Quality Assurance Manager

Founded in 1979, WG Provisions has provided customers with unsurpassed high-quality meats, smoke house creations, life-improving biomedical products and business-building order fulfillment services. For over 40 years, WG Provisions has offered quality products and exceptional service proven by our loyal, long-standing customers. We create relationships that deliver the consistent quality and service needed to overcome our customers’ challenges.  We're eager to talk to you!

Position Overview

For over 40 years, WG Provisions has produced high-quality, fully cooked meats including roasting pigs, smoked brisket, pulled pork, and more for their customers. WG Provisions is seeking a Quality Assurance Manager to help continue the care that is placed in their products every day.

The Quality Assurance Manager is directly responsible for the ongoing implementation and development of food safety and quality in our meat processing operations. The person in this role will also provide quality assurance mentoring to our Biomedical and Fulfillment teams.

As a key member of the operations management team, this person will work directly with government inspectors and production employees at our two processing facilities to ensure quality and food safety while maintaining a positive work environment. The Quality Assurance Manager oversees the HACCP plans, promotes approved processing procedures, and keeps accurate records. This position will verify and validate the food safety and quality assurance systems to ensure they are working properly while analyzing data to evaluate patterns and trends in results from quality testing. The Quality Assurance Manager will seek to improve operations by looking for efficiencies, processes, systems, and technology to improve WG Provisions’ products.

The position is based at our Smokehouse in Jewell, IA. You will also work at our Roasting Pig facility in Sidney, IA, and our headquarters in Ames, IA.

Responsibilities

• Sets quality standards and ensures that production is maintained at such standards via testing protocols
• Conducts and participates in initiatives to improve products and processes related to food quality, safety, and consistency through standard operating procedures (SOPs), sanitation standards (SSOPs), and good manufacturing practices (GMPs)
• Assists the Director of Operations in providing leadership to employees and participates/leads projects in conjunction with corporate QA/food safety management
• Oversees a network of procedures and documented processes beginning with receipt of raw products and packaging, through processing and distribution of finished goods
• Ensures manufactured products are safe, wholesome, and in full compliance with all applicable consumer and regulatory requirements.
• Serves as primary point person for USDA/FDA, etc.; understands and follows government requirements and regulations.
• Establishes relationships with direct reports and within all company departments to effectively cultivate a culture in which proper sanitation, food safety, food defense and quality goals are met.
• Prepares for internal and external food safety audits to ensure they are completed and successful.  Ability to conduct internal audits at each location.
• Identifies food safety and food defense risks and plans for addressing these risks.
• Establishes and provides training to all employees in food safety, food defense and quality assurance.
• Works with R&D process to identify potential food quality and safety issues; develops new product-specific quality assurance plans
• Leads shelf-life studies for current products, new products, and ingredients
• Assists with implementing new processes and technologies to further the company’s efficiency and quality levels.
• Provides Management and direction for Quality Supervisor and Food Safety Technician.
• Ensures confidential information and trade secrets, related to food quality, manufacturing, formulas, and customer information, are maintained. Protects the company’s rights in ownership of those trade secrets and confidential information.
• Responsible for the implementation of the SQF program and has the authority to take appropriate action(s) to ensure the integrity of the SQF system is maintained.
• Ability to perform and document sensory evaluations.
• Other duties as needed to assist in quality improvements of our meat processing, biomedical and fulfillment operations.

Qualifications and Skills

• Food Science, Animal Science, Meat Science, or similar bachelor’s degree required.
• Minimum 5 years of food safety and quality assurance experience preferred
• HAACP training through classroom experience preferred.
• Experience in a cooked meats or meat harvest facility preferred.
• Ability to work in an interdisciplinary and distributed team.
• Strong process, analytical, attention-to-detail and problem-solving skills
• Role model for sound judgment, personal responsibility, and team player
• Highly organized, self-motivated, responsive
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent time management skills, ability to prioritize work and meet deadlines
• Passion for quality in the agriculture, livestock, and meat industry

Reporting:  Formal reporting to President, informal reporting to Director of Operations

Equal Employment Opportunity Employer

WG Provisions is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

E-Verify

WG Provisions provides the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with information from each new Team Member’s Form I-9 to confirm work authorization. IMPORTANT: If the Government cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, we are required to provide you written instructions and an opportunity to contact SSA and/or DHS before taking adverse action against you, including terminating your employment. We do not use E-Verify to pre-screen job applicants or to re-verify current employees and may not limit or influence the choice of documents presented for use on the Form I-9. To determine whether Form I-9 documentation is valid, we use E-Verify’s photo screening tool to match the photograph appearing on some permanent resident and employment authorization cards with the official U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) photograph. If you believe that WG Provisions has violated our responsibilities under this program or has discriminated against you during the verification process based upon your national origin or citizenship status, please call the Office of Special Counsel at 1-800-255-7688 (TDD: 1-800-237-2515).

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.