Sr. Quality Improvement Leader

Overview

Join Riverside Natural Foods Ltd., a $300 million+ Canadian-based, family-owned, and globally operating business. As a B-Corp certified, Triple-Bottom Line company, we proudly manufacture nutritious, 'better-for-you' snacks such as Made Good and GOOD TO GO. We value teamwork, humility, respect, ownership, adaptability, grit, and fun. We’re on an ambitious mission to double our business by 2027, and we invite talented individuals to help us reach new heights.

Learn more about us at

Position Summary/Objective

The position ensures successful ongoing improvement of Riverside’s Food Safety and Quality Assurance System by providing leadership through strong knowledge and experience of managing food safety and quality incidents, conducting root cause analysis, risk assessment, CAPA program and meeting food safety and quality targets. You will be responsible for initiatives to enhance the food safety and quality performance of products and processes within Riverside Natural Foods Ltd.

Our team is passionate about Riverside’s values and purpose, solving problems, food safety, quality (delighting our consumers) and always leading with a continuous improvement mindset.

• Demonstrate and uphold Riverside Natural Food’s core values.
• Manage food safety and quality incidents (investigations, root cause analysis, data collection, etc.), including consumer and customer complaints, product holds, internal non-conformances to ensure product safety and quality.
• Lead investigation and root cause analysis to identify issues affecting food safety and quality of products and processes; place necessary products on hold in SAP systems.
• Review and analyze data from food safety records and quality verification checks to identify trends and areas for improvement and implement corrective action.
• Lead cross-functional teams to identify opportunities for food safety and quality improvement by addressing root causes, writing incident reports, and ensuring comprehensive action plans are implemented and completed to prevent future issues.
• Collaborate with Production, Sanitation, Maintenance, Engineering, Facility, R&D and other departments to implement and sustain food safety and quality improvement initiatives.
• Ensure consistent execution of current Food Safety and Quality Management Programs, internal procedures, and compliance with BRC requirements.
• Establish, develop, implement and monitor food safety and quality improvement strategies, plans and KPIs aligned with organizational goals; communicate and report progress to stakeholders.
• Use statistical methods, data analysis and sampling plans to track product and process performance; identify specifications, build run charts, and create control charts in collaboration with R&D and production teams.
• Develop, update and implement improvement policies and procedures and Food Safety and Quality plans.
• Identify training opportunities and ensure employees are trained in food safety and quality improvement methodologies and tools (e.g., root cause analysis, hazard analysis, risk assessment, CAPA).
• Promote a culture of excellence and continuous improvement across the organization.
• Develop innovative solutions to food safety and quality issues and provide status reports on improvement projects to senior leadership.
• Comfortable working across different shifts when needed.
• Maintain a positive, constructive work atmosphere.
• Other duties as assigned to support the execution of FSQA programs.

Reports directly to the plant FSQA Leader. Plant FSQA leaders report to corporate. There are no direct reports.

• Diploma or degree in Engineering, Food Science and Technology, Chemistry, Microbiology, pharmaceutical or related disciplines.
• A minimum of 5 years of FSQA experience in food manufacturing and relevant food safety and quality programs in similar roles (Quality improvement, continuous improvement, process improvement).
• Experience with highly automated food manufacturing lines for continuous and batch processes.
• Strong understanding of hazards analysis, HACCP, GMPs, FM prevention, microbiology, pest control and other food safety related programs.
• Lean Six Sigma - Green Belt certification and experience in a quality improvement environment with demonstrated project application on production sites.
• Strong understanding of statistics, product sampling standards/programs and SPC; experience with SPC tools such as Minitab.
• Understanding of commercialization processes, food safety and quality attributes and their impact.
• Experience in investigation processes, root cause analysis methodologies and corrective action plans (CAPA).

• Persuasive and assertive while also collaborative with diverse teams.
• Exceptional time management, organizational and implementation skills.
• Self-starter with initiative and adaptability.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with follow-through.
• Analytical with problem-identification and problem-solving…