Quality Manager - Dairy

What You'll Be Doing

• Lead and continuously improve the site food safety and quality management system, including food safety plans, prerequisite programs, sanitation controls, environmental monitoring, document control, and records management.
• Ensure compliance with applicable regulatory, customer, and third-party requirements; serve as the primary site contact for inspections, audits, corrective actions, and follow-up activities.
• Oversee product and material compliance activities, including specifications, labeling, packaging verification, process controls, testing, calibration, and disposition of nonconforming product.
• Provide technical leadership for manufacturing operations, including verification of critical controls, sanitation and hygienic design programs, traceability, recall readiness, complaint investigations, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Support product launches, process changes, shelf-life and validation activities, and risk-based quality decisions across multiple product categories and manufacturing systems.
• Lead internal audits, root cause analysis, CAPA, KPI reporting, site training, and cross-functional collaboration to strengthen food safety culture and operational performance.
• Provide oversight for laboratory or external testing support, microbiological risk management, and specialized process controls relevant to the site's operations.

What You Bring With You (Qualifications)

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Dairy Science, Microbiology, Biology, Chemistry, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of quality leadership experience in dairy manufacturing environment required.
• Progressive experience in food safety and quality within a manufacturing environment; experience in dairy required.
• Strong knowledge of food safety plans, GMPs, sanitation systems, environmental monitoring, allergen controls, audit readiness, and quality management practices.
• Experience leading investigations, internal audits, CAPA, complaint management, traceability, recall readiness, and risk-based product disposition decisions.
• Experience in UHT, Aseptic or ESL (some combination of experience in 2 of 3) required.
• Willing to consider conventional fluid dairy experience.
• Demonstrated leadership of cross-functional teams, technical communication, data analysis, and the ability to influence operational performance.
• Experience with regulated manufacturing environments, certification programs, laboratory oversight, and specialized process controls relevant to the facility preferred.
• Pasteurized Milk Ordinance experience.
• HACCP, PCQI, SQF, certifications required.