Quality Assurance Regional Manager-Midwest

Balchem Corporation•Bridgeton, MO

5d•Onsite

About The Position

The Quality Assurance Regional Manager-Midwest is a key member of Balchem’s corporate quality leadership team, based at the Defiance, Ohio or Bridgeton, Missouri site. The role ensures products manufactured across multiple sites are safe, comply with Balchem, customer, and regulatory standards, and meet quality expectations. It drives a culture of quality excellence through leadership, coaching, and cross-functional collaboration. The manager develops and oversees the regional quality team, strengthens cross-functional relationships, delivers food safety and quality training, and communicates goals and issues effectively. The role is accountable for the effective application of regional product safety, product quality, and prerequisite systems, including internal audits, root-cause analysis, corrective actions, and risk reduction. It works with R&D, production, commercial, and operational excellence teams on new products, processes, equipment, and customer launches, while supporting customer visits and external audits and sharing best practices across sites.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in science or a related field.
10+ years of experience in the food, supplement, or a related industry, including management experience.
Experience operating in an FDA-regulated environment; food or dietary supplement experience is preferred in the posting’s knowledge and experience section.
Familiarity with FDA, HACCP, SQF, and industry best practices.
Ability to lift 50 pounds and to stand, walk, sit, and reach.

Responsibilities

Develop and manage the performance of the regional quality team; motivate team members and build team strength.
Build cross-functional relationships and influence site strategy.
Develop a culture that drives quality improvements and interfaces effectively with operational excellence processes.
Develop and deliver food safety and quality training programs.
Communicate effectively with internal and external customers, including timely escalation of food safety, quality, and financial issues.
Cascade goals using tools such as SMART goals and align teams on standard work.
Ensure effective regional application of product safety, product quality, and prerequisite systems, including alignment with change control and commercialization processes.
Use root-cause tools to identify and eliminate causes or implement engineering and systems improvements to prevent recurrence.
Maintain an effective internal audit program, reduce risk, and ensure corrective actions are completed.
Drive priorities that positively affect key performance indicators, including inspection and compliance performance, first-pass quality, complaints, disposals, inventory health, customer responsiveness, CAPA closure and effectiveness, systems performance, and environmental and sanitation performance.
Ensure professional, timely, and appropriately scoped responses to customers, inspectors, and auditors.
Collaborate with R&D, production, and commercial teams to develop and prepare new products, processes, and equipment for production and support launches.
Ensure first-time-make processes assess probability of success and clearly communicate risks and proposed mitigations.
Interface with operational excellence programs to maximize effectiveness.
Support preparation for customer visits and external audits.
Share best practices and integrate quality systems across sites.
Assess and mitigate food safety, regulatory, and cost risks; apply sanitation principles and statistical process control for process evaluation and improvement.
Manage projects by prioritizing work and meeting deadlines.