FSQ Raw Material Lab Manager

Description

Bringing our love of food to families for five generations!  Blount Fine Foods is a family-owned and operated manufacturer, marketer, and developer of premium fresh prepared foods. We are an engaging team, bringing restaurant-quality products to America including single-serve grab-n-go fresh soups, mac & cheese, and entrées in grocery stores across the country, as well as for hot bars and restaurants. Help us create the finest food experiences including those with specialty certifications that include organic, gluten-free, and low sodium, among others. Join a proven team for growth, success, and a satisfying career!

Summary

Lead and coordinate Blount Fine Foods Raw Material as well as Prep Inspection. Coordinate and provide a cohesive interface between Manufacturing, Purchasing, R & D and Suppliers on quality, food safety and technical matters. This position needs to be able to relate to employees working on the floor of a manufacturing facility and successfully relate to upper management within Blount.

HACCP, food fraud and preventative controls are programs critical to the safety of our products. This position provides the risk assessment and hazard analysis of food ingredients and the suppliers’ processes and recommends control measures to mediate the potential risks.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

1. Manages and continues to develop the Hazard analysis and risk assessment for raw materials.
2. Oversees and supervises raw material prep inspectors to ensure proper practices and completion of IOC audits.
3. Validates adequacy of material specifications and ensures performance.
• Improves specification content in food safety and quality attributes.
• Contribute to improving raw material quality by helping develop consistent raw material attributes and specifications.
4. Interface for resolution of raw material nonconformities.
5. Acts as a technical expert or involves technical experts to resolve issues that affect quality service, cost. Provides direction and management in resolving issues related to poor quality.
6. Manages and directs continuous quality improvement for suppliers and raw materials. Has ownership for development accuracy and improvement of quality metrics.
7. Performs supplier audits and writes audit reports for suppliers and approves supplier audit responses, corrective actions, tracks categories and total score and develops follow up action recommendations.
8. Contributes to improving raw material quality by helping develop consistent raw material attributes and specifications.
9. Organizes and reports on supplier food safety assessments and recommends an action plan to understand the impact of the assessment gaps.
10. Communicates audit findings to the affected departments and to Quality Assurance management.
11. Assists in the performance of internal audits, as required.
12. Identifies vendor/supplier quality and compliance issues utilizing customer complaint data; works with internal departments to escalate, resolve and prevent identified issues.
13. Reviews and tracks/trends all supplier complaint investigations.
14. Manages active raw material risk in conjunction with Purchasing in conjunction with Corp QA Supply Chain.
15. Communicates raw material testing criteria with quality technicians.
16. Provides timely assessment, disposition, and feedback to operations teams.
17.  Leads and supports root cause problem solving tools for investigating raw material food safety and quality compliance issues.
18. Responsible for collaborating with other departments to maintain the entire supplier and material qualification process.
19. Performs other duties as assigned. 

Responsibilities for Food Safety  

• Responsible for completing required paperwork accurately and honestly.
• Must adhere to and enforce posted GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices) when working within the production facility.
• Responsible for reporting suspicious packages, activities and individuals.
• If monitoring CCPs (Critical Control Points), must be trained in HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) and adhere to approved HACCP plan(s).

Supervisory Responsibilities

Will directly manage 2^nd Shift Raw Material Supervisor as well as the Raw Material Technicians on 1^st and 2^nd shift. Will also directly supervisor Prep Inspector Lead and Technicians within the Prep processing area.

Education and/or Experience   

• Bachelors degree in a related field or equivalent and 3 + years related quality assurance experience.
• Certifications preferred: Food Fraud; FSVP; PCQI; Supplier Quality Professional Certification; SQF Practitioner certification.
• 3 years manufacturing experience.
• 3 years food safety experience.
• 3 years manager experience.

Education and/or Experience:

• Bachelor's degree (B. A.) from four-year college or university; or one to two years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 2 year’s leading a team of direct reports

Our Total Compensation Package Includes:

• Medical, dental and vision benefits
• 401k with Company match 
• Paid time off including vacation, sick time and holidays
• Education Assistance Program
• Life Insurance and Short-Term Disability
• Discounts on Blount products at Company retail locations
• Discretionary Annual Bonus Program