Director of Quality Assurance

Job description

Within our flagship 1,000-person "Lemoore West" manufacturing facility located in Lemoore, California (45 minutes south of Fresno) - Leprino is seeking a highly qualified Director of Quality Assurance to continue moving our organization to even larger levels of food safety, product efficiency, and quality assurance. We take pride in our vision to be "world's best", it's why we work harder, invest more, and continually innovate.

• Report directly to the Vice President/General Manager (Plant Manager) while championing the Plant's Quality programs, processes, and systems to ensure that plant performance meets and/or exceeds company-wide expectations.
• Achieve top performance measured by the plant's key quality expectations: customer satisfaction, quality scorecard, customer complaints, product grading scores, in spec performance, problem product generation, standard deviations, master sanitation compliance, housekeeping, and sanitation performance.
• Manage six testing labs to include production floor support, hold & release functions, sanitation verification, and regulatory/customer audits.
• Lead, develop, and mentor multiple direct reports including Quality Managers and Supervisors within QA lab testing, sanitation, and production QA support.
• Champion core people development processes (hiring and promotion for success, technical/functional training, leadership development, and performance management) within the Quality Execution team.
• Drive process improvement and process efficiency within the QE department and Plant and must a motivated staff that assumes ownership for their testing procedures and results.

Scope of Responsibility:

• 3.6 billion pounds of incoming milk annually (10 million pounds of milk coming in daily!)
• 1,000 person/760,000 square foot manufacturing plant (the largest Mozzarella plant on Earth!)
• Lead a team (direct & indirect) of about a dozen exempt employees and over 100 non-exempt quality personnel.

You Have At Least (Required Qualifications):

• A Bachelor's degree in technical background in food technology, food science, dairy science, microbiology, or chemistry.
• 12 years of manufacturing/quality background in the food, beverage, or consumer products industry.
• Experience in Hold and Release, Sanitation, Laboratory (microbiological & chemical), Audits (customer & governmental), HACCP, PMO, and SQF.
• 8 years of production and/or quality assurance leadership in a food, consumer products, or pharmaceutical manufacturing environment. MUST have leadership experience of large quality teams of over 50 direct and indirect reports.

We Hope You Also Have (Preferred Qualifications):

• A Master's Degree in a related technical background.
• Strong manufacturing background in food, beverage, or CPG throughout the entire landscape including operations, engineering, maintenance, quality, and continuous improvement.
• Previous experience as a Plant Manager or Director of Quality Assurance.

Leprino Foods embraces diversity and equal opportunity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.

Offering You In Return:

A chance to be part of a global team of individuals passionate about producing and delivering high-quality products that help feed and nourish families around the world. Leprino Foods could not be where it is today without our incredible employees. That is why we share in our success together by rewarding you for your hard work. Hiring great people who are in it for the long run is our goal. Through competitive salaries and bonuses, life, medical/dental/vision coverage, voluntary benefits, employee assistance programs, wellness incentives, tuition assistance, vacation, nine paid holidays, sick time, annual merit increases, as well as the LFC Profit-Sharing & 401(k) plan. Your impact will be noticed and rewarded, as you seek to further our company, our customers, and one another.

Our Story:

Leprino Foods' history dates back over 65 years, when Jim Leprino first started making small batches of mozzarella for local markets and eateries in the Little Italy neighborhood of Denver. We've grown a bit since then. Today, Leprino is the world's largest manufacturer of mozzarella and lactose, and a leading producer of whey protein. Still owned by Jim and the Leprino family, our sights are set to be the "World's Best Dairy Food and Ingredient Company." To help us achieve that bold vision, we're looking for our secret ingredient: You. A motivated team member who is the best at what you do. Three people in a small corner grocery store in the early 1950s have now grown to over 4,300 employees throughout 16 global locations. Will you join us on our journey?