Senior Manager, Quality Assurance
About The Position
The Senior Manager, Quality Assurance – Uncrustables leads quality assurance efforts across three sandwich manufacturing facilities and an R&D pilot plant. The role ensures Frozen Handheld & Spreads plants meet company food safety and quality standards, regulatory requirements, and customer requirements. It balances strategic oversight with hands-on project execution and calls for adaptability, attention to detail, and leadership through influence. The position serves as the primary liaison between Corporate QA and Uncrustables manufacturing facilities, provides technical support to plants and R&D, and leads quality improvement, audit, compliance, and corrective-action work. It also develops and mentors plant QA managers and their teams and has one salaried direct report. The role is based in Orrville, Ohio, with a hybrid arrangement requiring onsite work at least nine days per month, primarily during company-designated core weeks. It may require additional onsite work as business needs dictate, travel up to 35% annually, flexibility outside core hours, and typically 45 or more hours per week, including on-call availability.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree.
- Seven years of progressive quality and food safety experience.
- Two years of experience in a manufacturing setting.
- Experience working with at least two distinct product types.
- Demonstrated people-management experience with small- to mid-size teams.
- Ability to lead and work in a cross-functional, team-oriented environment.
- Strong knowledge of quality assurance, food manufacturing, packaging, processing, and distribution.
- Knowledge of USDA HACCP, FDA FSMA, and GFSI (BRCGS).
Nice To Haves
- Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Biology, Microbiology, or a related scientific field.
- Previous experience in low-moisture ready-to-eat (RTE) foods; strongly preferred.
- Previous experience in bread manufacturing, with a focus on bread quality.
- Strong quantitative and qualitative assessment and critical-thinking skills, including the ability to constructively challenge ideas and assumptions.
- Proven project-management capabilities and ability to lead multiple concurrent projects.
- Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (human food) or HACCP experience.
- Takes initiative, manages time effectively, and can achieve goals without constant oversight.
- Comfort navigating change and shifting priorities in a dynamic environment.
- High level of organizational skills and ability.
- Ability to develop written tools, policies, and SOPs.
- Demonstrated continuous-improvement capability.
- Ability to work across functions and disciplines and provide leadership through influence rather than authority.
Responsibilities
- Serve as the primary liaison between Corporate QA and Uncrustables manufacturing facilities.
- Ensure facilities comply with JMS Quality and Food Safety policies and procedures, applicable federal, state, and local regulations, FSMA, GFSI, and other applicable certifications.
- Drive and support each facility’s Operational Excellence journey and quality loss elimination by supporting Quality Pillar tools and their integration with other OpsEx Pillars.
- Develop and mentor plant JMS QA managers and their teams, and manage one salaried direct report.
- Conduct or lead 19 Key Element operational QA audits with the JMS CQA team and follow up with plant teams on identified gaps and corrective/preventative actions (CAPA).
- Lead or participate as the CQA representative in improvement projects with Uncrustables plant teams and cross-functional partners, including R&D, TSO, and Engineering.
- Drive continual quality improvement as measured by quality KPIs, internal and external audits, and company quality metrics.
- Provide technical support to manufacturing plants and R&D on quality and food safety requirements.
- Assist in managing plant quality non-conformances and escalations by investigating root causes and implementing corrective/preventative actions to prevent recurrence.
- Collaborate with Plant Managers and Ops VPs/Directors to build predictive quality into manufacturing processes.
- Participate on the corporate crisis team as needed.
Benefits
- The company states that it supports employees’ physical, emotional, and financial needs.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
