LUB Hold & Release Analyst

For our state‑of‑the‑art 600+ person Lubbock, TX cheese and whey manufacturing facility, Leprino is seeking a Hold & Release Analyst.

Leprino Foods broke ground on the $1 billion facility in the summer of 2022. The plant will become operational in 2025 with Phase 1 and will be fully operational by 2026!

This position is responsible for the hold and release program and operates as a subject‑matter expert in applicable food safety and quality policies, programs, and systems. It ensures that incoming materials intended for internal consumption are reviewed and released in compliance with company policy/process.

All other duties as assigned.

NOTE:

The job may include other "non‑essential" responsibilities and duties that are not listed on this form.

• Manage hold report and product dispositions in a timely manner. Communicate with product management, production planner, plant management on out‑of‑spec conditions and production upsets to minimize impact to customer orders.
• Complete review of production records for product line and update batches with hold reason codes, comments, dispositions to align with plant procedures. Must be able to quickly review and assess risk to customer and escalate.
• Responsible for review and management of records for incoming ingredients and packaging materials. Responsible for release, disposition, and code conversion on ingredients for financial transactions for the plant related to product ingredients and materials.
• Recognizes and/or communicates QE‑driven decisions as required to plant leadership in agreed format (daily reports, etc).
• Performs aseptic sampling of ingredients, materials, and products to prevent any cross contamination or erroneous results. Sampling may include purchased ingredients and packaging materials for required plant evaluations, finished product for missed sampling or when cut off samples are required, samples to send to corporate for analytical, micro, performance evaluations.
• Completes all pallet‑to‑pallet transactions in an accurate and timely manner in SAP when samples are collected post‑production.
• Reviews data from analytical, performance, microbiological, and physical checks to ensure that product being released has met established procedural steps and policy requirements for in‑process and final product sampling.
• Troubleshoots Certificates of Compliance (COCs), and Certifications of Analysis (COAs), works with corporate and vendor to get updated/corrected COAs for purchased items.
• Serves as a backup for various professionals at the plant.
• Basic understanding of food safety programs and quality systems as it relates to production and potential impact to final product.
• Coordinate daily product review meetings, providing summary of issues and test results, driving open items to resolutions such as retests needed, open QA's, extraneous sorting plans, etc.
• Quality Alert management to ensure proper details are included prior to closing and making the final usage decision of the product. This requires collaboration with multiple teams to ensure proper training and follow up is delivered.
• Develop and report compliance Key Performance Indicators that measure plant performance for First Pass Good, Problem Product, etc and serve as a clear benchmark(s) for measuring improvements.
• Develop, implement, and drive a robust Document Control Program including Good Documentation Practices that assures timely and proper records completion and organization.
• Perform work in a safe manner by following safety procedures and policies, critical safety rules, and expected standard conduct.
• Maintain 5S standards and complete required master sanitation duties for role. Other accountabilities as given direction by QE supervisor and/or Manager.
• This position is responsible and accountable to ensure product meets food safety, regulatory, and quality requirements by following the Food Safety Plan, Quality Plan, and company policies.

• Must be 18 years of age.
• Must be able to read, write and speak English in order to understand/adhere to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)…