Join a fast paced multi-million dollar food manufacturer of dips and spreads in the Mid-Atlantic States. Our client offers comprehensive benefits, a great company culture, and a diverse group of people who take ownership to create something awesome. They are committed to individuals ‘being at their best’ by bringing fresh ideas to the table and turning their passion for food into results that matter.

This role leads the quality assurance function for the company.  The incumbent should be well versed in the basics of food science, food microbiology, HACCP, allergen management, GMP’s, statistical analysis and process control, and food manufacturing regulatory laws and guidelines.  This person should have previous experience dealing with regulatory agencies and must be a process authority.  In addition to managing the Quality Assurance activities, this person will also provide advice, coaching, and mentoring of quality personnel in our international team.

Responsibilities

This role will be responsible for leading the team that will:

  • Create and implement food safety and quality strategic plan for the facilities in accordance with business goals and strategic plans.
  • Maintain raw material specifications for food ingredients/packaging and finished goods and creating new raw materials specifications and finished product specifications.
  • Develop consumer driven critical control points within the process to ensure optimal consumer quality.
  • Monitor incoming raw materials and finished products for compliance to specifications and develop action plans for any non-compliance issues with quality control and operations by leading the teams through problem solving and root cause analysis.
  • Monitor consumer complaint data and mitigate issues with a continuous improvement mindset.
  • Work with quality control and sanitation to monitor the processing environment and problem solve with operations and sanitation to resolve and eliminate problematic areas.
  • Manage and continuously improve the traceability and recall program for products
  • Manage 3rd party audits including AIB, regulatory agencies, Kosher certification, and customer certification.

Requirements:

  • Technical depth in quality, food safety, food chemistry, food microbiology, statistical process control, HAACP, allergen management, and GMP protocols.
  • Knowledge and experience with 3rd party auditing and certification programs including AIB, Kosher certification, and non-GMO Project Verified
  • Experience in setting and maintaining specification systems for raw materials (food and packaging) and finished products
  • Process control authority designation
  • Experience working with regulatory agencies including interfaces with FDA /USDA /state regulatory bodies and knowledge of basic food manufacturing regulations including FSMA.
  • Work experience in food manufacturing environments. Preferred prior experience in refrigerated or frozen RTE foods
  • Working knowledge of food science and food microbiology
  • Strong project management skills
  • Proven ability to work in cross functional teams
  • Strong interpersonal skills including influencing and creating alignment
  • Strong communication skills – written and verbal
  • Solid organizational skills including attention to detail and multitasking skills
  • Strong coaching and mentoring skills
  • At least 5 years of increasing responsibility in a quality assurance role
  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in food science, food microbiology, or other related science field

Top skills & proficiencies:

  • Managing projects including organizing and prioritizing resources and timeline management
  • Utilizing problem solving techniques
  • Communicating information in a clear and concise fashion across all levels – written and verbal
  • Intellectual curiosity
  • Business acumen including ability to understand financial metrics associated with COGS and productivity projects
  • Candidate must display strong leadership skills including above average ability to:
    • Influence others
    • Drive for alignment and decisions
    • Provide courageous leadership
    • Boldness in decision making

Staff and Budget

This position will have a team of 3 individuals of food quality professionals with varying levels of experience.

The incumbent will be responsible for planning and forecasting both department expense as well as project expense budgets and tracking costs to ensure compliance.

Travel

Some travel up to 30% may be required with this job.

Candidates must be able to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.

For more information, please contact Moira McGrath, OPUS International, Inc. at (954) 428-3888 or moira@foodscience.com