QA Manager in Portage, Wisconsin at Pennsylvania Food Corporation

The QA Manager is responsible for leading the Quality Assurance function within a regulated food manufacturing environment. This role owns the site quality management system and ensures that products, processes, documentation, and facility practices consistently meet food safety requirements, customer expectations, regulatory standards, and internal quality specifications.

The QA Manager serves as the site leader for food safety, quality systems, audit readiness, product release, nonconformance management, customer complaint investigations, and continuous improvement of quality performance. This role partners closely with Operations, Sanitation, Maintenance, Regulatory, R&D, Procurement, Supply Chain, Commercial, and leadership teams to maintain a strong culture of food safety, compliance, accountability, and customer confidence.

Leadership & Food Safety Systems

• Lead the site Quality Assurance function and ensure consistent execution of food safety, quality, regulatory, and customer requirements across all shifts and production areas.

• Own and maintain the site quality management system, including policies, procedures, records, verification activities, corrective actions, and continuous improvement plans.

• Ensure compliance with FDA/FSMA requirements, GMPs, HACCP or food safety plans, allergen controls, sanitation standards, traceability, labeling requirements, and customer specifications.

• Champion a strong food safety and quality culture through visible floor presence, coaching, accountability, and clear communication of expectations.

• Establish and monitor quality KPIs, including product holds, customer complaints, nonconformances, audit findings, right-first-time performance, and corrective action effectiveness.

• Provide quality leadership during production, sanitation, maintenance, process changes, new product launches, and customer or regulatory events.

Audit Readiness, Regulatory & Customer Compliance

• Maintain ongoing readiness for customer, regulatory, third-party, and certification audits, including SQF, BRCGS, FSSC 22000, or equivalent GFSI-based programs as applicable.

• Serve as a key site representative during audits, inspections, customer visits, regulatory inquiries, and follow-up activities.

• Ensure quality and food safety programs, records, specifications, labels, traceability documentation, and corrective action files are complete, accurate, current, and audit-ready.

• Partner with Regulatory and Operations to interpret requirements, implement practical controls, and ensure compliance with federal, state, customer, and internal standards.

• Lead or support mock recalls, traceability exercises, internal audits, GMP inspections, sanitation verification reviews, and food defense or food fraud assessments.

Product Quality, Release & Nonconformance Management

• Oversee product quality evaluation, disposition, release, hold, rework, and rejection processes to ensure only safe, compliant, and specification-conforming product is shipped.

• Lead investigations for quality deviations, product holds, nonconformances, foreign material events, customer complaints, labeling issues, sanitation failures, and process deviations.

• Drive root-cause analysis, corrective and preventive actions, verification of effectiveness, and timely closure of quality and food safety issues.

• Partner with Operations, Sanitation, Maintenance, R&D, Regulatory, and Supply Chain to resolve quality concerns while protecting food safety, customer requirements, and business continuity.

Quality Programs, Documentation & Records

• Maintain and continuously improve quality programs, including GMPs, HACCP or food safety plans, preventive controls, allergen management, sanitation verification, environmental monitoring, supplier quality, calibration, traceability, and document control.

• Ensure QA records, production checks, lab results, pre-operational inspections, finished product evaluations, corrective actions, and verification activities are completed accurately and on time.

• Review and approve specifications, work instructions, inspection forms, test methods, quality procedures, and controlled documents.

• Maintain strong documentation discipline and ensure records are retained according to company, customer, and regulatory requirements.

Sanitation, Environmental Monitoring & GMP Oversight

• Partner with Sanitation and Operations to ensure effective pre-operational inspections, sanitation verification, environmental monitoring, allergen changeovers, and hygienic zoning practices.

• Monitor GMP compliance through floor audits, coaching, corrective actions, and escalation of repeat or high-risk behaviors.

• Evaluate environmental, microbiological, chemical, physical, and allergen-related risks and ensure appropriate verification, trending, and response actions are in place.

• Support hygienic design reviews, equipment changes, sanitation effectiveness improvements, and risk reduction initiatives.

Supplier Quality & Incoming Materials

• Partner with Procurement, Regulatory, R&D, and suppliers to ensure raw materials, packaging, ingredients, certificates of analysis, specifications, and supplier documentation meet requirements.

• Support supplier approval, supplier risk assessments, incoming material evaluations, nonconforming material investigations, and supplier corrective actions.

• Ensure receiving, storage, segregation, FIFO/FEFO, allergen control, and traceability practices support food safety and quality expectations.

• Communicate material quality risks, supplier performance concerns, and disposition decisions to appropriate stakeholders.

People Leadership & Culture

• Build, coach, and develop a capable QA team with clear expectations, technical competence, documentation discipline, and accountability.

• Manage quality team staffing, scheduling, training, performance feedback, goal setting, and development plans.

• Foster a culture of food safety ownership, fact-based decision making, urgency, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

• Partner with HR and leadership on workforce planning, talent development, succession planning, and organizational capability for the QA function.

Cross-Functional & External Collaboration

• Partner closely with Operations, Sanitation, Maintenance, Regulatory, R&D, Procurement, Supply Chain, Commercial, Engineering, and Finance to align quality execution with business needs.

• Serve as a quality representative in customer meetings, audits, product reviews, commercialization discussions, corrective action reviews, and supplier interactions as needed.

• Support new product introductions, customer onboarding, process validations, product troubleshooting, and technical quality communications.