Quality Assurance Manager

What You Will Do

We are actively seeking an experienced and motivated individual to join our team as the Quality Assurance Manager. In this role, you will assume a crucial position in upholding the quality and safety standards of Chomps products. Your primary responsibilities will include overseeing daily QA operations across our manufacturing facilities, fostering positive relationships, addressing product quality concerns to drive continuous improvement efforts, managing recall and product traceability procedures, leading quality and food safety investigations, and approving all RCA and CAPA reports. Your leadership will be essential in maintaining the high standards defined by Chomps quality assurance team. We are looking for a candidate with exceptional attention to detail, superb organizational abilities, and a deep understanding of the meat manufacturing industry. Join us in our commitment to excellence and ensuring the safety and quality of Chomps products for our customers. 

Responsibilities:

Management of Chomps Quality and Food Safety Systems 

• Work alongside the Sr. Manager QA to onboard and approve all contracted vendors including contract manufacturers, warehouses/repack sites, protein suppliers.  
• Aid in the development of Chomps' quality and food safety standards for integration into contract negotiations and ensure adherence to these standards. 
• Review all vendor quality and food safety programs and customer requirements ensuring early quality involvement in program development. 
• Stay current with industry trends and USDA-FSIS regulations to continuously improve and update existing programs. 
• Responsible for drafting and delivering quality and food safety investigation reports to third-party vendors and manufacturing partners. Guarantee that all Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPA) provided are logical and coherent. 
• Aid in the submission of USDA approvals for new products, artwork changes, and new protein suppliers. 

Contract Manufacturers and Warehousing QA Oversite 

• Conduct regular inspections and audits at contract manufacturing plants and repack warehouses. 
• Ensure compliance with Chomps quality and food safety standards, USDA-FSIS regulations, and internal company policies. 
• Collaborate with R&D and operations teams to onboard new manufacturing and warehousing partners. Schedule and be on site for sample and test production, and any continuous improvement product initiatives. 
• Build and maintain strong relationships with third-party QA partners. Promote teamwork and collaboration in quality improvement efforts. 

Product Quality Continuous Improvement 

• Spearhead product quality investigations with contract manufacturers. Identify possible processing errors and improvement initiatives. 
• Analyze sensory evaluation dashboards and reporting – share data with all manufacturers to be reviewed in weekly meetings and offer guidance in process/product improvement initiatives. 
• Work with R&D and operations teams in the creation of process control and product specification sheets. 
• Be onsite for sample and test runs of new products. 
• Collaborate with operations on testing and implementation of protein tempering best practices and creation of SOPs. 

Recall and Traceability  

• Direct regular mock recall exercises with contract manufacturing and warehousing partners to test and improve the traceability of products and working together as cohesive teams in the event of a recall. 
• Take ownership of QA’s role within NetSuite – become the expert. Provide training to other team members who may need to pull traceability reports for product investigations.  
• Perform internal product traceability audits to verify the accuracy and effectiveness of Chomps traceability systems spanning from the purchase of raw proteins to manufacturing, repack, distribution, and customer delivery. 
• Lead biannual recall training for all new Chomps recall team members. 
• Collaboratively work with Chomps QA team to maintain the recall plan and programs; edit/update after each mock recall drill to continuously improve Chomps systems and readiness.
• Identify areas of potential risk across all departments and work with teams to integrate better systems and programs.
• Support Chomps supply chain team – complete on-site traceability audits of our warehousing partners internal traceability systems.  

Who You Are

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in quality assurance or operations management/supervisor within the meat manufacturing industry. 
• In-depth understanding of HACCP, USDA-FSIS regulations, and GFSI standards. 
• Proficiency in raw processing and ready-to-eat meat and poultry production. 
• Experience with pre-op inspection, environmental monitoring programs, and GFSI audit requirements. 
• Strong knowledge of process flow, risk mitigation, and shelf-life management. 
• Expert with CAPA, RCA, and quality management systems. 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills. 
• Self-motivated and autonomous. 
• Positive attitude, adaptable to change. 
• Ability to travel extensively (50-70%) to various manufacturing and warehousing facilities. 
• Bachelor's degree in food science, microbiology, or related field preferred. 

What You’ll Get:

• Ability to make an impact: Join a rapidly growing and entrepreneurial-spirited team at a pivotal point to positively impact the food industry. 
• Opportunities to grow: Advance within Chomps quickly based on outstanding performance.
• Competitive salary ranges: Salaries are based on verified market data and our philosophy of paying competitively for our size and industry. In addition to base salary, full-time team members receive equity in the company.
• Comprehensive benefits: Health/vision/dental, up to 6% employer 401k match, unlimited time off, monthly wellness and at-home reimbursements, paid maternity/paternity leave.
• Unlimited snacks: Enough meat sticks that if you wanted to eat your body weight in them you could (no judgment here).

Position: Quality Assurance Manager

Type: Full-Time, exempt

Reports to: Senior Manager of QA Operations

Location: Remote Travel