Inventory & Quality Control Associate I

Philabundance; Philadelphia (Philadelphia County); On-site; USD 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Opportunity for training and certification

Supportive team environment

Job summary

Philabundance seeks an Inventory and Quality Control I Associate to manage inventory across its warehouses in Philadelphia. The role involves ensuring quality checks on food products, coordinating with various teams, and applying food safety standards. Candidates should have a high school diploma and at least one year of experience in inventory control. The position requires attention to detail and the ability to work in varying temperatures. Flexibility in scheduling and travel may be necessary.

Qualifications

• Requires a minimum of one year in an inventory quality-focused role.
• Must be able to review, accept or reject food products.
• Experience in moving frozen, fresh, and shelf-stable food products.

Responsibilities

• Ensure real-time inventory across all Philabundance warehouses.
• Investigate discrepancies in inventory reporting.
• Administer daily, weekly, and monthly cycle counts.

Skills

Strong attention to detail

Customer service skills

Ability to work in extreme temperatures

Ability to follow instructions

Education

High School Diploma or GED

Extended Degree in logistics or warehouse management

Tools

Forklift Certification

Pallet jack operation

Job description

The Inventory and Quality Control I (ICQC) Associate will work in an open warehouse environment and in a cooler/freezer to help review, assess and inventory perishable and non-perishable food products through Philabundance’s warehouse system. This position will coordinate with the Warehouse team to assess, track, and report on the inventory, quality of food received, and the integrity of the orders processed at Philabundance. This position also regularly coordinates with staff in the Transportation, Warehouse, Community Partnerships, and Food Sourcing teams to ensure appropriate metrics and goals are met.

The ICQC Associate I will oversee the flow of food from shipping and receiving through the repack area to distribution. Assessment of quality, condition, and any impact on inventory levels will be tracked for reporting and to provide suggestions to improve processes. ICQC Associates are also accountable for working as a collaborative team member by learning and understanding warehousing methods of storage, capacity, and food bank product/inventory flows while providing warehouse operational support to the operations team as needed and required.

The Inventory and Quality Control team must provide coverage for the warehouse key shipping and receiving times. The team may operate on a staggered shift schedule, with overtime/evenings/weekends as needed. The Inventory and Quality team needs to maintain flexibility in our working locations. Associates will be assigned in advance for the location with the priority need.

Accountability: reliable, honest, and transparent; regularly makes commitments and takes ownership of responsibilities.

Effective Communication: conveys information clearly, with respect and integrity, using a professional manner and the appropriate means and channels for audience and subject matter.

Agility: maintains efficiency in a changing work environment; adjusts effectively to work within new work structures, processes, requirements, or cultures.

Quality: Work is organized, accurate and neat. The employee displays a commitment to excellence, checks work and learns from mistakes and seeks feedback to improve quality as needed.

Engagement: contributes to the success of the organization by embracing teamwork, taking initiative on tasks and problem‑resolution, and seeking out learning opportunities.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Ensure real-time inventory at all Philabundance warehouses.
• Investigate and correct discrepancies in reported quantities and locations of all inventory.
• Instruct and administer daily, weekly, and monthly cycle counts throughout all Philabundance locations.
• Process inventory returns including Agency Returns and Credit Memos.
• Execute Inventory Kitting Process for repack projects as needed.
• Execute and complete inventory transfers.
• Ensure First In First Out standards are upheld through moving correct dates of perishable items into pickface.
• Post completed order picks at the end of each shift.
• Set up and maintain proper flow of inventory throughout warehouse storage aisles to best facilitate ease of order picking, food safety standards, and best weight distribution on order pick pallet.
• Determine high velocity movement items and create double pickfaces for these on warehouse floor as necessary.
• Provide warehouse and operations team with proper pallet in high racks to drop to warehouse floor picking location.
• Assist Inventory Control Manager in reviewing and audit procedures and SOPs of Warehouse and Operations team to find opportunities to improve processes and increase inventory accuracy.
• Execute and oversee recall process and procedures for warehouse.
• Support Safe Food standards, follow protocol for Food Defense Initiatives. Training provided in the first 30 days.
• Prepare order fulfillment documents and execute inventory transactions.
• Balance system inventory with warehouses actuals on a monthly basis.
• Adheres to inventory standards and submission timeframes outlined by Philabundance, Feeding America, Feeding PA, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the USDA, and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP).
• Audit picked pallets and report to Warehouse Supervisory Staff before shipping to agency partners to ensure integrity of order shipments.
• Assist with and participate in department cross training to provide IC/QC back‑up help as needed.
• Cultural awareness and expression; understands and respects how ideas and meaning are creatively expressed in a variety of cultures.
• Responsible for supporting and aligning with Philabundance Cultural pillars. Ensure communications, actions and interactions reflect a focus on People, Partnerships, Professionalism, and Progress.

