Corporate Quality and Regulatory Manager

PURPOSE OF POSITION 

The purpose of this position is to lead a team of other quality professionals to ensure that the company complies with all regulatory, company, and customer requirements in relation to food safety and quality management.  This role will involve developing, implementing, and maintaining essential protocols and systems to uphold the highest standards in product safety, quality, and customer satisfaction. 

The individual will interact with leaders across the organization, directly with our customers, participate in industry events and be a thought leader in food safety and quality assurance for our respective end markets. This leader will be responsible for areas of quality including specification development, supplier approvals, customer documentation, product quality and both supplier and customer complaint management. Additionally, this leader will provide plant quality leadership support to our ever-expanding portfolio of ingredient processing sites. 

Food Safety and Quality Assurance: 

• Strategically oversee food safety and quality assurance functions, ensuring integration across all departments and levels within the organization.
• Collaborate with senior leadership to establish and enforce quality benchmarks, continuing to make quality a key  component of the company's value proposition.
• Proactively identify compliance gaps and improvement opportunities, implementing corrective actions to elevate our standards of food safety and product quality.
• Support crisis management efforts, including recall strategies and customer resolution, maintaining the company’s reputation and customer trust.
• Lead plant quality for selected Anchor owned sites; Lead/assist in efforts to quality new raw material suppliers, warehouses and third-party service providers
• Ensure up-to-date compliance with evolving food safety and quality regulations, preparing the organization for future changes and challenges in the pet and human food markets.
• Manage and enhance relationships with all third-party vendors to align with our quality and safety objectives.
• Identifying, document, and report suggested corrective action for continuous compliance and improvement
• Oversee maintenance and compliance of the Organic, Non-GMO, and Kosher programs
• Maintain product and packaging specifications database
• Support 3rdParty Audits (SQF, FDA, USDA, Customer, etc)

• Support annual evaluations of company policies and procedures with other key members of the Food Safety Team to ensure adequacy and compliance with all applicable requirements as well as identify opportunities to drive continuous improvement
• Assist in the development and implementation of internal quality documentation including product specifications, company certification, QA procedures
• Maintain internal quality procedures necessary for compliance with customer and 3rdparty requirements
• Identify and implement solutions to minimize potential risk exposure 

Leadership: 

• Foster a company-wide culture that prioritizes food safety and quality, leading by example and setting a high standard for all employees.
• Support the design and implement comprehensive training programs to educate employees at all levels about food safety practices and quality assurance protocols.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with departments such as marketing, sales, operations, and procurement to ensure alignment and effective communication of food safety and quality goals.
• Proactively identify opportunities to increase efficiencies and process improvement in the Quality department 
• Manage team members responsible for customer complaints/non-conformances
  • Oversee corporate quality team members
  • Hire, train and mentor team members
  • Coordinate the day-to-day activities associated with any customer complaints that are received by the company
  • Follow-up with the customer to acknowledge the notification of issue
  • Work with Operations and Plant Quality team to ensure customer complaints are followed up and corrective actions are adhered to
  • Coordinate effective communication and resolution of any customer product quality complaints 
  • Lead project management as it relates to corrective action, process improvement 
• Manage team members responsible for maintaining Customer, Vendor and Item documentation

• Train team on any updates or changes to the process as well as conduct retraining when needed
• Hire, train and mentor team members
• Participate in HACCP reviews for new products 

• Enhance Supplier and Customer Partnerships
  • Work alongside Sales and Customer Service Teams to ensure compliance with Anchor and customer requirements and product specifications

QUALIFICATIONS: 

The ideal candidate will possess the following: 

• Bachelor’s degree in related field
• Four years managing written quality programs
• Four years of supervisory responsibilities
• Strong working knowledge and direct experience with USDA, HACCP, GMP, FDA and SQF programs and audit processes
• Highly professional 
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills
• Proficient in Microsoft Office products including Outlook, Excel and Word
• Strong organizational skills
• Highly analytical in way of thinking
• Problem solving skills
• Ability to work with minimal direction 
• Meticulous attention to detail and accuracy in work product
• Ability to meet and establish deadlines

• Flexibility and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a team player

WORK ENVIRONMENT & PHYSICAL DEMANDS 

The work environment characteristics and physical demands described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

This job operates within a professional office environment.  While performing the duties of this job inside the office, the employee is frequently exposed to normal working conditions for an office environment with a noise level that is usually quiet to moderate.   This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, and filing cabinets.  

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear.  The employee may be required to stand for long periods of time as well as use hands or fingers to reach or handle, and to reach with hands and arms.  The employee is regularly required to stand, walk, climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee will occasionally lift and/or move up to 40 pounds. All vision abilities are required to encompass close-up work. On occasion, employees must be able to tolerate and endure extended seasonal hours and maintain alertness to meet deadlines. 

ABOUT THE COMPANY: 

Headquartered in Fargo, ND, Anchor Ingredients is the most customer-centric, innovative and transparent farm-to-food partner, dedicated to delivering premium ingredients and added value services to the food and pet food industries. Our farm-level relationships, combined with our global reach, allow us to efficiently procure and process ingredients from around the region and throughout the world, uniquely positioning us to fulfill our customers' diverse ingredient requirements. We take pride in our world-class team which boasts extensive industry experience combined with an unwavering dedication to our company’s mission, vision and values, and a commitment to delivering quality and innovation throughout the entire food supply chain.  

DISCLAIMER: 

This job description is not a complete description of responsibility, but reflects the general qualifications, duties and/or responsibilities necessary to perform this position. All candidates who receive a written offer of employment will be required to successfully pass a background check, as well as testing for commonly abused controlled substances in accordance with the company’s Drug Free Workplace Policy. Anchor Ingredients reserves the right to revise the job description as circumstances warrant. Anchor Ingredients is an at-will employer, which means that either the employee or the company may terminate the relationship at any time, with or without notice, and with or without cause. We are an equal opportunity employer.