Associate Director, Co-Manufacturing Quality - Premier Nutrition

Here's what all the hype is about: Premier Nutrition Company (PNC) is one of the fastest-growing companies in the convenient nutrition space showing clear leadership in the category of protein shakes and protein powders. We make the brands Premier Protein, Dymatize, and PowerBar, which is sold internationally, and we are part of our holding company, BellRing Brands (NYSE: BRBR).

We have a simple, yet powerful, formula for our success, which we’ve been nailing for over 15 years. We start off with an organization powered by our company purpose—Changing Lives with Good Energy. Then our purpose-driven people are given the support and autonomy to develop and grow. Next, we are super-intentional about designing a culture where everyone feels like they truly connect and belong, which is one of our five company core values. Purpose-driven, connected employees who are consistently mastering new skills deliver amazing business results. And winning companies with amazing people and thriving cultures attract and retain top talent, so the cycle becomes self-reinforcing or what we call our regenerative culture.

We don’t mind sharing our formula since, as people who we believe in the power of changing lives with good energy, we think the world would be a better place if more workplaces treated adults like adults and gave them the platform to do the best work of their lives—alongside some truly amazing colleagues. Why don’t more companies do this? It takes deep-in-your-bones conviction to your people, products, and purpose to pull it off. It also takes resisting the urge to try to control people, and instead trusting them to make the right decisions. The results of our vibrant culture speaks for themselves: We were certified as a Great Place to Work™ for the 8^th year-running in 2024. And we currently rank #2 on Fortune Magazine’s Best Workplaces in our category, and in the top 12 for each of the last 5 years.

We have a long list of ways we take care of our people, but here are some crowd-pleasers that our employees often say they love most: Year-round ½ day Fridays, in-office massages, free lunches & snacks, dogs in the office, month-long cultural and diversity celebrations, monthly over-the-top in-office events like bring your kids to work day, 6% 401k match after 1 year, as-needed sick leave, generous paid family leave regardless of gender, all positions bonus-eligible, company-wide volunteer days, company-matched charitable donations, no employee handbook, no dress code, coaching conversations instead of performance reviews, walking meetings, free exercise classes, and company-paid gym membership for Emeryville-based employees.

PNC seeks individuals who will flourish in this type of work environment and will add to our culture and help build this high-growth company for the next phase in our amazing journey. Does this sound like you? Then read on…#LI-hybrid

The role you’re interested in…

PNC is looking for an experienced leader ready to help us continue to build our Quality team as an Associate Director of Co-Manufacturing Quality. This individual will be responsible for managing Quality for our co-man network. The person in this role will be responsible for overseeing the Food Safety and Quality at these sites, continuously improving our Quality System, and driving process and consistency for the Co-Manufacturing Quality team.

Must be able to travel up to 50%.

The work environment…

So, what’s it like to work here? If you’re based in the greater Bay Area, you’ll walk into our Emeryville office each Tuesday morning and start the in-person portion of our hybrid work week at our weekly all-company meeting and find close to 200 of your colleagues sitting on sofas, beanbag chairs, or the floor excitedly talking through the week ahead and watching a newer teammate tell their personal life and career journey followed by a quick update on any hot topics that might be relevant to the week ahead.

We are a dynamic, HYBRID workplace so every employee who lives within 100 miles of our offices is expected to come in each TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY. We aligned on those two common days way back in 2021 to be intentional about connecting in person for things like innovation, impromptu collaboration, having respectful challenges to get to better decisions, leadership role-modeling, and culture building. Great work cultures are built on stories about what great looks like in practice, and great stories on Zoom meetings are few and far between.  The expected pay scale for this role is $180k to $190k, which may vary based on relevant experience, qualifications, geographic area (if applicable), and internal equity for the role.

Our modern 50,000 sq. foot headquarters straddles the border of the cities of Emeryville, Oakland, and Berkeley, California with free onsite parking and many transportation options.

