Site Quality Leader

Responsibilities

• Drive a zero-accident safety culture across the quality control laboratories.
• Lead and develop the site quality organization.
• Ensure completion of required training and champion employee development.
• Oversee site Quality Control laboratories, including safety exposure reduction, testing, and release of raw materials, intermediates, and final products.
• Partner with site leadership team and the global operational quality team to establish long-term quality initiatives.
• Optimize QC processes with automated and online analytics for time-critical results.
• Ensure strong collaboration between QA and QC teams.
• Analyze product quality trends and implement proactive improvement measures (quality and cost).
• Collaborate across departments to identify and implement quality improvement projects to improve quality performance and customer satisfaction.
• Develop and implement initiatives to foster a proactive quality culture at the site across all levels.
• Implement initiatives
• Support and implement EHS, 5S, and continuous improvement programs.
• Work closely with regional business teams to hear the voice of the customer and work through these teams to establish relationships with key customers to improve customer experience.
• Drive customer complaint resolution to ensure the customer receives feedback quickly and receives a true root cause with corrective actions that will prevent recurrence.
• Implement and verify corrective actions for customer complaints and internal defects.
• Complete and/or elevate Complaint Credit Note DOA approval requests as needed.
• Maintain ISO 9001 systems or other business-required quality standards and effectively manage related audits, both internal and external.
• Coordinate the site’s shelf-life extension and Quality Waiver processes.
• Identify and execute investment projects for quality improvement and QC upgrades/replacements (QC equipment, online measurements, AI, digital solutions).
• Ensure successful preparation and completion of customer audits at the site.
• Ensure lunch and learns or other interactions are organized for a broad range of employees (both function and level) when customers are on site.
• Support Supplier Quality by ensuring all vendor non-conformances are identified and submitted via the site’s Supplier Corrective Action Request (SCAR) system.
• Utilize SQC data to proactively evaluate finished goods for changes.
• Implement a system to incorporate SQC into the release of key finished goods to ensure consistent quality performance.
• Conduct Quality Forward Looks (QFL’s) to proactively review key products and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Conduct Quality Risk Assessments (QRAPs) on all existing plant processes as well as for New Product Introductions (NPI’s) and New Product Translations (NPTs) to ensure production processes are designed to produce consistent high-quality products.
• Conduct investigations for significant and major quality incidents to identify root cause, corrective actions, and preventative actions.
• Report out to the appropriate level of the organization and share with other sites for cross-site learnings.
• Review New Product Introductions (NPI’s) and New Product Translations (NPT’s) to ensure proper QC testing capability and capacity exists.
• Work with the plant operations team to ensure the quality of new products is in control.
• Ensure a management of change (MOC) process is utilized for operational or quality control changes which could impact quality and/or testing.
• Review/approve MOC’s and issue customer notifications (PCNs) according to our global standards and customer agreements.

Qualifications

• 7 years of leadership experience in a processing industry
• Working knowledge of general and cost accounting principles
• B.S. in Engineering, Business, Science, Math, or related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• Prior experience implementing or working in LEAN operations structures
• Ability to present comfortably to the highest levels of the organization, including the ability to relate the material to the audience with relevant examples and analogies
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Proven ability to drive culture change