Quality Manager

Job Title: Quality Manager – Pet Food Manufacturing

Job Description

The Quality Manager leads all food safety, quality, HACCP, and GMP programs within a manufacturing facility. This role ensures full compliance with customer, regulatory, and internal standards while driving continuous improvement across the plant. The Quality Manager oversees product quality from raw materials through finished goods, manages audits and investigations, and develops robust quality systems that support safe, consistent, and high-performing operations.

Responsibilities

• Lead, maintain, and continuously improve all food safety, quality, HACCP, and GMP programs within a manufacturing facility, ensuring alignment with customer, regulatory, and internal company standards.
• Manage product quality throughout the entire process, from raw materials through finished goods, including oversight of testing, release decisions, non-conformance investigations, and implementation of corrective and preventive actions.
• Oversee the intake, investigation, and resolution of customer complaints, food safety incidents, and quality issues, ensuring thorough root cause analysis and effective corrective actions that drive continuous improvement.
• Lead and coordinate internal audits, customer audits, third-party audits, and regulatory inspections, ensuring ongoing compliance with food safety and quality requirements and timely closure of any findings.
• Develop, implement, and maintain quality systems, standard operating procedures (SOPs), key performance indicators (KPIs), and reporting processes to monitor, control, and improve plant quality performance.
• Build, promote, and sustain a strong quality and food safety culture by developing and delivering employee training on HACCP, food safety, hygiene, GMPs, and quality requirements.
• Manage and develop the Quality team, including hiring, training, coaching, performance management, and supporting employee development and succession planning.
• Partner closely with plant leadership and cross-functional teams to support operational decision-making, align on quality objectives, and drive continuous improvement initiatives across the site.
• Ensure effective documentation, record-keeping, and data integrity for all quality and food safety programs, enabling traceability and regulatory compliance.
• Use data and trend analysis from complaints, non-conformances, audits, and KPIs to identify systemic issues and implement sustainable process improvements.

Essential Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science or a related field.
• Multiple years of experience in food manufacturing quality assurance or quality control roles.
• Multiple years of leadership experience managing quality or food safety teams.
• Strong understanding of Food Safety and Quality Management Systems in a manufacturing environment.
• Hands-on experience with HACCP development, implementation, and verification.
• Experience with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) and food safety programs.
• Demonstrated experience managing regulatory compliance, including familiarity with FDA requirements.
• Proven experience leading quality investigations, including non-conformance management, complaint handling, and corrective and preventive actions (CAPA).
• Experience managing internal and external audits, including regulatory inspections and third-party assessments.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to conduct root cause analysis and implement effective corrective actions.
• Effective leadership, coaching, and team development skills.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills to work effectively with plant leadership and cross-functional teams.

Additional Skills & Qualifications

• Experience in pet food manufacturing environments.
• Experience with retort processing and associated quality and food safety controls.
• Knowledge of BRC, FSSC, and other Global Food Safety Standards.
• Experience leading continuous improvement initiatives focused on quality and food safety.
• Familiarity with structured root cause analysis tools and methodologies.
• Experience developing and tracking quality KPIs and using data to drive decision-making.

Work Environment

This role is based in a manufacturing facility operating on a first-shift schedule, Monday through Friday. Core hours are typically 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with the need for flexibility to support occasional after-hours and weekend activities, such as audits, incident investigations, or production support. The work environment includes regular presence on the plant floor in a food manufacturing setting, where the Quality Manager collaborates closely with operations, maintenance, and other functional teams to monitor processes, verify compliance, and support continuous improvement.

This is a Permanent position based out of Janesville, WI.

The pay range for this position is $80000.00 - $120000.00/yr.

Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.

Medical, dental, vision, 401K match, PTO and holiday

This is a fully onsite position in Janesville,WI.

This position is anticipated to close on Sep 7, 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 : $80,000 - $120,000