QA Manager

QA Manager – Pennsylvania Food Corporation, Portage, Wisconsin, United States About this position

The QA Manager is responsible for leading the Quality Assurance function within a regulated food manufacturing environment. This role owns the site quality management system and ensures that products, processes, documentation, and facility practices consistently meet food safety requirements, customer expectations, regulatory standards, and internal quality specifications.

The QA Manager serves as the site leader for food safety, quality systems, audit readiness, product release, nonconformance management, customer complaint investigations, and continuous improvement of quality performance. This role partners closely with Operations, Sanitation, Maintenance, Regulatory, R&D, Procurement, Supply Chain, Commercial, and leadership teams to maintain a strong culture of food safety, compliance, accountability, and customer confidence.

• Lead the site Quality Assurance function and ensure consistent execution of food safety, quality, regulatory, and customer requirements across all shifts and production areas.
• Own and maintain the site quality management system, including policies, procedures, records, verification activities, corrective actions, and continuous improvement plans.
• Ensure compliance with FDA/FSMA requirements, GMPs, HACCP or food safety plans, allergen controls, sanitation standards, traceability, labeling requirements, and customer specifications.
• Champion a strong food safety and quality culture through visible floor presence, coaching, accountability, and clear communication of expectations.
• Establish and monitor quality KPIs, including product holds, customer complaints, nonconformances, audit findings, right‑first‑time performance, and corrective action effectiveness.
• Provide quality leadership during production, sanitation, maintenance, process changes, new product launches, and customer or regulatory events.

• Maintain ongoing readiness for customer, regulatory, third‑party, and certification audits, including SQF, BRCGS, FSSC 22000, or equivalent GFSI‑based programs as applicable.
• Serve as a key site representative during audits, inspections, customer visits, regulatory inquiries, and follow‑up activities.
• Ensure quality and food safety programs, records, specifications, labels, traceability documentation, and corrective action files are complete, accurate, current, and audit‑ready.
• Partner with Regulatory and Operations to interpret requirements, implement practical controls, and ensure compliance with federal, state, customer, and internal standards.
• Lead or support mock recalls, traceability exercises, internal audits, GMP inspections, sanitation verification reviews, and food defense or food fraud assessments.

• Oversee product quality evaluation, disposition, release, hold, rework, and rejection processes to ensure only safe, compliant, and specification‑conforming product is shipped.
• Lead investigations for quality deviations, product holds, nonconformances, foreign material events, customer complaints, labeling issues, sanitation failures, and process deviations.
• Drive root‑cause analysis, corrective and preventive actions, verification of effectiveness, and timely closure of quality and food safety issues.
• Partner with Operations, Sanitation, Maintenance, R&D, Regulatory, and Supply Chain to resolve quality concerns while protecting food safety, customer requirements, and business continuity.

• Maintain and continuously improve quality programs, including GMPs, HACCP or food safety plans, preventive controls, allergen management, sanitation verification, environmental monitoring, supplier quality, calibration, traceability, and document control.
• Ensure QA records, production checks, lab results, pre‑operational inspections, finished product evaluations, corrective actions, and verification activities are completed accurately and on time.
• Review and approve specifications, work instructions, inspection forms, test methods,…