Head of Food Innovations Technology & FSQA, Asia

About the Role

The Head of Food Innovation Technology & Food Safety Quality Assurance, KFC Asia, ensures consistent taste excellence, food safety, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance across Asia, partnering with markets, suppliers, distributors, and restaurants to protect the brand and enable growth through compliance while elevating the quality of food innovations and core menu execution. This role leads capability-building across the region and nurtures strategic relationships with Yum! China and Yum! Supply Chain to drive aligned standards, performance, and continuous improvement. The role is equal parts strategic and hands-on, requiring the leader to stay close to in-market realities and in-kitchen development.

Responsibilities:

• Set regional FIT & FSQA strategy for Asia in partnership with the KFC Global FSQA and Food Innovation lead; translate global standards into market-ready plans, priorities, and measures that drive taste excellence.

• Serve as primary FSQA partner for Yum! China and Yum! Supply Chain: build trusted relationships, align expectations and standards, and drive joint governance, risk reviews, and continuous improvement agendas.

• Lead Asia FIT & partner with local QA talent (BMU/market leads): as the APAC CoE Lead, perform capability assessments, development plans, and codify best practices to strengthen and elevate the quality of food innovations across KFC Asia

• Strengthen franchisee/licensee FIT & QA capability through standards deployment, scalable toolkits, playbooks, training frameworks, and verification routines; ensure consistent execution across diverse markets and operating models.

• Own regional performance management: track, analyze, and communicate key food safety and quality metrics (e.g., incident/hotline trends, assessments, audits, regulatory results, pest management, sensory targets) and lead corrective action follow-up.

• Partner with Operations and Supply Chain on restaurant food safety programs and Product Quality Excellence; tightening in-restaurant procedures that protect taste, improve consistency, and reduce complexity

• Provide FIT & FSQA leadership for new market entry and significant business change: validate readiness, required infrastructure, and escalation pathways.

• Ensure specifications are current, complete, and compliant with local regulatory requirements; partner with Innovation/Ops on product and process changes, ensuring guardrails are usable for markets and protect core menu quality

• Oversee supplier and distributor food safety and quality performance across Asia, including GFSI expectations, audit follow-up, and issue resolution in partnership with Yum! Supply Chain and market teams; work with Supply Chain team to validate supplier capability, expand the pool, and drive Spend Smarter choices without compromising taste.

• Lead and support crisis and incident response (product withdrawal/removal, investigations, supplier corrective actions), ensuring timely communication and learning to prevent recurrence.

• Represent Asia FSQA and FIT in regional supplier summits, technical councils, and cross-brand forums; leverage scale, share best practices, and address common challenges.

• Provide FIT & FSQA support to the SOPAC BU as needed, aligning on priorities and enabling consistent execution of brand standards.

• Support sustainability and consumer trust priorities (e.g., animal welfare, nutrition/menu labeling compliance, and sustainability delivery) in coordination with relevant functions.

Knowledge and Skills required:

• Education/Certifications – bachelor's degree required; advanced degree preferred (Food Science, Microbiology, Public Health, Supply Chain, or related).

• Experience – 10+ years in food safety/quality assurance and/ or Food Innovation/ R&D within retail/food service and/or manufacturing/supply chain, including multi-market or regional leadership.

• Deep working knowledge of HACCP, GFSI schemes, sensory standards, product technical foundations and commercialization at scale supplier auditing, specifications management, and incident/crisis management.

• Proven ability to influence without authority and align diverse stakeholders across functions and geographies; strong partnership approach with Yum China and Yum Supply Chain.

• Mindset: Strong hands-on bias for action; proven ability to get hands dirty in kitchens, supplier visits, and restaurant immersion.

• Business Acumen: Ability to balance taste, cost, complexity, and speed of execution (Spend Smarter mindset)

• Demonstrated people leadership: coaching, capability building, performance management, and succession/bench planning.

• Strong analytics and business judgment; ability to simplify complex issues into clear risk-based recommendations and executive-ready communication.

• Cultural agility and experience working in/with Asia markets; comfort navigating different regulatory environments and operating models.

• Travel – ability to travel approximately 25%–40% as business needs require.