Quality Lab Technician

MGP Ingredients•Atchison, KS

About The Position

MGP Ingredients is a leading supplier of premium distilled spirits and food ingredient solutions. Its Distilling Solutions segment provides bourbons, whiskeys, ryes, gins, and vodkas to craft and multinational brands. MGP's own Branded Spirts business is growing following the 2021 acquisition of Luxco, a top spirits producer, bottler, supplier, and importer as well as the 2023 acquisition of Penelope Bourbon, known for its wide range of uniquely blended expressions. Ingredient Solutions delivers nutritional, functional wheat- and pea-based ingredients aligned with consumer trends. The company operates in locations across the Midwestern U.S., and overseas in Northern Ireland and Mexico. THE OPPORTUNITY: To make raw material and product acceptance or rejection decisions. To schedule, prepare, and conduct appropriate analyses of samples in a timely, accurate, and cost-effective manner according to the written laboratory methods, quality control standards, good laboratory and safety practices and procedures to determine that ingredients and finished products meet specifications. To accurately document test results and enter those in the Enterprise Resource Program (SAP) to ensure adherence to customer and internal specifications in support of the company’s quality program within all strategic platforms.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in chemistry, biology, cereal science or related field preferred
Knowledge of laboratory instruments, sensory evaluation experience, good laboratory practiced (GLP) training, and Dangerous Goods training (HAZMAT shipping)
Ability to be a service provider to Operations and Customer in support of sales
Ability to accurately analyze samples and make disposition decision
Ability to effectively organize sample workload and prioritize analyzed
Ability to effectively communicate verbally and in writing to all departments.
At least on year of basic laboratory techniques preferred.
Previous experience with a quality management system is highly desired.

Responsibilities

Make acceptance or rejection decisions for finished products and raw materials.
Conduct necessary testing, including microbiology, on all products before shipment to ensure material is within specified parameters.
Execute necessary daily testing in all areas to assist all managers and / or operators.
Inspect sifter overs samples from the warehouse to ensure foreign objects are not in the packed product causing possible adulteration.
Prepare reagents, standards, check samples and media, following Good Laboratory Practices, to support laboratory and plant activities.
Monitor inventory of consumables and report needed items to supervisor to ensure there is always a sufficient supply.
Assist in the disposal of retained line and batch samples followed by cleaning of storage containers to recycle for continued use.
Perform daily housekeeping tasks necessary for efficient and accurate laboratory operation.
Manage and maintain laboratory supplies, instruments and equipment to provide maximum, accurate and safe output to meet data deadlines.
Collect environmental samples to evaluate adequate microbial environmental control in support of all strategic platforms (as assigned).
Review and retain incoming raw material, chemical certificates of analysis, and other quality documents.
Perform routine maintenance on all laboratory instruments to ensure accurate results.
Oversee the instruments in the plant areas to ensure that the production results will be accurate as the product is being produced.
Interpret and document daily check sample and audit results to maintain instrument integrity.
Create a clean laboratory environment for the continued maintenance of instruments, many of which are sensitive to dust.
Request maintenance services (internal or external to MGPI) for proper sustainability of equipment operations when needed (as assigned).
Distribute needed testing solutions to plant areas for accurate test results of production material.
Assist Research and Development with testing to aid in new product development or formula changes and upon request from production managers.
Execute training of plant and laboratory personnel to ensure quality of in-plant and laboratory testing.
Coordinate with operators and managers to troubleshoot production quality problems and help find a solution.
Complete the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations training course to ship hazardous samples.
Participate in MGP’s safety process to ensure that all employees are working safely and in a safe environment.
Complete internal auditor training if needed to assist with finding items or areas of the facility that need improvements made.
Verify FedEx and UPS charges and assign costs to the correct department.
Post test results in SAP, Infinity, and to other agreed-upon test result reporting methods for internal use.
Track incoming flour by recording all COA data on a spreadsheet and entering that data into an Excel spreadsheet.
Report results that are out of specification to necessary individuals to ensure no product is shipped to a customer when not approved.
Generate COAs for customers, customer service or sample department that are printed through SAP or generated in Word format.
Generate Glico COA information in a special spreadsheet and send COA data when product ships (as assigned).
Maintain and store plant quality records for easy access of results.
Create a retain sample of every product for shipment for use if needed for further analysis.
Provide pre-shipment samples to customers (ex: Glico, Itochu,) to receive approval for shipment (as assigned).