RFC Quality and Process Improvement Supervisor

Grocery Outlet Career•Vancouver, WA

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

The RFC Quality and Process Improvement Supervisor is responsible for leading, standardizing, and strengthening quality execution across assigned distribution facilities. This role serves as the primary quality leader for each assigned site and is accountable for ensuring that food safety, quality, audit readiness, corrective action, and continuous improvement expectations are consistently met across both dry and refrigerated/frozen operations. This position oversees both QA Coordinators and QC Coordinators, bringing together two distinct but connected quality functions: prevention and root cause through QA, and detection, response, and verification through QC. The Regional Quality Supervisor ensures these functions operate as one aligned facility quality program with clear ownership, consistent documentation, timely follow-up, and measurable improvement. The RFC Quality and Process Improvement Supervisor serves as the designated SQF Practitioner for assigned facilities, supports SQF program execution, leads required internal audit activity, delivers site-level quality training, validates corrective and preventive actions, and holds facilities accountable for timely closure of audit findings, customer claims, internal nonconformances, and process gaps. This role reports to the Quality & Process Improvement Manager, with a dotted-line partnership to RFC and facility leadership at each assigned site. The Regional Quality Supervisor provides Quality & Process Improvement leadership with a trended, facility-level view of quality performance, including recurring findings, systemic risks, CAPA effectiveness, audit performance, and escalation needs. The role covers quality performance across both dry and refrigerated/frozen operations. In Southern California, where both are fully 3PL-operated, the Regional Quality Supervisor directly manages GO-employed QA and QC Coordinators onsite while driving facility-level quality execution through partnership with 3PL leadership. This role reports to the Quality & Process Improvement Manager.

Requirements

3-5+ years of experience in quality assurance, quality control, food safety, warehouse operations, inventory control, distribution, logistics, manufacturing, or a related field.
Prior experience leading, training, coaching, or supervising others.
Experience supporting audits, corrective actions, investigations, internal assessments, or compliance programs.
Strong working knowledge of GMPs, Food Safety, Food Defense, sanitation principles, and quality system expectations.
Understanding of root cause analysis, corrective and preventive action, verification, validation, and continuous improvement practices.
Ability to interpret audit findings, identify trends, evaluate evidence, and determine whether corrective actions are effective.
Strong analytical skills with the ability to review data from multiple sources and identify patterns, risks, and recurring issues.
Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to document findings clearly and present quality performance to leadership.
Ability to lead and develop a small team while also influencing operational partners outside of direct reporting lines.
Ability to hold others accountable in a constructive, professional, and solutions-oriented manner.
Ability to manage competing priorities across QA, QC, audits, claims, investigations, CAPAs, training, and facility support.
Ability to work effectively across both company-operated and 3PL-managed environments.
Ability to travel between assigned sites and support quality activity across shifts as needed.

Nice To Haves

SQF Practitioner certification preferred, or willingness to obtain within a defined timeframe.
SQF Practitioner certification.
HACCP, PCQI, internal auditing, food defense, food safety, or related certification.
Experience in food distribution, retail supply chain, warehouse operations, cold chain logistics, 3PL management, or manufacturing.
Experience working with refrigerated and frozen product handling requirements.
Experience managing customer complaints, store claims, nonconformances, or quality investigations.
Experience building reports, tracking CAPAs, analyzing trends, and communicating quality metrics to leadership.
Experience supporting multi-site operations.