Additional Duties:

• Appropriately log item journals on a timely basis, provide support creating item cards and changing of lot classifications.
• Provide support in monitoring IC/QC appropriate communications.

Note: This role requires the successful completion of a drug test and background check. Light travel is required for this role. If using company vehicles must meet requirements, must have a clean driving record and valid driver’s license.

Qualifications

Educational Achievement:

High School Diploma or GED preferred. Extended Degree in logistics, warehouse management, or business a plus.

Serve Safe Certification preferred. Must be able to certify within 30 days of hire.

Forklift Certification preferred. Must be able to certify within 30 days of hire.

Work Experience:

Experience in an inventory quality focused role, ideally one year. Must have the ability to review, reject or accept and track the status of food products including frozen, fresh, and shelf stable.

Experience moving food; frozen, fresh, and shelf stable.

Previous work in a team environment with deadlines, detail, safety, and large equipment.

Inventory, Shipping, and Receiving experience.

Previous experience with organization, shared goals, KPIs, and defined instructions.

Previous experience working within a defined operating system, follow directions, consistent placement, and tracking.

Required Skills and Abilities:

Ability to inspect, review and reach a decision on alignment with brand quality standards.

Strong attention to detail, tracking, and reporting.

Strong customer service skills; position interfaces with vendors, volunteers, and donors.

Ability to read, write and complete basic math to support inventory, space calculations and tracking as is needed.

Must be able to tolerate some extreme temperatures when moving food and products through inventory and shipping process.

Ability to handle multiple assignments simultaneously.

Ability to follow instructions, retain information and apply information, with minimal supervision.

Demonstrated ability to work independently and as part of a team.

Ability to work with people both on a team and cross‑departmentally.

Ability to work around and near mechanical machines at high volumes.

Preferred:

Ability to successfully operate large equipment safely.

Essential Job Functions:

Must have the ability to be available evenings, weekends, and take on extended hours as business demands.

Occasionally, must be willing to travel within and outside of the service area (employee can use public transportation, rideshare services, personal vehicle, or other means). Must be physically compatible with travel, office events, and meetings. Must have a valid driver’s license with a clean driving record to be eligible to drive Philabundance vehicles.

Bend, stop, crouch, climb, stand, sit, walk, and turn/pivot at times in extreme temperatures throughout an 8‑hour shift, 5 days a week.

Move/lower, push/pull and carry objects/parcels no greater than 50 pounds; when moving/lowering, pushing/pulling, and carrying objects/parcels greater than 50 pounds use 2 people or mechanical.

Move packages to heights above shoulder and lower to foot level.

Ability to work inside a freezer with a temperature in the range of -10 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit as well as in a humid warehouse.

Ability to operate pallet jack, both manual and power, and ride jack to load/unload trucks.

Reach, grasp, and maintain control of items and materials used to perform activities associated with delivering and picking up packages.

Perform additional tasks using simple hand grasp, fine hand manipulation, and reach associated with assigned tasks such as keying.

Maintain a work pace aligned by meeting or exceeding piece per minute/production standards.

Work in an environment that will contain variable temperatures and humidity, outside weather conditions, exposure to noise, dust/dirt, confined work areas.

Must meet all the applicable requirements as specified by OSHA.

See, hear, and speak with sufficient capability to perform assigned tasks and maintain proper safety conditions.

Maintain an acceptable work pace and align with required personal and team deadlines. Must meet goals.

Demonstrate cognitive ability to: provide direction as well as follow directions and routines, work independently with appropriate judgment, read words and numbers, concentrate, memorize, recall, identify logical connections and determine sequence of response, process proactively and identify near and long‑term future needs as well as evaluate problems and elevate/inform management as is necessary.