Quality & Compliance Specialist

About the role

The Quality & Compliance Specialist is responsible for ensuring that all products sourced, distributed, and sold by the company meet applicable quality standards, regulatory requirements, customer specifications, and internal expectations. This position works cross-functionally with Purchasing, Sourcing, Operations, Sales, Customer Service, and suppliers to maintain product integrity, minimize quality risks, resolve product issues, and drive continuous improvement throughout the supply chain. The ideal candidate is analytical, detail-oriented, collaborative, and experienced in quality systems within wholesale distribution, packaging, or manufacturing environments.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and improve the company's Quality Management System (QMS).
• Monitor supplier quality performance through scorecards, audits, corrective actions, and performance reviews.
• Review incoming product specifications to ensure compliance with customer and regulatory requirements.
• Conduct product inspections and quality evaluations as needed.
• Manage customer quality complaints from investigation through corrective action and closure.
• Analyze quality trends and identify recurring issues requiring process improvements.
• Ensure products comply with applicable federal, state, and industry regulations, including where applicable: FDA Food Contact requirements, Proposition 65, OSHA, EPA, CPSIA, ASTM standards, REACH, RoHS, TSCA, California packaging regulations, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements, Sustainable packaging initiatives.
• Maintain current knowledge of changing regulatory requirements affecting products and packaging.
• Maintain supplier qualification process.
• Review supplier certifications and documentation.
• Coordinate supplier audits.
• Verify testing documentation and Certificates of Compliance.
• Maintain approved supplier database.
• Ensure vendors meet company quality expectations.
• Maintain Accurate Records Including Product specifications, Test reports, Certificates of Analysis (COA), Certificates of Compliance (COC), Safety Data Sheets (SDS), Regulatory certifications, Corrective Action Reports (CAPA), Non-Conformance Reports (NCR).
• Maintain document control procedures.
• Identify opportunities to improve quality systems.
• Lead root cause investigations.
• Facilitate corrective and preventive action (CAPA) programs.
• Assist with Lean and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Develop quality metrics and dashboards.
• Partner With Purchasing, Strategic Sourcing, Product Management, Warehouse Operations, Sales, Customer Service, Supplier partners.
• Provide guidance regarding product compliance and quality concerns.
• Support Customer Requests By Providing Product certifications, Compliance documentation, Testing results, Regulatory statements, Quality questionnaires.
• Assist Sales with large customer quality audits.
• Establish standardized supplier quality scorecards.
• Reduce customer quality complaints through proactive corrective actions.
• Build a centralized compliance document library.
• Improve response time for customer compliance requests.
• Develop executive quality dashboards with key metrics.
• Strengthening supplier qualification and audit processes.
• Ensure consistent regulatory compliance across all product categories.
• Drive measurable improvements in product quality and supplier performance.

Skills

• Strong understanding of ISO 9001 principles
• Root Cause Analysis
• CAPA
• Supplier audits
• Statistical process improvement
• Quality documentation
• Packaging materials
• Food-contact packaging requirements
• Product testing
• Regulatory compliance