinates, and verifies food safety, HACCP, hygiene, allergen, temperature control, receiving, cleaning and sanitizing, employee health, and outbreak response training for leaders and food handlers.
• Coaches leaders and Ladies and Gentlemen to understand their role in protecting guests, reporting concerns, following documented controls, and maintaining daily food safety discipline.
• Maintains training registers, certifications, refresher records, competency checks, and follow-up plans for gaps identified during audits or inspections.

Reporting, Analysis, and Continuous Improvement

• Prepares food safety dashboards, audit summaries, inspection results, corrective action updates, trend reports, and management review inputs for property leadership.
• Tracks and reports measurable food-safety indicators, including GFSA audit performance and readiness; 100% closure of critical food-safety findings within established deadlines; a target of at least 95% closure of routine corrective actions by their due date; 100% food-handler food-safety training completion; and 100% compliance with required manager certifications.
• Monitors HACCP record completion and verification, reduction of repeat audit and inspection findings, internal inspection performance by outlet, allergen incidents, foodborne illness and guest complaint trends, pest-control trends, temperature-control deviations, mock recall performance and traceability, and timeliness of incident investigations and corrective and preventive action (CAPA) closure.
• Uses observations, audit scores, guest feedback, complaint data, log reviews, incidents, and sampling results to recommend preventive controls and improve execution.
• Maintains organized, accurate, confidential, and inspection-ready food safety records in accordance with brand, regulatory, and document retention requirements.

Every day, we set the standard for rare and special luxury service the world over and pride ourselves on delivering excellence in the care and comfort of our guests.

Your role will be to ensure that the “Gold Standards” of The Ritz-Carlton are delivered graciously and thoughtfully every day. The Gold Standards are the foundation of The Ritz-Carlton and are what guides us each day to be better than the next. It is this foundation and our belief that our culture drives success by which The Ritz Carlton has earned the reputation as a global brand leader in luxury hospitality. As part of our team, you will learn and exemplify the Gold Standards, such as our Employee Promise, Credo and our Service Values. And our promise to you is that we offer the chance to be proud of the work you do and who you work with.

In joining The Ritz-Carlton, you join a portfolio of brands with Marriott International. Be where you can do your best work, begin your purpose, belong to an amazing global team, and become the best version of you.