Associate Manager, FSQR

About International Dairy Queen, Inc.International Dairy Queen, Inc. (IDQ), based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the parent company of American Dairy Queen Corporation and Dairy Queen Canada, Inc. Through its subsidiaries, IDQ develops, licenses, and services a system of more than 7,800 DQ restaurants in more than 20 countries. IDQ is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. For more information, visit

Here at IDQ, we create extraordinary Fan experiences every day and we do this through our commitment to hiring and retaining only the best in class talent. We firmly believe that our employees are the catalyst to the success of the company where their initiative, strategic thinking, and entrepreneurial spirit are recognized and rewarded. We're looking for motivated, passionate and dedicated individuals with an inherent need and ambition to go after bigger challenges.

JOB OVERVIEW

Working under the guidance of the Director – FSQR, leads assigned FSQR programs to ensure overall product consistency and vendor conformance to ADQ Standards.

Evaluates systems and products, analyzes data, and establishes quality control procedures to ensure ADQ products are made according to specifications and maintain their ongoing quality, consistency, value and safety for both franchisee and consumers.

Product Category Lead - Food Safety and Quality, Key areas of responsibility include:

• Oversees the food safety, quality and regulatory aspects of DQ products ranging from, but not limited to, vendor and product qualification, onboarding, compliance, plant inspections, food safety and risk mitigation and relationship management for complex DQ products.
• Works with product development and vendor to establish appropriate quality and food safety specifications, reviews specification documents, creates and performs product evaluations and monitors QC data from vendor. Systematically review and update legacy DQ specifications in a way that benefits both vendors and DQ operators.
• Completes shelf-life extensions.
• Creates and maintains HACCP flow charts and develops, alongside Operations, the appropriate restaurant food safety procedures. Provides critical input for HACCP process continuous improvement.
• Issue resolution:
  Proactively and reactively monitors, manages and communicates vendor quality and food safety issues with FSQR Director (complaint response, holds, withdrawals, recalls, guest incidents). Identifies areas of improvement and continuous improvement action plans and sees them through to closure.
• Identifies trends and applies technical knowledge and skills to solve problems and develop corrective actions for on-going supplier quality issues related to product manufacturing and quality control.
• Seeks to become a subject matter expert on assigned categories and understands how the product and its manufacture interact with other business functions including supply chain and operations. Uses knowledge to educate others and improve programs outside of just FSQR. Applies strong technical intuition and business knowledge to identify gaps and recommend strategies that improve quality and mitigate food safety risk.
• Partners with and provides relevant input to Product Development during development and test phase. Takes a vested interest in the success of new and core products. Identifies strategies and tools to build the effectiveness and outcomes of the FSQR/Product Development relationship.

Relationship Building and Communication:

• Owns positive internal cross functional and external relationships (vendors, government, industry associations, industry leaders) that generate strategic direction, business solutions, create trust, and help develop future department strategies that align with the evolving business.
• Works effectively with franchisees by building relationships and provides confidence in DQ support of franchisee efforts Identifies situations that warrant communication and promptly and effectively communicates to FSQR Director and other need-to-know teammates

Other Programs (as assigned):

• Independently identifies, recommends and implements improvements to processes and programs, including cross-functionally.
• With…