The Vice President, Quality Assurance will be responsible for development, deployment and adherence of Quality Standards for manufacturing and products. This includes tracking, analytics and process improvements of internal manufacturing quality, distribution center inspections and external quality. This role will also lead Continuous improvement efforts including transition from QC to QA. Quality Assurance interacts regularly with Operations, Sales/Customer Service and external customersAbout the Job:

• Responsible for establishing, implementing, and directing quality assurance efforts to ensure that requirements for processing components and other materials into finished goods and products conform to quality standards
• Through managers and professional staff, establishes and maintains quality assurance standards, procedures, and controls with internal and contract manufacturing
• Works directly with manufacturing to implement and manage quality assurance activities and to enforce requirements as specified by raw materials, ingredients, products and package specifications, and regulatory agencies
• Works with research and development during new product start-ups and establishes checkpoints for testing new products, new parts and processes
• Initiates corrective action for procedural product or process deficiencies
• Develop and deploy the quality system and appropriate metrics including criteria and standards in order to measure and reduce supplier quality issues, internal rework due to quality problems and to improve customer satisfaction levels
• Manage the material review board meeting process to maintain quality assurance, optimize usage of raw materials and reduce work-in-process and improves First Time Right
• Lead factory continuous improvement efforts, hoshin activities and global quality assurance processes to meet organizational goals and strategies
• Monitor and analyze plant internal auditing processes to drive quality assurance in manufacturing operations
• Manage departmental financial and resource budget
• Develop training in quality, problem solving and continuous improvement activities to raise the level of quality systems competence in manufacturing operations
• Other duties as assigned

What You Need:

• 7+ years of Quality Management experience
• 10+ years of experience in lean manufacturing, specifically lean operating system deployment
• Experience in plant transformation and change management
• Experience in Food Manufacturing required
• Expert knowledge of Six Sigma quality concepts and application of principles such as Design of Experiments, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, Analysis of Variances, Reliability and Repeatability, process characterization and use of  statistical software
• Familiar with Lean Manufacturing concepts and application of principles such as poka yoke, 5S, Kanban, value stream mapping, and work element analysis
• Demonstrated presentation skills, business acumen and conflict resolution experience
• Able to work effectively in a matrix organization to drive quality initiatives, balanced with owning and driving plant specific priorities
• A self-starter, action oriented, able to lead others, organized and detail oriented, able to work in a team environment, able to lead change, and constantly drive to improve processes
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Sciences or related field required
• Master's degree in Quality Systems, Business, Engineering  preferred
• Certifications in Lean, Six Sigma and Project Management desired