Plant Quality Manager, Chicago

Our client is an award-winning family-owned company manufacturing a full line of ham and pork products for over 75 years. Their plant in South Chicago has 110 employees, working Monday through Saturday. They are seeking a Quality Assurance Manager for their BRC certi?ed meat processing plant who can build the department as the company grows.

Key Responsibilities:

• Demonstrate unwavering integrity, respect, teamwork, and equity in all interactions with employees, customers, suppliers, and regulatory agencies.
• Provide proactive guidance to establish and maintain controls, programs, and organizational structures that comply with Food Safety, Regulatory, customer, and GFSI requirements. SQF Certification experience preferred.
• Lead and coach site quality team to ensure clear understanding of individual goals and the development of robust plans.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement and professional growth within the team.
• Design, implement, and verify analytical testing and procedures to ensure statistically significant results for the safe manufacture of products.
• Implement a comprehensive training program covering GFSI requirements, Food Safety, and Quality Programs
• Provide technical expertise to all departments, focusing on quality and food safety, continuous process improvement, and product development.
• Function as the primary point of contact for all regulatory agencies and customers.
• Develop project charters and facilitate action plan identification.
• Develop, implement, and maintain Food Safety and Quality SOP's, Food Safety Plan/HACCP, GMP's, pest control, allergen control, Good Laboratory Practices, Traceability, Recall, and other applicable food safety/quality programs.
• Oversee the resolution of quality management issues, including KPI reporting, corrective action plans, analytical/microbiological concerns, and held inventory disposition.
• Provide subject matter expertise in corrective and preventive action (CAPA) activities.
• Utilize data to drive statistical process control (SPC) and implement process capability improvements.
• Manage and direct staff responsible for microbiological and other quality control testing.
• Evaluate and resolve customer/consumer product quality issues.
• Ensure all quality-related information required for regulatory reviews and reporting is maintained.

  Personnel:

• Directly manage employees in the QA department, this position has three direct reports:
  • One Document Control Specialist; One Process Quality Technician and One Lead Process Quality Specialist.
• Hire, train, coach, develop and evaluate all staff.
• Foster culture of effective teamwork and support throughout the facility

  Safety:

• Implement and ensure adherence to all safety procedures related to plant operations.
• Compliance with company, local, provincial, and federal regulations, HACCP guidelines and other programs designed to safeguard employees and customers.

  Performance:

• Drive metrics and review plant performance for production, faulty, donations, Right First Time, labor utilization, ?nancial results.
• Communicate and review plant objectives regularly at all levels to ensure plant objectives are accomplished.
• Identify and implement long-range, 3 to 10-year, facility-speci?c plans, and schedule speci?c to the Food Safety and Quality function.

  Quali?cations:

• Knowledge of meat and poultry product manufacture
• Familiarity with meat-processing equipment
• Knowledge of Sanitation requirements
• Bachelor’s degree in biology, Chemistry, Food Science/Food Technology, or related ?eld
• 5-10 years of experience in a food manufacturing environment
• Minimum of 3 years in a QA Manager role
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel computer applications

For more information, please contact Moira McGrath at OPUS International, Inc. 954 428-3888 e-mail moira@foodscience.com