Background

Food & Beverage Manitoba, a not-for-profit, industry-led association dedicated to promoting Manitoba’s vibrant food and beverage processing industry, is seeking a Quality Assurance and Food Safety Specialist to provide our members with guidance, support during the auditing process, and training, ensuring food safety outcomes for multiple concurrent clients.

Food & Beverage Manitoba enjoys stable funding and is on a strong growth trajectory. The organization provides relevant support to its members, ensuring they have the resources, strength, and conditions needed to be successful. We offer expertise and support in the areas that our members need most: developing new markets, training a skilled workforce, building human resource capacity, creating opportunities for networking and collaboration, and sharing critical information about domestic and international trade regulations and government programs.

This role will focus on providing training, consultation services, and support to companies ranging in size from 1-2 employees up to 50 employees, with the goal of ensuring compliance with food safety regulations. The successful candidate will also be comfortable delivering HACCP and other food safety training in group settings and possess an entrepreneurial spirit that will enable this position to become revenue-generating and self-sustaining within three years.

Summary

The Quality Assurance/Food Safety Specialist has extensive experience in developing and implementing sampling plans and procedures for testing product quality. They maintain standards by verifying that test results and audits comply with food safety regulations and requirements. They determine the optimal operating conditions for infrastructure and equipment and investigate technical faults or practices.

The specialist has experience developing standard operating procedures aligned with Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). They also establish regulatory requirements and guidelines in food safety management and control, such as the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system. This role involves collaboration with the training coordinator to ensure continuity between food safety training and consultation services, and the development of a sustainability plan to secure long-term industry support for this position. Additionally, they will create templates, worksheets, and toolkits to facilitate the easier implementation of food safety systems and serve as the primary liaison between government and industry on food safety issues.

The specialist will also support the development of a CFIA/HACCP-compliant food incubation production facility that can assist SMEs and start-ups in ensuring the highest level of food safety compliance, as well as facilitate the establishment of independent facilities.

Job Duties

• Analyze possible reasons for product defects and quality lapses.
• Investigate process deviations that may lead to product defects and quality lapses.
• Develop standard operating procedures and infrastructure requirements for laboratories, including optimal calibration standards in line with Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) requirements.
• Develop inspection and testing protocols for materials, products, and packaging.
• Create methods for testing the quality of materials, products, and packaging.
• Develop product and process quality metric reports.
• Create sampling plans for quality control purposes.
• Develop standard operating procedures that align with regulatory requirements, industry guidelines, and the organization’s policies.
• Maintain knowledge of food safety and HACCP principles, ensuring all yearly certifications are kept up to date.
• Establish standard operating procedures and conditions for the handling, storage, and preservation of samples.
• Implement plans and strategies to ensure the provision of safe food products.
• Inspect facilities, equipment, products, or production lines to ensure food is prepared according to safety regulations and health standards.
• Investigate technical faults and practices that impact laboratory equipment operations.
• Lead quality and food safety-related audits.
• Conduct traceability investigations to identify the source of quality lapses and other product issues.
• Oversee the implementation and documentation of corrective and preventive actions with other departments.
• Participate in quality management system reviews and promote quality and food safety policies to all personnel.
• Review reports and develop guidelines and standard practices for data documentation and analysis.
• Specify the protocols, laboratory infrastructure, and equipment to be inspected and tested.
• Verify the alignment of sampling documentation, testing activities, and procedures with established protocols to identify issues.
• Verify quality control records, test results, and reports for regulatory authorities.

Qualifications

Required

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in food production or a related industry.
• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science or a related field preferred.
• HACCP and SQF certification preferred, with a willingness to receive training to become a trainer in HACCP, SQF, or other relevant certifications.
• Proven work experience as a Quality Assurance/Food Safety Specialist or similar role.
• Working knowledge of tools, methods, and concepts of quality assurance.
• Solid knowledge of relevant regulatory standards.
• Ability to translate regulations into business processes and an understanding of quality control, quality management systems, and regulatory affairs related to food safety.
• Strong business acumen and a proven ability to translate regulatory compliance into business outcomes.
• Good communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to work with clients of varying sizes to implement food safety outcomes.
• Excellent data collection and analysis skills.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Relevant training and/or certifications as a Quality Assurance/Food Safety Specialist.
• Demonstrated personal leadership and a positive can-do attitude.
• Ability to quickly solve problems and make decisions.
• Flexibility and the ability to work in fast-paced and varying environments.
• Ability to work well with others in a team environment.
• Demonstrates model behavior that reflects corporate values.
• Leads by demonstrating ethics and integrity, displaying drive and purpose, showing the capability to learn, managing self, and increasing self-awareness.

Desired

• Experience working as a consultant and delivering results to several overlapping clients.
• Entrepreneurial approach with the ability to generate revenue.
• Experience integrating food safety and business outcomes.
• Knowledge of ESG and sustainability, or a willingness to learn.
• Knowledge of other business optimization techniques such as LEAN.

Salary

 $70,000 – $80,000 range

Please send all resumes and cover letters to Michael Mikulak, MichaelM@foodbeveragemb.ca

Deadline for consideration: September 6, 2024