Technician - Food Safety and Quality Assurance

Vale Concepts•Seattle, WA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Vale is a design-led company building the future of autonomous retail. We blend automation, robotics, and premium food & beverage to create beautifully crafted matcha experiences through fully automated kiosks and mobile carts. Our mission is simple: Make Magic. We combine technology and hospitality to create experiences that feel effortless, intuitive, and memorable. We operate a café in Seattle’s South Lake Union and are expanding our event-based Matcha Bar business across the region. The Quality Technician / FSQA Analyst will support the development, implementation, and maintenance of Vale's Food Safety and Quality Assurance program. This role will be responsible for conducting pre-operational inspections, environmental monitoring, documentation review, product quality checks, and assisting with the creation of policies, procedures, SOPs, and food safety programs. This is a hands-on role ideal for someone who is comfortable working both in quality assurance and on the production floor. The right candidate will be detail-oriented, proactive, collaborative, and willing to support production activities as needed while helping strengthen Vale’s food safety culture.

Requirements

Minimum of 2 years of experience in a food manufacturing, food processing, or food production environment.
Experience with GMPs, sanitation, allergen control, and food safety documentation.
Strong attention to detail and ability to follow written procedures.
Ability to accurately complete records, forms, logs, and reports.
Comfortable working in a production environment and supporting hands-on operational tasks.
Strong communication, organization, and problem-solving skills.
Ability to work independently and collaboratively with cross-functional teams.
Ability to lift 50lbs.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Biology, Chemistry, or a related field.
PCQI certification.
HACCP training or certification.
SQF Practitioner certification or experience supporting SQF programs.
Experience working in a facility that handles allergens.
Experience with environmental monitoring programs.
Experience writing or developing SOPs, policies, procedures, and food safety documentation.
Experience with third-party audits, regulatory inspections, or food safety certification programs.

Responsibilities

Perform pre-operational inspections to verify equipment, utensils, production areas, and sanitation conditions are acceptable prior to production.
Conduct routine in-process and finished product quality checks according to established specifications.
Support environmental monitoring activities, including swabbing, sampling, documentation, and follow-up on results.
Assist in allergen control verification, sanitation checks, GMP inspections, and facility hygiene audits.
Monitor compliance with food safety, quality, sanitation, and regulatory requirements.
Document non-conformances and assist with corrective and preventive actions.
Support investigations related to quality issues, foreign material concerns, customer complaints, or food safety deviations.
Maintain accurate and organized quality and food safety records.
Help develop, write, review, and maintain food safety and quality policies, procedures, SOPs, work instructions, forms, and logs.
Assist with building and maintaining programs related to GMPs, sanitation, allergen control, supplier approval, traceability, recall, pest control, environmental monitoring, preventive controls, and HACCP-based systems.
Support preparation for third-party audits, regulatory inspections, customer audits, and certification programs.
Assist with SQF program development and implementation, as applicable.
Help identify gaps in existing procedures and recommend improvements.
Support employee training on GMPs, sanitation, allergen control, food safety procedures, and quality standards.
Assist with production activities as needed, including staging, packaging, labeling, cleaning, and general production support.
Work closely with production team members to ensure food safety and quality expectations are met during daily operations.
Promote a strong food safety culture across the facility.
Communicate effectively with operations, sanitation, maintenance, and leadership teams.