FSQA Product Compliance Specialist - Home Chef
Chicago, IL
About the Job
Founded in 2013, Home Chef is the leading meal solutions company with both a retail and online presence. Available online at homechef.com and in retail at more than 2,100 Kroger grocery stores, Home Chef is committed to inspiring and enabling more people to cook simple, delicious meals, no matter how busy they are.
In 2023, Home Chef introduced a new brand, Tempo! Tempo features a rotating selection of ready-to-heat meals delivered directly to your door. These meals are better-for-you versions of familiar favorites, designed to save you time and reduce stress while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Our Tempo menu includes options that are protein-packed, fiber-rich, calorie and carb conscious, keto-friendly, and dietitian-approved.
Similar to our recipes, we recognize that variety is the spice of life, and therefore, our employees also bring their uniqueness and color to our fantastic team. We're eager to work with humble team players and pragmatic next-level thinkers to innovate on Home Chef's offerings.
The Corporate Food Safety and Quality Assurance (FSQA) Product Compliance Specialist is responsible for ensuring that product teams and operations adhere to established food safety and quality guidelines. This role involves collaboration across departments such as Culinary, New Product Development, and Operations to ensure compliance and support product innovation. The specialist will also investigate supplier-related customer complaints, lead problem-solving efforts, and support root cause analysis to ensure continuous improvement and product safety.
Detailed Responsibilities
Ensure Compliance with Specifications and Formulation Guardrails
- Monitor and evaluate product compliance to ensure that all teams adhere to established food safety and quality standards.
- Collaborate with product teams to review formulation specifications and guardrails, ensuring alignment with regulatory requirements and company policies.
- Conduct regular assessments of operations to verify that food safety protocols are consistently followed.
Facilitate Product Innovation Initiatives
- Work closely with Culinary, New Product Development, and Operations to support the development of new products and processes.
- Ensure that food safety and quality concerns are addressed throughout product development and innovation stages.
- Lead project-based initiatives for product launches and process changes, ensuring compliance with food safety standards.
Investigate Critical Supplier-Related Customer Complaints
- Take ownership of investigating significant customer complaints traced back to supplier sources.
- Coordinate with suppliers to identify root causes of quality failures and recommend corrective actions.
- Work cross-functionally to ensure that all corrective measures are implemented promptly to prevent recurrence.
Support Problem-Solving and Root Cause Analysis
- Actively participate in problem-solving teams to address quality issues and customer complaints.
- Utilize root cause analysis (RCA), statistical process control (SPC), and other problem-solving tools to reduce process variation and enhance product quality.
- Ensure that corrective and preventive actions are established and followed up on.
Other Duties as Assigned
- Support FSQA management with additional tasks related to compliance, audits, and program improvements as required.
- Assist in training initiatives, report generation, and regulatory document preparation.
General Responsibilities
- Ensure compliance with all relevant food safety and quality management systems, including ISO, GFSI, SQF, and FDA/USDA regulations.
- Maintain awareness of emerging food safety trends and regulatory changes, proactively updating practices to stay compliant.
- Foster cross-department collaboration to ensure that food safety and quality are integrated throughout the business.
Qualifications
The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability needed for this role. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities.
- Minimum Bachelor's degree in food science, food technology, microbiology or related field. Preference will be given to candidates with a Bachelor's degree (Food Science, Animal Science, Biological Science or related)
- Minimum 2 years experience in quality assurance, food safety, food distribution, food manufacturing, or related field is preferred. A combination of higher education (i.e. masters degree) and industry experience will be considered
- Familiarity with statistical process control (SPC), root cause analysis (RCA) and/or other tools to reduce process variation and drive data driven decisions
- Previous experience with ISO, GFSI, SQF or FDA/USDA audits
- Experience designing and implementing food safety & quality management system
- Ability to problem solve and work in a fast-paced environment without a lot of supervision
- Proven experience communicating with a range of different stakeholders and strong presentation skills
- Willingness to travel up to 20% of the time
More About Us
Perks and Benefits
- Candidates can experience Home Chef as a customer - enter promo code PEOPLE30 for $30 off your first order!
- Medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance available
- Paid holidays, sick time and vacation time
- 401k program
- Flexible spending accounts for qualified medical, dependent care, parking, or transit expenses
How We Work Together
We are humble team players.
We are warm and gracious with team members and customers. We seek feedback to improve ourselves - and respectfully listen to and accept input.
We are pragmatic next-level thinkers.
We come up with novel and unique ideas. We explore new strategies to avoid being constrained by conventional thinking.
We take ownership.
We approach ambiguous problems, prepared to dive in, get curious, and learn more. We are results-driven, always challenging ourselves to exceed goals.
Be at Home at Home Chef
We all show up authentically at Home Chef. Our team includes individuals with a variety of identities, backgrounds, and perspectives. You can trust that you'll be able to bring your whole self to an inclusive and enjoyable workplace.
We welcome people of all races, colors, religions, national origin or ancestry, sex (including sexual identity), age, physical or mental disabilities, pregnancy, veteran or military status, unfavorable discharge from military service, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital status, order of protection status, citizenship status, arrest record or expunged/sealed convictions, or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state, or local law.
Home Chef is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Home Chef will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact our People team at hr@homechef.com.
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