Sr. Manager QA

The Senior Quality Assurance Manager leads the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of quality and food safety systems across the Columbus campus (Indianola, Allen and Quality Bakery). This role ensures campus-wide compliance with regulatory requirements (e.g., FDA, FSMA), customer expectations, and industry standards (e.g., GFSI, HACCP).

Acting as a strategic leader, this individual collaborates with the Sr. Director of Quality Assurance, plant leadership, R&D, operations, and corporate teams to harmonize quality practices, drive root cause analysis, and foster a culture of food safety and continuous improvement. The Senior Quality Assurance Manager provides technical direction to the site-level teams and Quality Supervisors, ensures audit readiness, and leads campus-wide initiatives to reduce risk and improve product quality across the campus. As a key member of the plant management team, this individual assists the plant manager in providing quality and food safety leadership to employees.

We kindly request that recruitment agencies and staffing firms refrain from submitting unsolicited resumes to our company. Any resumes sent without a prior agreement and access to proper submittal into the ATS will be considered the property of T. Marzetti, and we reserve the right to contact those candidates without any obligation to pay a fee.

Responsibilities

Essential Functions/Primary Responsibilities:

· Manage campus Quality team including Indianola, Allen and Quality Bakery

· Ensures compliance to quality, food safety and HACCP support programs; assures conformity to all company, customer and government standards.

· Develops a unified quality management system for the plants in the Columbus campus, ensuring standardization ensuring compliance with FDA, FSMA, GFSI, and customer requirements.

· Collaborates with Sr. Director of Quality Assurance focusing on cross-site quality trends, long-term goals, corporate alignment, and supporting plant team.

· Defines, refines, and enforces quality and food safety policies and standards across the campus in alignment with corporate FSQR policies and standards.

· Monitor production processes to ensure adherence to quality standards and address any deviations or non-conformances.

· Oversee the internal and external audits, including customer and third-party certification audits (e.g., BRC).

· Oversee the quality control testing, documentation, and reporting to ensure compliance with specifications.

· Identify facility and team training need to develop QA staff and production teams on food safety, quality protocols, and regulatory compliance and develop/deploy accordingly.

· Recommends and/or develops orientation and training programs for quality, food safety, GMP training. Assist members of the plant team in training as appropriate. Trains and instructs plant employees in recommended quality assurance testing and general housekeeping practices and advises on equipment design; confirms these procedures are being maintained.

· Oversee the corrective action process to ensure timely communication to consumers/customers and that robust investigation and plans are put into place to ensure no repeat issues arise.

· Collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive continuous improvement initiatives and ensure process optimization.

· Maintain up-to-date knowledge of food safety regulations and industry standards, ensuring the plant remains compliant and audit ready.

· Initiates, leads, and participates in various process improvement initiatives to identify and mitigate risk, improve process reliability and efficiency, and drive continual improvement in performance against key quality and food safety metrics.

· Makes recommendations and decisions involving food safety issues and quality issues having significant potential business impact to corporate and plant management.

· Coordinates plant quality and food safety audits (internal and third party). Works with plant manager to assign audit responsibilities to various members of the plant team.

· Serves as a key technical resource in plant and as a liaison between corporate R&D, Tech Services and plant operations.

· Leads the resolution of non-conformance issues/quality problems at plant facilities, warehouses, and in the market. Works with plant management team to develop corrective action plans and communicates plans to QA management, sales, marketing, other plant facilities and the customer as appropriate.

· Reports on key Quality Indicators to plant and corporate management and provides recommendations as needed.

· Establishes facility goals and objectives that align with corporate and plant goals. Coordinate with managers and supervisors to execute goals against strategy.

· Conduct ongoing team development through identified gaps, IDP process, and performance management.

· Supports and/or leads special projects as assigned by the Director pf Quality Assurance.

· Conduct Behavior Based Observations (BBO) as assigned.

· Identify and deploy methods to improve processes to reduce waste, improve productivity, improve quality and/or consistency.

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Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in food science, microbiology, chemistry, biology, or a related field (required) or 10-15 years of experience in progressive roles in quality and/or food safety, at least 5-7 years of leadership experience overseeing teams in a manufacturing or quality assurance setting, and proven track record of implementing successful quality systems, resolving compliance issues, and driving continuous improvement.

Advanced certifications or a master’s degree in food safety or quality management (preferred).

6-8 years of experience in quality assurance, food safety, or a related role in the food manufacturing industry.

Previous experience in supervisory or team leadership role.

PCQI certified.

In-depth understanding of HACCP, GMPs, SQF, and other food safety management systems.

Knowledge of regulatory requirements (e.g., FDA, USDA, FSMA, or local food safety laws).

Experience handling regulatory inspections (e.g., FDA, USDA) and third-party audits (e.g., SQF, BRC, or FSSC 22000).

Familiarity with laboratory testing techniques and equipment (e.g., microbiological and chemical analysis).

Competencies

Customer Focus

Decision Quality

Builds Effective Teams

Collaborates

Drives Results

Plans and Aligns

Manages Ambiguity

Courage

Working Conditions/Environment

Work in a laboratory and manufacturing environment where the employee is regularly required to speak, read, sit, stand, walk, reach, lift, grasp, and bend. Requires some lifting of moderately heavy items such as test equipment and product cases. The employee is regularly exposed to moving machines and handling of hazardous testing and sanitation chemicals. The noise level in the lab is moderate and loud in the plant. Hairnets, beard nets (if facial hair exists), earplugs, safety glasses and steel-toed/slip resistant shoes are required in the plant in accordance with company GMP and safety standards.

Regular Full-Time