Sr Manager, Quality Assurance

The Sr Manager -Quality Assurance is responsible for leading the quality oversight of domestic food and beverage suppliers across assigned categories through product quality monitoring & audits, managing & resolving quality incidents, and creating & managing product specifications. Other responsibilities include assess processing capabilities of supply partners and develop & approve secondary products to match brand standards. This individual is personally responsible for the protein category (excluding poultry) and will have direct reports responsible for bakery and sauces/dressings across all brands.
RESPONSIBILITIES

• Product Matching: Manage all aspects of product matching within their own category and support direct reports.
  • Support cost savings initiatives by Supply Chain via product matching and commercialization. Provide technical expertise to internal and supply partners during production scale up and rollout.
  • Enable and support product cuttings with cross functional teams to ensure compliance to specifications. Validate products meet specified guidelines and marketing briefs across multiple product categories and brands.
  • Review and develop product specifications to meet regulatory and cultural religious requirements. Provide guidance to Operations during testing and implementation.

• Supplier Management:Responsible for monitoring supplier performance within their category and support direct reports with their areas.
  • Collaborate cross functionally on quality issue investigations and lead corrective action follow up and supplier communication related to quality issues as reported by restaurants.
  • Review product audit results to suppliers and validate and monitor corrective action plans.
  • Establish, implement, and maintain an Approved Products List and Product Catalogue by supplier utilizing QA database.
  • Manage Product Audit Program for assigned categories through oversight of 3rd party labs by conducting & reporting trend analyses of analytical and physical data.
  • Assist Crisis Management Team during Product Recall execution and response as assigned.

• Supplier Onboarding: Prepping and approving new suppliers for successful addition to the system and brands.
  • Review product audit results and supporting documentation to validate that this meet brand standards.
  • Develop and implement risk analysis procedures for new food items and ingredients to determine inherent product risk.
  • Develop and implement controls for identified hazards based on science and risk-based principles for identified products.

• Brand Support: Keep cross functional partners current with industry trends and opportunities.
  • Assist with monitoring of regulatory trends that may impact suppliers; communicate with suppliers as needed to track compliance.
  • Maintain current and accurate records of all relevant communications, product audit reports, production data, commercialization reports, and corrective action plans for all approved and potential suppliers.

• Category Optimization: Identify areas of opportunity within their own category and direct reports to enhance current quality programs and systems.
  • Enhance reporting across supported category. Work with direct reports to identify appropriate reporting and product testing across product portfolio.
    • Protein reporting to be established incorporating supplier data to best represent supplier performance.
    • Bakery reporting to be enhanced and expanded to represent supplier performance.
    • Sauces/Dressing reporting to be established to include third party testing of brand treasures and best represent supplier performance.

• Minimum 4-Year Degree in Food Science, Culinary, Biology, Microbiology
• 7 years Quality Assurance, food manufacturing, commercialization, food safety experience

• Multiyear experience in managing effectively the above listed areas of responsibility.
• People and results oriented.
• Bottom line management skills and strategic thinker
• Understanding of poultry and meat food safety preferred
• A strong understanding of food manufacturing for multiple product categories with in-depth understanding of food safety and statistical process control.
• A strong ability to match & commercialize products to existing brand standards.
• Strong ability to evaluate products via taste testing to validate all organoleptic attributes across all categories.
• Strong understanding of Federal food safety regulations
• In-depth understanding of Global Food Safety Initiative Audit Schemes
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail
• Excellent presentation and oratory skills