1st Shift Micro Lab Quality Technician

Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream•Tulare, CA

About The Position

The QA Technician performs raw-material and finished-product testing, monitors and verifies in-process inspections, and conducts standard microbial, chemical, analytical, physical, and sensory testing. The role maintains quality and food-safety records, executes Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), and helps ensure product quality, sanitation, housekeeping, and hygiene standards meet ready-to-eat requirements. The technician escalates quality or food-safety findings, communicates with peers and management, and supports factory quality-improvement initiatives. Microbiology duties include preparing samples and media; plating, incubating, reading, and recording results; verifying media supplies; conducting requested pH and other analyses; and maintaining the laboratory in accordance with good laboratory practices and applicable methods. The position also supports equipment calibration, pre-operational inspections, sanitation and operating audits, quality holds, biohazard-waste handling, environmental investigations, and inventory management. Accurate records, safe work practices, continuous improvement, and the company’s core values are integral to the role. The employee regularly works with and around others in a fast-paced environment that may be wet or humid, noisy, and around mechanical, electrical, and pressurized equipment. The role involves frequent exposure to nuts and other potential allergens. The stated pay rate is $26.44 per hour.

Responsibilities

Test raw materials and finished products, and monitor and verify in-process inspections.
Perform standard microbial, chemical, analytical, physical, and sensory testing.
Maintain logs and records, including non-conforming material, corrective-action, extended-run, environmental-result, and finished-product microbial records.
Execute applicable GMP, quality, and food-safety requirements and help maintain product, housekeeping, and hygiene standards.
Escalate quality and food-safety findings or incidents and communicate relevant information to peers, cross-functional teams, and management.
Support factory quality-improvement initiatives, including first-time-right and product-defect-reduction efforts.
Collect ICP book data from the mix room; order supplies as needed and track inventory.
Enter data into environmental trackers, Listeria treatment investigations, hygrometer spreadsheets, and heat maps, and develop focused PowerPoint presentations.
Complete equipment and pre-operational inspections to verify sanitation requirements.
Place out-of-specification materials or products on quality hold physically and in JDE, and communicate holds to supervisors and management.
Calibrate and use laboratory equipment, including pH meters, moisture analyzers, scales, thermometers, probes, and balances, according to internal control plans and regulatory standards.
Record product sensory, HACCP, SSOP, and other assigned checks.
Prepare, weigh, and blend samples; pipette sample solutions; label plates; prepare and verify media; incubate plates; read and record microbial results; and perform other analyses as assigned.
Sterilize materials and autoclave plates before disposal in accordance with applicable disposal requirements.
Maintain laboratory supplies, equipment, work areas, and retain samples; complete housekeeping and cleaning duties.
Track and manage calibration schedules, equipment records, corrective actions, and certificates of analysis.
Manage and document biohazard-waste activities, autoclave verification, and related corrective actions.
Follow safety policies and laboratory practices, maintain knowledge of biohazard and biosecurity procedures, and report unsafe behavior or near misses.
Follow up on sample errors, missing microbiology samples, corrective actions, and environmental swabbing.
Lead or support microbiology and environmental investigations, sanitation and operational audits, and lessons-learned activities.
Perform other quality-related tasks as needed.