QA Specialist

About the Role

We're seeking a proactive Quality Assurance Specialist to help ensure the highest standards of food safety, quality, and regulatory compliance across our growing organization. This role combines hands-on quality oversight on the production floor with documentation, auditing, and continuous improvement initiatives. If you enjoy solving problems, building processes, and making a direct impact in a fast-paced environment, we'd love to meet you.

Key Responsibilities

• Maintain and improve food safety, quality, and regulatory compliance programs.
• Conduct GMP, sanitation, facility, and product audits to ensure adherence to food safety standards.
• Perform environmental and product testing, including swabbing, sample management, and results tracking.
• Manage allergen control, metal detection programs, and microbiological testing activities.
• Investigate quality issues, lead root cause analyses, and implement corrective actions.
• Maintain HACCP plans, audit records, training documentation, and quality reports.
• Train employees on food safety, sanitation, and best practices.
• Serve as a key contact during regulatory inspections and customer food safety inquiries.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to strengthen quality systems and support business growth.
• Spend approximately 2–3 hours daily on documentation, with the remainder focused on floor-based quality activities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Environmental Health, or a related field.
• 3–5 years of food safety or quality assurance experience in the food industry.
• HACCP and PCQI certifications required.
• Strong knowledge of FDA regulations, FSMA, GMPs, allergen management, and food microbiology.
• Experience conducting audits, managing testing programs, and driving corrective actions.
• Strong communication, organization, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work independently and make sound decisions in a dynamic environment.
• Conversational proficiency in Spanish or Hindi is strongly preferred.

Preferred Qualifications

• SQF Practitioner certification.
• Experience in food manufacturing, distribution, or imported food products.
• Experience developing or improving quality systems in a growing organization.
• Bilingual or multilingual capabilities.

Why Join Us?

This is an exciting opportunity to help shape food safety and quality programs within a rapidly growing company. You'll have the autonomy to make an impact, collaborate with global teams, and play a key role in building scalable processes that support continued growth and excellence.

This is a Permanent position based out of Schaumburg, IL.

The pay range for this position is $75000.00 - $85000.00/yr.

standard benefits: 401(k) Dental insurance Health insurance Paid time off

This is a fully onsite position in Schaumburg,IL.

This position is anticipated to close on Jul 21, 2026.

About Actalent

Actalent is a global leader in engineering and sciences services and talent solutions. We help visionary companies advance their engineering and science initiatives through access to specialized experts who drive scale, innovation and speed to market. With a network of almost 20,000 consultants and 5,000 clients across the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe, Actalent serves many of the Fortune 500. We are proud to be an Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 500 Design Firm for our engineering design services and a ClearlyRated Best of Staffing® winner for both client and talent service.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications without regard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any characteristic protected by law.

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, such as the modification or adjustment of the job application process or interviewing process due to a disability, please email actalentaccommodation@actalentservices.com for other accommodation options.

San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, for all positions located in the city and county of San Francisco, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Massachusetts Lie Detector: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): We may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support parts of our hiring process, including sourcing, screening, and evaluating candidates. AI helps assess applications and qualifications, but final decisions are made by our hiring team. By applying, you acknowledge and agree that your application may be reviewed using AI tools.

Salary : $75,000 - $85,000