The Corporate Food Safety & Quality Specialist is responsible for supporting the food safety & quality assurance functions within the company. The Corporate Food Safety & Quality Specialist is responsible for the key components of the Food Safety and Quality System, and may support in absence of the FSQA Manager. The role provides functional leadership to develop, implement, maintain and improve the site’s Food Safety & Quality Program.

Ensure plant is following Home Chef’s Food Safety & Quality Plan

• Responsible for implementing the Site Food Safety & Quality Plan, in partnership with Food Safety & Quality Manager and Superintendents
• Supports annual third party audit; oversee the development, implementation, review and maintenance of the SQF System including food safety & quality fundamentals, and the food safety & quality plan
• Take appropriate action to ensure the integrity of the SQF System;
• Communicate to relevant personnel all information essential to ensure the effective implementation and maintenance of the SQF System;
• Partners with Food Safety & Quality Managers, Superintendent, Operations and other key stakeholders to implement changes, new process or new products in a safe manner and implement product quality conformance system
• Provide technical expertise and conduct incident investigation and risk analysis as well as provide recommendations for appropriate resolution
• Support site error rate meeting discussions, identifying areas of improvement through data analysis and evaluation of trends
• Perform site related activities that support Home Chef’s food safety program including, but not limited to: allergen validation, EMP, and metal detection. When deviations occur, serve as point person for response, resolution, and prevention

Develop and implement food safety & quality management components

• Supports execution of the site internal audit program ensuring a robust corrective and preventive action (CAPA) process for all findings, responsible for on time completion of CAPAs
• Actively participate in root cause analysis, corrective actions and preventive measures, own the site CAPA process.
• Responsible for monitoring site food safety & quality verification activities. Collaborate with FSQA Site team and Operations partners to conduct the FSQA management review at planned intervals to ensure suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the FSQA management programs

Deliver training related to food safety & quality

• Support, the development of the FSQA onboarding process for all FSQA and QC roles; help develop training material and deliver training
• Ensure all FSQA and QC Associates and Leads have met all learning requirements after completing training programming. Responsible for Site FSQA training tracker.

Support problem-solving and root cause analysis related to food safety & quality issues

• Analyze FSQA data and trends including but not limited to: customer complaints, hold management, environmental monitoring, and/or receiving data and provide recommendations to management where unacceptable FSQA results have been identified
• Assist with process improvement projects as needed
• Partners with the Customer Support team and Site Food Safety & Quality teams to investigate customer complaints within an appropriate time frame.

• Communicates with co-workers in a professional manner
• Treats co-workers with respect at all times
• Employs effective teamwork skills to collaborate with Production
• Willingness to work nights, holidays, and/or weekends as needed

• Follow the facility GMPs and help enforce them throughout the facility
• Support the efforts of the company to maintain our food safety system (SQF) and quality programs

• Minimum Associate’s degree in food science, food technology, microbiology or related field. Preference will be given to candidates with a Bachelor’s degree (Food Science, Animal Science, Biological Science or related)
• Minimum 2 years experience in quality assurance, food safety, food distribution, food manufacturing, or related field is preferred. A combination of higher education (i.e. masters degree) and industry experience will be considered
• Familiarity with statistical process control (SPC), root cause analysis (RCA) and/or other tools to reduce process variation and drive data driven decisions
• Previous experience with ISO, GFSI, SQF or FDA/USDA audits
• Experience designing and implementing food safety & quality management system
• Ability to problem solve and work in a fast-paced environment without a lot of supervision
• Proven experience communicating with a range of different stakeholders and strong presentation skills
• Willingness to travel up to 25% of the time

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance – benefits start the 1st day of the month following your start date
• Company-paid Life Insurance, Short Term Disability, and Long Term Disability
• 401(k) Employer match
• Flexible spending accounts (FSA) for qualified Medical, Dependent Care, Parking, or Transit expenses
• Flexible paid time off (PTO) policy, holidays and sick time
• Generous Parental Leave
• State-of-the-art office in the historic Old Post Office building in downtown Chicago, close to multiple Metra and CTA options, and amenities such as a food court, onsite gym, and communal rooftop space
• Discounts on Home Chef meal kits and at Kroger stores
• Casual dress in a fun, friendly, and collaborative work environment