Quality Assurance Manager - Food Safety & Compliance

Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.; Monroe (WI); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. in Wisconsin Monroe is seeking a Quality Leader to manage the quality department, drive food safety, and ensure regulatory compliance across the facility.

You will work with plant operations to sustain a strong quality culture, lead investigations and CAPA, maintain audit readiness, and report KPIs to guide improvement. The role requires training staff on FSMA and regulatory requirements, plus collaboration across QA, sanitation, and production to uphold the

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in food science, biological sciences, or related curriculum
• 5 to 8 years of quality assurance experience in a food, beverage, or similar facility
• Demonstrated leadership attributes, team leadership, or supervisory experience; 1+ year of manager experience preferred
• Certification and/or License – PCQI, HACCP, SQF Practitioner certifications preferred; may be required during course of employment

Responsibilities

• Ensure daily plant quality and food safety operations are compliant with DFA policies and procedures and local, state, and federal regulations
• Maintain audit readiness
• Maintain a robust food safety program and subsequent quality program
• Escalate non-conformance events to the quality director and plant manager
• Oversee plant sanitation to drive a robust sanitation program
• Ensure the plant pest control programs are current, followed, and utilized to enable proactive maintenance
• Manage the facility’s change control program to enable robust risk assessment and decisions
• Ensure compliance to specification, manufacturing instructions, and preventive maintenance programs. Partner with operations to ensure preventive maintenance program is robust and adhered to
• Collaboratively lead investigations relating to non-conforming events driving to root cause(s) and effective resolution
• Manage hold and release programs
• Review records daily to ensure all records are completed as required and review/approval is current for preventive controls, laboratory, sanitation, production, and verification checks
• Track and report on plant quality key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Participate in the annual plant budgeting process
• Partner with the plant manager on identifying key capital projects that support food safety and quality initiatives
• Provide training to the plant personnel concerning food safety, FSMA, and regulatory compliance
• Provide quality leadership during unplanned events or emergencies
• Provide visible leadership by participating in facility walk throughs and internal audits
• Engage and interact with all personnel on a regular basis assisting them with their challenges and questions concerning food safety
• Collaborate with R&D during new/reformulated product introduction to ensure compliance with already established specifications and regulatory requirements
• Serve as the point of contact for customer related issues, complaints, or inquires
• Manage plant complaint investigations ensuring a thorough, effective, timely and customer facing response
• Monitor compliance to customer expectation and specifications; communicate any issues/concerns
• Maintain plant preparedness for customer and regulatory visits
• Manage all analytical and micro activities performed at the facility
• Oversee the development of laboratory practices to ensure accurate and precise quality control (QC) results
• Perform data analysis to identify critical trends or find leading indicators to enable proactive decisions
• Coordinate the collection and evaluation of raw materials and finished products
• Ensure the EMP is robust, and risk based with a search and destroy mentality applied. Determine root cause of failures and take the appropriate corrective action
• Escalate nonconformances to quality director and plant manager in a timely fashion
• Coordinate and supervise factory and external lab testing of samples; generate Certificate of Analysis (COA’s)
• Maintain the quality management system and ensure documents are up to date and comply to FSQ policies and standards
• Prepare plant specific work instructions as needed
• Ensure SSOP documents are robust and adhere to the sanitation standard
• Ensure all forms and work instructions are reviewed, revised, and updated annually
• Perform management activities such as administering employee promotions and transfers; conducting ongoing performance conversations; mentoring, training, and coaching employees
• Follow all DFA good manufacturing practices (GMP) and work in a manner consistent with all corporate regulatory, food safety, quality, and sanitation requirements
• The requirements herein are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employee, but is not a complete list of responsibilities, duties, and skills required. Other duties may be assigned as required

Skills

Quality leadership

Regulatory compliance

Data analysis

Audit readiness

Supervision

Education

Bachelor's degree in food science or related field

PCQI/HACCP/SQF Practitioner certifications preferred

Tools

Microsoft Office

Laboratory software

Job description

Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. in Wisconsin Monroe is seeking a Quality Leader to manage the quality department, drive food safety, and ensure regulatory compliance across the facility.

You will work with plant operations to sustain a strong quality culture, lead investigations and CAPA, maintain audit readiness, and report KPIs to guide improvement. The role requires training staff on FSMA and regulatory requirements, plus collaboration across QA, sanitation, and production to uphold the