Quality Manager - Fairfield, IL
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Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
Ferrara’s Fairfield, IL facility is seeking a hands-on Quality and Food Safety Manager to own site quality and regulatory compliance from raw materials to finished product release. You will drive standards, coach teams on GMPs, and coordinate audits to protect consumer safety.
The role requires strong technical judgment, collaboration across production, maintenance, and CI teams, and a results-driven mindset to sustain corrective actions and prevent recurrence.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in related field required.
- 7+ years of progressive manufacturing quality leadership experience; minimum 3 years in plant quality management.
- Strong GMP, HACCP, sanitation, environmental monitoring, SPC and process controls expertise.
- Experience with SAP and quality management/lab systems preferred.
Responsibilities
- Lead the Fairfield quality and food safety agenda from raw materials through finished product release.
- Maintain daily presence on the production floor to verify standards, coach behaviors, and drive accountability.
- Set clear expectations for GMPs, food safety, sanitation, allergen control, foreign material prevention, and product quality.
- Lead site readiness for internal audits, regulatory inspections, customer audits, and corporate assessments.
- Drive RCCA and CAPA to eliminate repeat failures and strengthen controls.
- Partner with Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Supply Chain and CI to solve issues at source.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
Our organization works with partner companies to source qualified talent for their open roles. The following position is available to Veterans, Transitioning Military, National Guard and Reserve Members, Military Spouses, Wounded Warriors, and their Caregivers. This role is 'On-Site' at the location detailed in the job post.
Due to the highly interactive nature of this manufacturing position, in-person attendance and flexibility are essential for supporting production schedules, effective communication and collaboration, real-time problem solving, and participation in cross-functional initiatives. Schedules may vary and are subject to change.
The Quality and Food Safety Manager is accountable for setting the standard for quality, food safety, regulatory compliance, and consumer protection at Ferrara's Fairfield, CA, factory – the home of Jelly Belly. This hands-on, floor-based position drives execution, builds capability, and sets the pace for the Fairfield operation.
This leader owns the site quality and food safety agenda from raw materials through finished product release, ensuring that systems and processes are not only documented, but consistently lived on the production floor. The role requires strong technical judgment, operational urgency, and the ability to influence manufacturing, maintenance, sanitation, planning, warehousing, and leadership teams to make the right decisions in real time.
This role is responsible for creating a culture where quality is non-negotiable, issues are escalated quickly, root causes are understood, and corrective actions are sustained. This leader must be comfortable challenging the status quo, stopping production when necessary, and coaching teams to prevent repeat failures.
- Lead the Fairfield quality and food safety agenda from raw materials through finished product release
- Maintain daily presence on the production floor to verify standards, coach behaviors, and drive accountability
- Set clear expectations for GMPs, food safety, sanitation, allergen control, foreign material prevention, and product quality
- Serve as the site authority for product holds, risk assessments, escalations, and dispositions
- Ensure compliance with company policies, FDA requirements, FSMA, HACCP/HARPC, GFSI standards, customer requirements, and regulatory expectations
- Lead site readiness for internal audits, regulatory inspections, customer audits, and corporate assessments
- Ensure traceability, mock recall, document control, change management, calibration, pest control, and product release systems are effective
- Lead investigations for consumer complaints, foreign material events, micro failures, labeling concerns, process deviations, and other site risks.
- Drive disciplined RCCA and CAPA to eliminate repeat failures and strengthen controls.
- Partner with Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Continuous Improvement to solve issues at the source.
- Use site metrics to improve holds, complaints, right-first-time, sanitation performance, audit results, release cycle time, and repeat deviations.
- Lead and develop the site FSQA team with clear decision rights, shift coverage, and accountability
- Build technical capability through coaching, training, floor-based verification, and practical problem solving
- Strengthen FSQA partnership with operators, supervisors, mechanics, sanitation teams, and site leaders
- Create a high-ownership team culture focused on prevention, execution, and consumer protection
- Act as a key member of the Fairfield site leadership team
- Bring strong food safety and quality perspective to operational decisions, capital projects, new product launches, commercialization, line trials, and improvement initiatives
- Challenge decisions when product safety, compliance, quality, or consumer trust may be at risk
Bachelors
- Strong operational acumen
- Collaboration skills and ability to influence cross-functional teams
- Strong communication skills with the ability to present, coach, and deliver information to employees at all levels
- Detail-oriented with ability to manage competing priorities
- Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Engineering, Microbiology, or related field required; advanced degree preferred
- 7+ years of progressive manufacturing quality leadership experience within food or consumer packaged goods manufacturing; minimum 3 years in plant quality management
- Strong expertise in GMPs, HACCP, sanitation, environmental monitoring, SPC, and process controls
- Experience driving cultural and operational transformation initiatives
- Experience with SAP, quality management systems, specification systems, laboratory systems, and manufacturing data systems preferred
At Ferrara, we're proud to support our employees with comprehensive benefits that enhance health, financial wellness, and include paid time off (PTO). Eligible employees may also receive an annual bonus based on company performance.
The salary range for this position is $102,075-142,905 annually.
Fairfield
Illinois
Management
Manufacturing Manufacturing
Ferrara
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