Food Quality​/QRC Innovation professional

Food Quality / QRC Innovation Consultant

Location: Hershey, PA

Work Arrangement: Hybrid –
Candidate must be local to Hershey, PA and able to provide on-site support as needed, including potentially several consecutive weeks.

Assignment Duration:
12–18 months

Schedule: Part-time, up to 30 hours/week
, with potential opportunity to transition to full-time

Training: Approximately 1 week / 20 hours

Food Quality / QRC Innovation professional to support BFY (Better For You), Protein, and Functional Foods Innovation
. This role will focus on food safety, quality, regulatory compliance, and speed-to-market for new and emerging product categories, including non-traditional and Joint Venture approaches.

Working under the Manager, QRC Innovation, the consultant will collaborate with R&D, Operations, Engineering, Packaging, Regulatory, Commercial, Marketing, Sales, and external manufacturing partners
.

QRC Leadership & Innovation Support – 75%

• Represent QRC on innovation, Joint Venture, and early-stage product development projects.
• Ensure food safety, quality, and regulatory requirements are incorporated into product development.
• Conduct Quality Design Reviews.
• Support ingredient and packaging approvals.
• Transfer project and product-change knowledge to regional QRC teams.

Program & Process Support – 20%

• Support ingredient and packaging supplier approval processes.
• Prepare documentation supporting Food Safety, Quality, and Regulatory Compliance.
• Provide on-site support during manufacturing trials and production runs.
• Troubleshoot and resolve quality issues involving manufacturing, distribution, and logistics.
• Develop reports and communicate quality/service issues to appropriate partners.
• Stay current with FDA regulations, food safety trends, pest control requirements, GMPs, HACCP, and related policies/procedures.
• Support global food safety and quality standards with external manufacturing partners.
• Identify opportunities for program and process improvement.
• Use audits, KPIs, gap analysis, and benchmarking to establish improvement goals.

• 5+ years of relevant Food Quality / Food Safety experience.
• Experience in food manufacturing
  .
• Experience with Protein, Better For You (BFY), Functional Foods, or related food categories
  .
• Strong knowledge of:
• Food Safety
• HACCP
• GMPs
• FDA regulations
• Quality Design principles
• Experience supporting New Product Development (NPD) and product lifecycle activities.
• Ability to troubleshoot food quality issues and anticipate potential risks.
• FDA PCQI certification preferred.
• Must be comfortable working in a fluid, fast-changing innovation environment.
• Must be local to Hershey, PA and available for on-site support as needed.

Experience or understanding of manufacturing processes involving:

• Sweeteners
• Cereal
• Peanuts & tree nuts
• Flour
• Baking
• Extrusion
• Warehousing

• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft Teams
• SAP

Ideal candidates may come from food manufacturing companies with experience in Food Quality, Food Safety, Regulatory, Quality Assurance, R&D, or New Product Development.