Food Safety and Quality Scientist

JOB DESCRIPTION

Provide technical leadership to assure safety/quality of Our Brands (OB) products. Work to approve OB products and manufacturing plants; ensure all packaging meets legal requirements. Monitor quality of procured OB products. Demonstrate the company's core values of respect, honesty, integrity, diversity, inclusion and safety.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Analyze customer comments; partner with manufacturing facilities to resolve product quality issues
• Collaborate with product development teams to maintain/improve finished product specifications
• Develop/provide guidance to implement, achieve and maintain Safe Quality Food (SQF) level 3 certification at Kroger manufacturing facilities
• Oversee factory compliance and interactions with SQF certification body
• Develop/analyze statistical data/product specifications to determine present standards; establish proposed quality/reliability expectations for finished products
• Manage, develop, maintain and ensure SQF policies, procedures, training materials, logs, documentation, certificates of analysis (COAs), product specification sheets and records meet SQF level 3 certification requirements
• Provide guidance to manufacturing facilities to develop, maintain and improve food quality plans for all processes (e.g. inspection plans, product testing protocols and methodologies)
• Oversee root cause/corrective action processes to ensure timely completion and thorough analysis of root cause/corrective actions, as well as effective implementation of sustainable changes to prevent reoccurrence
• Follow established programs, policies and practices to produce safe quality foods that meet regulatory and company requirements
• Accountable to the Kroger Manufacturing Food Safety and Quality Principles
• Must be able to perform the essential job functions of this position with or without reasonable accommodation

• Bachelor's Degree in food science technology, dairy science, bakery science, food microbiology or related field
• 2+ years experience in a food-related position/industry
• Advanced knowledge in a specialized area (e.g. food microbiology, refrigerated foods, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations, specialty ingredients or supplement regulations)
• Strong critical thinking skills and attention to detail with a high degree of accuracy/precision
• Strong oral/written communication skills
• Demonstrated excellence in project planning, problem solving and execution
• Advanced Microsoft Office skills

• 2+ years experience in quality assurance and quality control/quality systems
• Plant experience in quality assurance
• Experience with statistical process control (SPC) and Lean/Six Sigma
• Experience implementing/maintaining robust quality systems (e.g. ISO 9001, 22000, SQF, BRC, etc.)
• Proficient with product lifecycle management (PLM), Infinity and SharePoint