Food Safety Quality Assurance Director

Uni Sea is looking for a passionate Food Safety Quality Assurance Director to lead and mentor Uni Sea’s FSQA employees working in our Redmond, Washington and Dutch Harbor, Alaska operations. The FSQA Director will be working at our Corporate Office located in Redmond, Washington.

The FSQA Director will be responsible for directing and overseeing Uni Sea’s company wide Food Safety Management System (FSMS) and assures that Uni Sea’s processing operations are maintaining compliance with all Federal and State agency requirements. The FSQA Director will also ensure that Uni Sea’s customers’ quality expectations and product specifications are achieved.

This position will require occasional travel to Dutch Harbor, Alaska as necessary during our processing seasons or during facility audits. Travel to Dutch Harbor, Alaska will usually be coordinated with advance notice, and the duration of the trips may be for up to two weeks at a time. Other business travel to visit our customers’ operations may also be required and will be scheduled with advance notice.

Essential Duties

• Direct the development, implementation, maintenance, and continuous improvement of Uni Sea’s Food Safety Management System (FSMS). Ensure that Uni Sea’s operations are in compliance with Seafood HACCP, SQF, FSMA, FDA, USDA, GMPs, SSOPs, sanitation, food defense and food fraud requirements.
• Lead, mentor and develop FSQA managers, supervisors, technicians and laboratory personnel, while establishing department goals, performance expectations, and succession plans. Foster a culture within the FSQA department of accountability, continuous learning, and operational excellence. Ensure that the department is adequately staffed and trained to support food safety and quality system requirements.
• Maintain compliance with all federal, state, local, and international food safety regulations. Monitor for changing regulatory requirements and provide timely communications about the impacts throughout the organization.
• Provide strategic direction for food safety and quality initiatives that support corporate directives and serve as the Company’s lead technical authority on all food safety and quality matters. Promote and strengthen Uni Sea’s proactive food safety culture throughout the organization.
• Establish and maintain quality standards for incoming raw materials, in-process operations, packaging, and finished products. Oversee laboratory operations, product testing and product destruction decisions.
• Ensure that customer specifications and quality expectations are consistently being met. Collaborate and work with customers regarding specifications, technical inquiries, and food safety concerns. Actively manage customer complaints, investigations, responses and any corrective actions. Provide support to Uni Sea’s Commercial department by providing technical expertise and quality assurance leadership in communications to our customers and vendors.
• Lead root cause analysis and preventive action activities related to quality and food safety incidents. Analyze quality metrics and implement corrective actions to improve performance and reduce future risk.
• Serve as the primary liaison with regulatory agencies, auditors, customers, and certification bodies. Responsible for leading all third party, customer, regulatory, and customer audits. Ensure that effective resolutions of audit findings and regulatory observations are received and implemented in a timely manner.
• Oversee all HACCP plans, hazard analyses, validation studies, verification activities, and prerequisite programs. Oversee food defense, food fraud, and crisis management preparedness programs.
• Maintain a supplier approval and verification program and continuously monitor supplier performance…