The Manager, Food Safety Quality Assurance - Protein (Poultry highly preferred), is responsible for providing quality oversight of assigned category suppliers through product quality monitoring & audits, product commercialization, managing & resolving quality incidents, and creating & managing product specifications. Other responsibilities include assess processing capabilities of supply partners and develop & approve secondary products to match brand standards. This role will have a focus on poultry.

This position sits onsite at our Atlanta Support Center 4 days per week. After 1 year of employment, learning the role and culture, there will be more flexibility.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Support cost savings initiatives by Supply Chain via product matching & commercialization. Provide technical expertise to internal and supply partners during production scale up and rollout.
• Develop and maintain detailed product specifications to meet regulatory and company standards within Inspire Brands systems. Provide guidance cross functionally as needed during development, testing, and implementation.  
• Facilitate objective product cuttings with cross-functional teams to ensure compliance to specifications. Generate reports, monitor performance, and address negative trends and attributes outside of specification with Supplier. 
• Manage Quality Incident Reports (QIR’s) in product category by ensuring they are closed in a timely manner, monitoring for trends and emerging issues, collaborating cross functionally on issue investigations, and working with suppliers and distributors on corrective and preventive actions as needed. 
• Manage Product Audit Program via collaboration with 3rd party labs by conducting & reporting trend analyses of analytical and physical data.  Communicate product audit results to suppliers and validate & monitor corrective action plans.
• Perform periodic onsite audits of supplier facilities to ensure compliance to specification, company and quality assurance expectations, ensure corrective and preventive actions are sufficient.
• Execute comprehensive supplier facility reviews of both new and existing suppliers and monitor approved suppliers for performance against Inspire Brands standards.
• Maintain an Approved Products List & Product Catalog by supplier utilizing QA database.
• Maintain current and accurate records of all relevant communications, product audit reports, production data, commercialization reports, and corrective action plans for all approved and potential suppliers.
• Perform risk analysis on new food items and ingredients to determine inherent product risk. Implement and Monitor controls for identified hazards based on science and risk-based principles for identified products.
• Assist Crisis Management Team during Product Recall & Withdrawal execution & response. Manages product holds related to product category not meeting specification for quality.
• Monitor regulatory and industry activity for global crisis and emerging issues that impacts or potentially impacts Inspire Brands and escalate concerns to quality leadership as necessary. 
• Perform other related duties, tasks, and projects as assigned.
• This role has 0 direct reports.

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE QUALIFICATIONS

• BS in Public Health, Meat Science, Food Science, Microbiology, Biology or related field
• Minimum of 6 years of commercialization, food safety and quality assurance
• Subject Matter Expertise in assigned category
• Food manufacturing experience required
• Poultry category management experience preferred

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS or ABILITIES

• Multiyear experience in managing effectively the above listed areas of responsibility
• In-depth understanding of assigned category
• A strong understanding of food manufacturing for multiple product categories with in-depth understanding of food safety and statistical process control.
• A strong ability to match & commercialize products to existing brand standards
• Strong ability to evaluate products via taste testing to validate all organoleptic attributes.
• Strong understanding of Federal food safety regulations
• In-depth understanding of Global Food Safety Initiative Audit Schemes
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail
• People and results oriented
• Bottom line management skills and strategic thinker
• Excellent presentation, and oratory skills

DECISION-MAKING AUTHORITY

• The Domestic Supplier Quality Manager is limited on the spend authorities as established by corporate governance.
• Authority to implement against all agreed upon and approved supply change strategy as directed
• Authority to implement process improvements in contracting once approved

TRAVEL

• Ability to travel up to 35%

 

Inspire is a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes more than 33,000 Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and SONIC restaurants worldwide.

We’re made up of some of the world’s most iconic restaurant brands, but we’re much more than just a restaurant company. We’re a team of hundreds of thousands who individually and collectively are changing the way people eat, drink, and gather around the table. We know that food is much more than a staple—it’s an experience. At Inspire, that’s our purpose: to ignite and nourish flavorful experiences.