You’re excited about this opportunity because your time will be filled with…

Co-Manufacturer Quality Management: 30% of your time

• Manage and be accountable for the relationship with external manufacturing quality departments
• Monitor performance to specifications and drive improvements where necessary
• Assure that all activities are documented

Issue Resolution: 20% of your time

• Problem identification, resolution, and continuous improvement
• Proactive analysis of complaint trends
• Thorough investigations and analysis of results
• Analyze supplier related defect data to determine root cause
• Ensure that the supplier deviations’ technical rationale and corrective actions are acceptable and appropriate
• Partner with suppliers to develop compliant solutions / improvements for PNC’s products / processes

Personnel Management: 25% of your time

• Effectively manage and develop members of your team, to enhance our corporate culture and support the growth of individual team members, the team and the company
• Identify and develop process improvements and implement as best practices across the department

Compliance Follow-up and Reporting: 15% of your time

• Assure all required documentation is up to date at all times
• Design and implement system improvements to assure readiness for growth
• Improves and establishes performance tracking and reporting to assure continuous improvement

The daily stuff that everyone does but few quantify: 10% of your time

• Attending meetings and presentations
• All hands, team, and cross-functional meetings
• Participating in company-wide activities and events galore
• Impromptu conversations with colleagues
• Administrivia like email, calendaring, expense reports, and other non-value-added work

What are we looking for?

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in related field (Food Science, Microbiology, Engineering, etc.)
• Must be PCQI certified

Experience:

• 8+ years of experience in Quality, with experience working with contract-manufacturers
• 3+ years of experience managing personnel

Skills and mindset:

• Ability to manage and balance multiple priorities
• Strong understanding of Quality and Food Safety principles, process control and statistical analysis

So, if after reading through this long list you’re thinking—I’m not sure I meet 100% of these requirements, should I still apply? YES—if you embody a growth mindset, see challenges as opportunities to develop, and find innovative ways to get the real work that matters done, you sound like our kind of candidate!

The 5 capabilities or mindsets most relevant to this role:

1. Drive and own results
2. Be a builder
3. Start & end with consumer
4. Challenge ideas respectfully
5. Bring people along

You will thrive here and may just do the best work of your life if…

• You want to be an integral part of shaping and nurturing an amazing work culture
• You like trying out novel minimum viable product people-related ideas
• You can be flexible in your approach to people challenges and abandon past practices if they don’t make sense or would lead to a poor outcome
• You are comfortable being natural, casual, open, and even a bit playful at work
• You can be friendly, vulnerable, and self-deprecating in one moment, and deal with a challenging, delicate people-related matter as a professional in the next
• You can do periods of focused, deep work on projects that drive the needle

This may not be your ideal next career move if…

• You like order, hierarchy, command and control management
• Dealing with ambiguity or experimentation are not your jam
• You try to resolve challenging interpersonal situations over email or instant messaging
• You like managing from behind your computer and demonstrating excellence through email
• You tend to chase whatever shiny object presents itself during the day even if non-strategic                                                

Here’s the deal with our not-so-standard, um…standard interview process because we know you are the curious type, which is why you’re still reading this…

• Quick 30 min phone chat with a high energy member of our Talent Acquisition team to do a quick overview of your background and answer any burning questions you have
• Team interviews are kept to a minimum to foster a more efficient, candidate-friendly process (too many interviewers yields little value and drags out the process for you—and who wants that, right?):
• A short series of in-person or video interviews in a 1:1 setting; these are usually with the hiring manager, one or two other team members, and a person from another team to get broader perspectives (note: we don’t do panel interviews because they don’t give interviewers a chance to ask you unique questions, and we assign interviewers different roles so we’re probing different capabilities)
• A case study or job task to simulate what you’d actually be doing in the role (since your job is not actually to be interviewed for a living, why is that the thing companies rely on so much?) Yes, there will be a small panel for this one so you don’t have to do it more than once, and yes, they might ask you some kind yet probing questions at the end after the raucous applause stops.
• Once your interview concludes, the team will meet for an in-depth consultative process to ensure we are hiring the right person for the right job. Interviewers must come in with a strong yes or no vote beforehand to avoid groupthink with supporting reasons. The collective thoughts on your candidacy will be discussed in an environment of safety to challenge ideas respectfully, debate. and be open to all important qualifications of the candidates.  A trained, disinterested bias blocker will be present to help mitigate bias so the team can make a sound hiring decision. The moment of truth arrives when the hiring manager makes the big decision. If you nailed the interviews and the case study was brilliant, guess what? The offer is all yours! And the ball is in your court. Will you accept? We sure hope so because this place is the real deal, and don’t just believe us—just ask the 93% of our people who said this is a great place to work in our most recent employee survey.                                                                                          

We strive to create an equitable and inclusive environment to contribute to the success of our organization.  Premier Nutrition provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, status as a covered veteran and any other category protected under applicable federal, state, provincial and local laws.