Food Safety & Quality Manager

At Schwan’s Company, we are driven to bring our customers delicious foods and reliable services. That's how we grew from a "one-man-and-a-truck" delivery business in rural Minnesota to a multibillion-dollar private company with thousands of team members nationwide. Our commitment to delicious foods shows in all we do, from careful ingredient selection and quality food making to delivering a great experience wherever you shop and eat.

The foods we make reach customers in many ways. We deliver directly to our customer's homes through our popular food-delivery business, offer well-known retail brands such as Red Baron®, Freschetta®, and Tony's® pizzas, Pagoda®snacks and appetizers, and Mrs. Smith's® and Edwards® desserts, and bring innovative food solutions to our customers in the food-service industry. To learn more, visit us at .

As a Food Safety and Quality Manager you will be responsible for managing the Food Safety & Quality (FSQ) and Sanitation functions for Schwan’s Ice Cream plant and Specialty Foods plant in Marshall, MN.

Plant Food Safety & Quality Executional Responsibilities:

• Directs activities necessary for the cleaning and sanitizing of production, packaging, dry storage areas, and production equipment in accordance with USDA (US Dept of Ag), SSOP (Standard Sanitation Operating Procedures), HACCP (Hazardous Analysis Critical Control Points), Preventive Controls (FSMA compliance), FDA (Food & Drug Administration), and overall good manufacturing practices.
• Serves as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) coordinator and Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) for the facility. Also serves at the on-site recall coordinator.
• Assures execution of daily product cuttings, specification approval, and SPC program execution.
• Serves as key contact with regulatory agency personnel (FSIS FDA Military State).
• Leads resolution and remediation utilizing plant and corporate resources of regulatory issues and requests. Leads resolution and remediation utilizing plant and corporate resources of customer food safety and product quality issues and requests.
• Maintains strong working relationship with appropriate personnel in each Schwan Business Unit and provides support and maintains involvement with follow-up regarding quality and/or food safety issues noted by customers.
• Responsible for the Food Safety of all products and processes (i.e. Hold management program Corrective Action program facility audits) and maintains identity preserved products.
• Responsible for specification compliance on ingredients, packaging, and finished goods.
• Responsible for maintenance of FSQ Documentation SharePoint site for facility, Coordinates annual employee training programs for Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP's), HACCP, and other food safety/quality issues as necessary. Coordinates preparation for and corrective follow-up actions for third party facility/program inspections.
• Directs trains and develops subordinates.

• Develops and implements food safety regulatory and quality strategic plan for site in concert with corporate strategic plan.
• Identify areas of need to drive greatest improvement in food safety quality and product consistency for the facility providing positive impact to plant driven metrics.
• Able to utilize and critically evaluate data from a variety of sources to identify root cause and lead teams towards resolution.
• Partner with key stakeholders to maintain active work on prioritized list of projects focused on improving product quality consistency food safety & regulatory compliance with regular updates on progress.
• Effectively leads projects to completion in timely manner with demonstrated results.
• Understand internal and external food safety & quality processes and report to facility leadership on quality issues trends and opportunities with the purpose of driving continuous improvement.
• Apply continuous improvement tools (SPC Lean Six Sigma etc) in problem solving data analysis and implementation of process improvements to drive product consistency and reduce product defects (consumer complaints, foreign material, amount of held product, etc.)
• Design and implement methods for process control, improvement testing, and inspection. Plan and conduct the analysis, inspection, design, test, and/or integration of processes to assure the quality of ingredients packaging work in progress (WIP) or finished product.
• Actively lead and support continuous improvement activities and projects to deliver improved product consistency and increase efficiency to impact the broader company and the FSQ team.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology Chemistry Food Science or equivalent. Masters degree preferred.

Years of Related Experience: 5 + years related experience. Quality Engineering with Six Sigma Green Belt experience preferred.

• Strong technical skills in area of focus (microbiology and/or chemistry) with ability to interpret general technical and scientific results and perform analytical tests.
• Sound mathematical and basic food science understanding.
• Strong understanding of food safety, HACCP, and basic food regulatory requirements.
• Working knowledge of basic quality control and quality assurance programs and concepts.
• Good knowledge of statistics and interpretation of experimental data.
• Basic understanding of the manufacturing environment and production operation.
• Basic knowledge of Statistical Process Control (SPC) applications.
• Strong analytic and project management skills, strong computer skills and ability to learn technical software. Proficient in Microsoft Office suite of programs with strong Excel skills.
• Proven people management and delegation skills and ability to effectively communicate both verbally and in writing with demonstrated influence management skills.
• Strong technical and business writing skills and strong presentation and leadership skills. Comfortable in small group and large group settings.
• Detail- oriented, take initiative, and ability to work with a sense of urgency in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to develop positive relationships and work cross functionally