Sr. Regulatory Affairs Associate

Albertsons Companies • Pleasanton, CA

5d • Onsite

About The Position

The Own Brands Technical Services department has an opening for a Senior Regulatory Affairs Associate. This position is located in Pleasanton, California.

As part of the Regulatory Affairs (RA) team, the Senior RA Associate will be responsible for ensuring faultless compliance of product labeling for several brands within Albertsons Own Brands. Interact regularly with many other functions including but not limited to Product Development, Food Safety and Quality, Product Management, Sourcing, and Legal. Conduct daily regulatory activities related to product development such as identification, interpretation, and implementation of all applicable federal, state and local regulations. These include but are not limited to standards of identity, package label requirements, claims identification and validation, preparation and submission of USDA label approval requests and records preparation and retention to comply with regulatory requirements. These activities include oversight and review of regulatory activities for in house developed and manufactured products and regulatory activities conducted by contract manufacturers of consumer brands products. This position is critical to ensuring regulatory compliance and avoidance of the product retrievals and recalls that can result from noncompliance to product and package regulations.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in food science or related field.
• Minimum of 5 years combined regulatory affairs, compliance, product development, nutrition or technical related experience required, with strong knowledge of FDA and USDA food regulations.
• Proven knowledge with consumer-packaged goods labeling experience.
• Proficiency working with regulatory on labeling, product development on formulation requirements, marketing and graphics design personnel on package graphics.
• Must have strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to prioritize multiple projects across multiple categories with competing timelines.
• Strong sense of urgency, time management, and commitment to meet aggressive timelines.
• Must be comfortable with asking questions and having direct discussions of project requirements with peers, supervisors, and product development personnel up to the VP level.
• Ability to think both strategically and tactically and have experience in project management, multi-tasking, meeting tight deadlines and shifting work focus based on shifting business and technical priorities.
• Excellent computer skills and attention to detail, and experience with online specification systems.
• Strong communication and organizational skills.
• Must be able to communicate cross functionally between directors, managers, technical staff and vendor community daily.

Responsibilities

• Provide regulatory expertise on cross functional project teams for the Own Brands categories assigned to them and ensure all consumer brands packaging is in compliance with federal, state and local regulations. This involves daily interactions with marketing, graphic design, sourcing and outside design agencies to ensure that all existing, new and revised packaging graphics and placements are in compliance with labeling regulations.
• Create Label copy with ingredient statements, nutrition facts, substantiating complex claims and approving graphics and ensuring the accuracy of the regulatory information in Albertsons databases, on final artwork and in specifications. This interaction is required from the beginning of the design process to review of final artwork prior to package production.
• Lead RA taskforce for various state regulation impacting the products in Own Brands portfolio
• Support commercialization process and ensure timely execution of regulatory related tasks– including co-packer and self-manufactured product label copy review, claims substantiation, maintenance of Checklists, Consumer Brands Style Guide and SOPs. Provide input on nutrition labeling, defining new claim territories and managing packaging timelines.
• Lead compliance systems requirements and testing, RA Manual updates and continuous improvement initiatives for the RA team as part of the RA core team
• Partner with cross functional team members including PD, SI and Legal in partnership with the RA manager to develop guardrails for competitive claims as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) to support food and non-food products in new and competitive claims space
• Require an excellent understanding and application of US labeling regulations (USDA, FDA, EPA) to assure the accuracy of ingredient statements, nutrition facts, allergen declarations and claims.
• Ability to think strategically as well as independently monitor, interpret and ensure compliance with US regulations today and into the future.
• Prepare regulatory training materials for labeling, claims, regulatory systems, and certifications and presenting to OB Technical Services and category teams
• Responsible for onboarding new Regulatory Affairs (RA) team members and cross-training within Technical Services team.

Benefits

• Competitive wages paid weekly
• Associate discounts
• Health and financial well-being benefits for eligible associates (Medical, Dental, 401k and more!)
• Time off (vacation, holidays, sick pay). For eligibility requirements please visit myACI Benefits
• Leaders invested in your training, career growth and development
• An inclusive work environment with talented colleagues who reflect the communities we serve

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees