Careers

The position of Vice President, Quality Assurance is available in New Orleans, LA. The chosen candidate will be responsible for the development, deployment, and adherence of Quality Standards for manufacturing and products. This includes tracking, analytics, and process improvements for internal manufacturing quality, distribution center inspections, and external quality. The role also involves leading Continuous improvement efforts and transitioning from QC to QA. Quality Assurance will regularly interact with Operations, Sales/Customer Service, and external customers.

About the Position:

• Establish, implement, and direct 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, establish and maintain quality assurance standards, procedures, and controls with internal and contract manufacturing
• Work directly with manufacturing to implement and manage quality assurance activities and enforce requirements specified by raw materials, ingredients, products, and package specifications, as well as regulatory agencies
• Work with research and development during new product start-ups and establish checkpoints for testing new products, new parts, and processes
• Initiate corrective action for procedural product or process deficiencies
• Develop and deploy the quality system and appropriate metrics, including criteria and standards, to measure and reduce supplier quality issues, internal rework due to quality problems, and improve customer satisfaction levels
• Manage the material review board meeting process to maintain quality assurance, optimize usage of raw materials, reduce work-in-process, and improve 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
• Perform other assigned duties

Requirements:

• Minimum of 7 years of experience in Quality Management
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in lean manufacturing, specifically lean operating system deployment
• Experience in plant transformation and change management
• Experience in Food Manufacturing is 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
• Familiarity 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
• 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 is required
• Master's degree in Quality Systems, Business, Engineering is preferred
• Certifications in Lean, Six Sigma, and Project Management are desired