QA Technician Seasonal Position 1st Shift . Weekends

The Meiji Group was founded in Japan in 1916. For nearly a century, it has provided a broad range of products built upon the accumulated knowledge and skills of its talented workforce. Meiji America Inc., founded in 2011, as the United States division distributes a variety of unique confectionery and snack products including HELLO PANDA™, YAN YAN™ and CHOCOROOMS®.

Hello Panda and Yan Yan are fun portable treats that are perfect for on-the-go snacking.

• Supports food safety and quality throughout receiving, storage, processing, baking, packaging, sanitation, and release for shipping.
• Properly documents and completes GMP & Absolute Safety Violation reporting, internal audits, sanitation inspections & verification, critical & preventive control verifications, product evaluations, holds of non-conforming materials, and investigations of supplier & customer complaints.
• Participates in hold investigation and resolution, meetings as required, product reviews, production data analysis, root cause analysis, and identification of corrective and preventive actions.
• Maintains laboratory instrumentation, lab procedures, recordkeeping, calibration, 6S, and high level of Good Laboratory Practice compliance.

• 35% - Interacts with Operations, Maintenance, Sanitation and Engineering to investigate and resolve production issues.
• Participates in daily meetings as required, coordinate’s product evaluation, and facilitates the evaluation and timely closure of non-conforming issues and finished product holds.
• Provides data analysis, product summaries, and inspection results to management for appropriate product review and disposition. 35% - Provides Quality support to the operation through inspection and verification activities.
• Verification activities include monitoring critical processing information regularly to tie to finished product attributes and characteristics to ensure compliance to Manufacturing Specifications.
• Inspection activities include observation, measurement, and inspection at key points in the production process (i.e. taste, visual inspection, analytical measurements, and physical characteristics). 15% - Facilitates the collection, organization, storage, and retention of the Quality System documentation including Operations paperwork packets, COAs, lab analytical reports, etc.
• Collects, analyzes, and prepares monthly scorecard data as required as well as Operations and Quality metric tracking. 10% - Participates as an active member on continuous improvement projects; 6S teams, Kaizen events, PDCA, Safety audits, Sanitation audits, GMP walks, internal food safety team, etc. 5% - Assists with the design, development, implementation, continuous operation/improvement, and maintenance of the Quality Information System.

• Performs quality support through observation, verification, and inspection at critical processing steps.
• Tasks may be operator procedure verifications, inspections of equipment and cleaning performance, as well as raw material, in-process product, or finished product evaluations.
• Analyzes key product and process variables/attributes to understand process capability, identify process drift, and effects on finished product quality.
• Collaborate with Operations, Quality, Maintenance, Engineering, and Sanitation to troubleshoot a product defect or processing issue.
• Participate in the discussion of potential root causes and assist with the implementation of effective corrective and preventative actions.
• All other duties as assigned .

• GED, Diploma, Food Safety/ Quality certification, or minimum 1 year of food industry experience.
• Strong technical acumen - ability to troubleshoot a problem, involve other stakeholders as necessary, and brainstorm potential root causes;
  Strong verbal and written communication skills;
  Strong interpersonal skills;
  Computer skills necessary, proficient with Microsoft Office;
  Statistical background a plus. To perform this job successfully, an…