The Food Safety Technician serves as the primary support for the Food Safety program and regulatory compliance, ensures that the facility and all equipment is production ready by verifying all required cleaning and sanitization processes, monitors the Cleaning and Sanitation Service to ensure performance is to standard, and supports the execution of the Richmond Plant’s Quality Systems and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). This position will also have primary responsibility for implementing and maintaining food safety principles, HACCP, sanitization, current Good Manufacturing Practices, Integrated Pest Management, and environmental programs. In addition, this position will have primary responsibility as the backup for food safety document review, document management, and regulatory compliance. This will be an off-shift position.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Performs ATP and microbiological sampling for the established environmental program and cleaning and sanitization verification using aseptic technique. Troubleshoots issues and provides corrective actions for sanitation non-conformances.
• Develops and implements Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) to ensure compliance with plant, corporate and regulatory agency policies. Assists in writing or modifying procedures related to the HACCP prerequisite programs to support food safety compliance.
• Performs inspections of the entire facility for sanitation, pest control, and other food safety related issues. Including assigning tasks and following up on issues found.
• Assists in the root-cause analysis, corrective actions, and preventive measures for Food Safety nonconformance’s and all-encompassing documentation
• Responsible for updating the Food Safety KPIs and collaborate with the internal plant teams on continuous improvement and compliance initiatives to regulatory standards
• Assists in the scheduling and coordination of the various Food Safety Plans to drive continuous improvement and compliance to the industry standards.
• Participates in the development and review of prerequisite programs, Food Safety Site Plan, Master Sanitation Plan, and Weekend Food Safety activities.
• Assists with the Richmond plant HACCP program by reviewing, updating, documenting compliance, and training to the plant.
• Executes quality and food safety training to all plant employees. Monitor and track all training to completion.
• Collaborates with the integrated pest management professional and documents findings, corrective actions, and preventive measures. Responsible for tracking and trending of the pest captured, findings, and reporting of results
• Understands and comply with Hill’s policies, safety standards, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) and Food Safety. Identifies and reports Food Safety issues to management.

Education/ Experience Requirements

Basic qualifications include:

• Bachelor's Degree
• At least 1 year of experience in a manufacturing facility
• Availability to work any shift including weekends
• Ability to wear all required Fall Protection Equipment and other PPE
• Ability to bend, climb, crawl, work in confined spaces, work in hazardous condition spaces, work in extreme weather conditions and use hazardous materials.

Preferred qualifications include:

• Bachelor’s Degree in a Science or Technical field is preferred
• 1 year of previous quality/food safety experience as applicable to all aspects of Food manufacturing is preferred.
• Knowledge of HACCP with previous experience utilizing HACCP principles preferred.
• Knowledge of SQF (Safe Quality Food) principles and requirements as it relates to pet food manufacturing.
• Previous supervisory work experience. Previous auditing experience working with AIB, SQF, FDA, or USDA.
• Working knowledge of statistical software packages preferred.

Expected Areas of Skills

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (written and verbal)
• Proficient knowledge of HACCP, GMPs, and SPC
• Proficient in reviewing and interpreting microbiological data
• Excellent ability to multitask and prioritize duties
• Proficient computer skills including; Google business platform and SAP
• Excellent ability to understand and apply finance and accounting principles
• Excellent at identifying the underlying principles, reasons, or facts of information by breaking down information or data into separate parts
• Excellent attention to detail
• Excellent at using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards
• Must be able to bend, climb, crawl, work in confined spaces, work in hazardous condition spaces, work in extreme weather conditions, use hazardous materials as needed, lift up to 50 lbs on continual basis, and operate mechanical lifts and ladders.

Equal Opportunity Employer Colgate is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, marital status, veteran status (United States positions), or any other characteristic protected by law

Are you interested in working for Hill's Pet Nutrition? You can apply online and attach all relevant documents such as a cover letter and resume or CV. Applications received by e-mail are not considered in the selection process. Become part of our team. We look forward to your application.

Work that matters, fueled by passion for pets! At Hill’s we have a purpose. Every day around the world, we transform the lives of millions of pet families through pioneering innovation, amazing nutrition, and the best and brightest people. Founded more than 75 years ago with an unwavering commitment to pet nutrition, Hills' mission is to help enrich and lengthen the special relationships between people and their pets.

HILL'S® Prescription Diet® therapeutic pet foods, HILL'S® Science Diet® and HILL'S® Ideal Balance™ wellness pet foods are sold worldwide. Hill’s is a division of Colgate-Palmolive, a leading global consumer products company, tightly focused on Oral Care, Personal Care, Home Care and Pet Nutrition, with sales of products in more than 200 countries. To learn more about Hill's and Colgate, please visit http://www.hillspet.com and http://www.colgatepalmolive.com, or find us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Reasonable accommodation during the application process is available for persons with disabilities. Please contact Application_Accommodation@colpal.com with the subject "Accommodation Request" should you require accommodation.

Every one of our employees plays an important role in ensuring we deliver the quality products consumers rely on to care for themselves and the ones they love. So we recognize that our success is driven by these talented and dedicated Colgate people around the world. And in turn we are dedicated to the success of our people, offering an array of resources to help expand their professional and personal horizons - from stimulating career opportunities and access to world-class training and leadership development programs, to wellness initiatives and opportunities to contribute to the communities where we live and work.