QA Associate - Ensuring quality standards for all finished products are kept, maintains all HACCP programs within the plant, and supports the SQF Practitioner and Food Safety/Quality team with all relevant tasks.

Job Purpose - This position is responsible for complimenting the operations team in the quality, food safety, and organoleptic acceptability of all products. This role is designed to ensure our adherence to current good manufacturing practices (cGMP’s), food safety, Safe Quality Food (SQF) standards and product quality standards. 

Duties and Responsibilities

•  Monitors all product food safety & quality throughout the manufacturing process.
• Ensure production employees are following all Food Safety, GMPs, and workplace safety practices.
• Develop, improve, and maintain operational, quality, food safety, and sanitation metrics
• Assist in sample collection and run routine laboratory testing of ingredients and finished products
• Perform studies and analytical & statistical analysis to improve quality of products
• Develop and maintain procedures, data collection & validations, and trend analysis to identify deviations
• Document and participate in all Corrective action and preventive action investigations for all deviations
• Proactively communicate and collaborate with all departments to ensure all tasks are being performed according to outlined SOPs.
• Demonstrate ability to perform pre-operational inspection and ATP and Allergen swabs.
• The above duties and responsibilities are representative of the nature and level of work assigned and are not necessarily all-inclusive. 

Qualifications

• Associate Degree in Biology, Nutrition, Chemistry, Food Science, or related science with relevant work experience
• Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology, Nutrition, Chemistry, Food Science, and Engineering preferred
• 2 years’ experience in production/food manufacturing
• RTE experience a plus
• Sofware System experience i.e Safety Chain a plus
• Strong Analytical, Verbal, and written communication skills
• Knowledge of Basic HACCP Principles or Experience working in an SQF (Safe Quality Food) or other GFSI certified facility preferred
• Familiarity with lab safety and handling of hazardous materials and equipment; Laboratory experience preferred Bilingual (English/Spanish) preferred.

Working Conditions 

• This position requires an employee to work within a cold, temperature-controlled environment for long periods of time.
• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer or standing while working in a cold production environment may be required.  Flexible work hours, weekends and holidays required.