Responsibilities

Lead the facility-level quality program across assigned sites, ensuring consistent execution of food safety, quality, SQF, GMP, Food Defense, sanitation, audit, and documentation expectations.
Directly oversee, coach, and support QA Coordinators and QC Coordinators, ensuring alignment between prevention and detection efforts.
Clarify roles, responsibilities, priorities, and performance expectations for coordinator-level quality team members.
Ensure QA and QC activities are connected through shared visibility, consistent communication, documented follow-up, and common quality objectives.
Support hiring, onboarding, training, coaching, and ongoing development of QA and QC Coordinator team members.
Promote a culture of accountability, prevention, continuous improvement, and operational ownership across assigned facilities.
Partner with facility leadership, RFC leadership, operations teams, and 3PL partners to prioritize quality risks, corrective actions, and resource needs.
Serve as the SQF Practitioner for assigned facilities, supporting implementation, maintenance, and continuous improvement of SQF systems.
Ensure site-level SQF requirements are understood, executed, documented, and sustained.
Perform SQF-required internal audits and ensure findings are documented, assigned, tracked, corrected, verified, and validated.
Support audit readiness for SQF, regulatory, customer, internal, and third-party audits.
Ensure consistent audit cadence, documentation standards, evidence collection, and follow-up practices across dry, refrigerated, frozen, company-operated, and 3PL-managed operations.
Conduct onsite audits, walkthroughs, facility assessments, gap assessments, and process reviews as needed.
Perform traceability exercises with internal warehouses and 3PL partners to verify recall readiness, inventory accuracy, lot control, and documentation effectiveness.
Identify and escalate food safety risks, compliance concerns, or repeated failures to the Quality & Process Improvement Manager and appropriate site leadership.
Deliver and reinforce training related to Good Manufacturing Practices, Food Safety, Food Defense, SQF expectations, quality procedures, audit standards, and general quality guidelines.
Ensure training is documented, current, role-appropriate, and effective across assigned facilities.
Support facility leaders in understanding quality expectations, audit findings, root cause requirements, CAPA timelines, and verification needs.
Provide guidance to coordinators and site teams on proper documentation, evidence standards, investigation quality, and escalation procedures.
Reinforce quality expectations across shifts and functions through coaching, observation, and follow-up.
Hold assigned facilities accountable for timely and effective closure of audit findings, nonconformances, ICARE cases, quality claims, internal observations, and corrective actions.
Review and validate root cause analyses submitted by QA and QC Coordinators to ensure causes are specific, evidence-based, and tied to the actual failure.
Review, validate, and monitor corrective and preventive actions to ensure they address root cause and reduce recurrence.
Verify completion of corrective actions and validate effectiveness after implementation.
Escalate overdue, ineffective, repeated, or high-risk CAPAs to Quality & Process Improvement and site/RFC leadership.
Ensure CAPA documentation is complete, accurate, and audit-ready.
Process ICARE cases tied to store-reported quality claims and facility-level quality concerns.
Lead or support investigations from claim intake through root cause identification, corrective action, verification, and closure.
Partner with assigned facilities, QA Coordinators, QC Coordinators, operations teams, and 3PL partners to gather evidence and determine appropriate resolution.
Identify trends in store-reported claims, recurring facility issues, product condition concerns, handling failures, temperature control gaps, and process breakdowns.
Ensure investigation outcomes are clearly documented and communicated to appropriate stakeholders.
Aggregate, analyze, and trend findings identified by QA Coordinators, QC Coordinators, audits, facility assessments, ICARE cases, store claims, internal observations, traceability exercises, and CAPA follow-up.
Identify recurring issues, systemic process gaps, facility-specific risks, and cross-facility improvement opportunities.
Provide Quality & Process Improvement leadership with a clear, trended view of facility-level quality performance.
Prepare quality summaries, trend reports, and performance updates for review by the Quality & Process Improvement Manager.
Ensure trended reports are reviewed and signed off by the Quality & Process Improvement Manager before distribution to facility, RFC, or operational leadership.
Recommend process improvements, standardization opportunities, training needs, and escalation actions based on data and field observations.
Support cross-facility alignment by sharing trends, risks, and best practices with Quality & Process Improvement leadership.
Serve as the quality point of contact for assigned 3PL-managed operations.
Directly manage GO-employed QA and QC Coordinators assigned to 3PL-operated sites, including Southern California.
Ensure GO quality employees working onsite at 3PL-managed facilities are aligned on audit cadence, documentation standards, investigation expectations, CAPA follow-up, and escalation protocols.
Ensure 3PL partners understand and execute required food safety, quality, audit, documentation, traceability, and corrective action expectations.
Monitor quality performance at 3PL-managed sites through audits, documentation review, investigation follow-up, trend analysis, coordinator input, and recurring partnership meetings.
Hold 3PL partners accountable through documented expectations, clear communication, follow-up, and escalation when needed.
Partner with 3PL leadership to resolve quality concerns, improve process control, and ensure timely closure of findings.
Recognize that authority in third-party-operated facilities includes both direct leadership of GO quality employees and relational/contractual influence with 3PL facility leadership.