Quality Assurance Technician

Job Summary

The Quality Assurance Technician is a self-driven/self-motivated candidate capable of working proficiently, both independently and as part of a team, without direct supervision. The successful individual must have a passion for safety and be able to foster effective working relationships built upon trust and respect within all levels of the organization. The successful individual will monitor, test, record, and react to data pertaining to products/production processes/quality systems to ensure the highest standards of quality and food safety are met or exceeded and that products produced are in compliance with federal, state, and company specifications.

Office Environment: 19% of the work is conducted in an office setting, involving time spent on computer research, project management, and communication with team members and stakeholders. Frequent participation in both in-person and virtual meetings, including project updates, strategy sessions, and presentations to management and stakeholders.

Production Environment: 80% Regular visits to the production areas will involve exposure to machinery, noise, varying temperatures, humidity, and wet conditions.

Travel:
Occasional travel for training, meetings, conferences, etc.

Schedule:

Flexible schedule, including evenings, weekends, and holidays as needed based on operational requirements.

• Assist in improving, developing, implementing, and maintaining an effective QA program, to include comprehensive GMP program:
  Chemical Control Program, Allergen Control, Operational Methods and Personnel Practices, Cleaning and sanitation practices, preventive Maintenance and Repair, etc.
• Setting up and participating in sensory testing.
• QA analysis: bulk density, particle size, and water activity (raw materials and blends)
• Internal document control includes developing, improving, and maintaining QA SOPs, production SOPs, raw material/finished good Specifications and all quality QA and recall-ready documents.
• Inventory management including short-dated and expired products, re-work requests, returns, and donations.
• Investigate and help resolve blending and packaging problems (process improvements).
• Assists in audits/inspections.
• Perform Sanitation checks daily/ weekly/ monthly/ quarterly, report any issues and follow up until resolved.
• Assess the quality of raw and ready-to-eat products and record accurate outcomes at specific times of the production operations.
• Sampling incoming raw materials and finished products.
• Checking to ensure dates are correct to customer specifications on packing lines, as well as box labels, and report any errors immediately.
• Ensuring correct mix, spice, and additives are being used per SQF requirements.
• Communicating any deviations to the foreman and/or a supervisor and following up on the deviation until the problem has been resolved.
• Perform incoming and outgoing material checks, including trailer inspection (cleanliness, temperature, overall conditions), box inspection (intact, undamaged), product appearance & temperature, adherence to product purchasing specifications, and weight.
• Perform work-in-progress QC tasks, including equipment calibration (thermometers, scales, antimicrobial application) and monitoring of metal detector operation, monitoring of aged inventory, order filler checks, CCP verification, daily monitoring of antimicrobial application.
• Conduct employee training when necessary.
• Complete and submit regular reports for statistical or operational analysis.
• Maintain quality and ensure food safety. Work with monitoring employees to improve accuracy and reliability.
• Monitors employee hygiene and sanitary practices. Daily work with employees and supervisors' online sanitation performances and employee…