FSQA Operations Manager - Corporate in Loves Park, Illinois at TH Foods, Inc.

Position Summary:

The FSQA Operations Manager is a corporate-level position responsible for leading and overseeing food safety, quality, sanitation, and laboratory programs across TH Foods manufacturing facilities. This role provides direct leadership, support, and strategic direction to site FSQA teams to ensure compliance with company policies, regulatory requirements, customer expectations, and industry best practices. The FSQA Operations Manager partners closely with Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, and other cross-functional teams to drive continuous improvement in food safety and quality performance. Additionally, this position is responsible for ensuring laboratory capabilities, sanitation programs, and technologies effectively support business needs and operational excellence. The FSQA Operations Manager reports directly to the Corporate FSQA Manager and serves as the primary liaison between corporate FSQA strategy and plant-level execution.

Essential Duties and Requirements include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

• Partners with the Corporate FSQA Manager to ensure FSQA programs and processes are compliant and up to date per food manufacturing requirements.
• Ensure Food Safety programs are aligned with regulatory requirements and current SQF standards. If there are unique Customer requirements, ensure these are considered in program design.
• Champion quality standards and quality policies (such as HACCP and internal auditing), with skills and ability to execute against requirements.
• Bring leadership and reliability to Sanitation Programs (including MSS, verification and validation of cleaning, and plant environmental program).
• Bring leadership and consistency to plant level continuous improvement efforts, to support operational plans.
• Create the development of problem-solving techniques and corrective action planning with manufacturing functions. This includes standardization of documentation and reporting.
• Oversee the FSQA metrics and trends for the plants to determine quality performance.
  • Monitor reporting and trending in order to communicate results to the organization, in partnership with the Corporate FSQA Manager.
  • Responsible for developing improvement initiatives, and report out progress.
• Provide coaching and mentoring for the plant FSQA function, taking responsibility for the functions performance management and development.
• Execute regular coaching sessions with direct reports to leverage potential and improve performance.
• Collaborate with all stakeholders to improve performance of production lines, with a key focus on quality and sanitation.
• Assists with all aspects of new product development, production trials, test sampling and production test runs of new materials and finished products as needed.
• Adhere to personnel safety policies and procedures as well as promoting personnel safety to direct and indirect reports.
• Design effective Quality and Food Safety training for all levels of the organization.

.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This position provides direct leadership and supervision to site FSQA Managers, who are responsible for leading, developing, and managing FSQA Supervisors, Technicians, and Sanitation teams within their respective facilities.

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Essential Skills

This position requires exceptional FSQA knowledge in a food manufacturing environment, as well as a high level of planning, organizing, analytical, problem solving, communication, and team facilitation skills.

This position further requires computer literacy, orientation to detail, quick decision-making ability and a high service orientation.

Educations Level: Undergraduate degree in Food Technology, Biology, Life Sciences, Chemistry, Microbiology, or equivalent.

Related Experience: Minimum 8 years of directly related food industry experience, including supervisory experience. Experience with FDA and other third-party auditing entities a plus.

Licenses / Certificates: HACCP, PCQI, and Food Defense certifications preferred.

Expertise Level: Knowledge of quality assurance / food safety concepts, practices, and procedures to handle complex tasks and give experienced guidance to others.

Hours of work vary and may include traditional office hours as well as non-traditional (night shift, weekends).

Language Skills

This position requires the ability to read, write and speak English in order to: read requests for proposals; contracts, correspond and communicate with current and prospective customers, employees, auditors and make presentations when required.

Mathematical Skills

Mental ability is required to complete business required math and formulas, ability to manage all data processing needs of the company, ability to maintain self-control during high degree of stress periods.

Computer Skills

This position requires at least intermediate level knowledge of MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint.

Reasoning Ability

Dealing with customers, employees, and others in the accomplishment of the goals of the company.

Physical Ability

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit and talk or listen. The employee frequently is required to use hands to finger, handle, or feel. The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, and reach with hands and arms.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics 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.

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.