QA Manager - Food Safety & Quality

Location: Vineland, New Jersey
Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Work Location: On-site

Position Summary

Bridor USA is seeking an experienced QA Manager - Food Safety & Quality to lead the Quality Assurance, Food Safety, Quality Control, and regulatory compliance functions at its high-volume bakery manufacturing facility in Vineland, New Jersey.

The QA Manager will be responsible for developing, implementing, maintaining, and continuously improving the facility's Quality Management System and Food Safety Management System. This position will ensure that Bridor's products consistently meet regulatory, customer, certification, and internal quality requirements.

This is a highly visible, hands-on leadership position that works closely with Operations, Sanitation, Engineering, Maintenance, Supply Chain, R&D, and other cross-functional partners. The successful candidate will help strengthen Bridor's culture of food safety, accountability, continuous improvement, and customer satisfaction.

The ideal candidate is a collaborative and decisive quality leader with extensive experience managing food safety and quality systems within a GFSI-certified food manufacturing environment.

Key Responsibilities

Quality and Food Safety Leadership

• Lead the facility's Quality Assurance, Food Safety, and Quality Control programs
• Develop, implement, maintain, and continuously improve the Quality Management System and Food Safety Management System
• Ensure compliance with FDA regulations, FSMA, HACCP, GMPs, BRCGS and/or SQF standards, customer requirements, and Bridor quality standards
• Provide oversight for HACCP, Preventive Controls, Environmental Monitoring, Allergen Management, Food Defense, Food Fraud Prevention, Sanitation, Traceability, Recall, and Supplier Quality programs
• Ensure quality and food safety standards are consistently achieved throughout receiving, production, packaging, storage, and distribution activities
• Maintain a strong presence on the production floor and provide timely guidance to operational teams
• Serve as the facility's primary quality and food safety subject-matter expert

Regulatory Compliance and Audit Management

• Lead customer, regulatory, and third-party certification audits
• Maintain continuous audit readiness across all areas of the facility
• Coordinate audit preparation, documentation, responses, corrective actions, and follow-up activities
• Oversee product specifications, labeling compliance, quality documentation, record retention, and document-control processes
• Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, customer, and industry requirements
• Lead mock recalls, traceability exercises, and crisis-management activities related to food safety and product quality

Continuous Improvement

• Lead Root Cause Analysis and Corrective and Preventive Action initiatives
• Analyze quality trends, audit findings, customer complaints, production data, and key performance indicators to identify improvement opportunities
• Develop and maintain quality dashboards, metrics, and management reporting tools
• Partner with Operations to reduce waste, improve first-pass quality, strengthen process controls, and enhance manufacturing performance
• Promote preventive, data-driven approaches to quality and food safety
• Support Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and other continuous-improvement initiatives

Customer and Supplier Quality

• Manage supplier qualification, approval, monitoring, and performance programs.
• Support the evaluation and approval of new ingredients, packaging materials, suppliers, and contract service providers
• Lead investigations involving customer complaints, nonconforming products, foreign-material concerns, deviations, and other quality issues
• Ensure investigations are timely, thorough, properly documented, and supported by effective corrective actions
• Partner with customers and internal commercial teams to ensure quality expectations are understood and consistently achieved
• Support new product introductions, process changes, and commercialization activities from a food safety and quality perspective

Sanitation and Environmental Controls

• Partner closely with Sanitation and Operations to ensure sanitation programs meet regulatory, certification, and Bridor requirements
• Review sanitation effectiveness, pre-operational inspection results, environmental monitoring data, and corrective actions
• Support sanitation validation and verification activities
• Identify trends and improvement opportunities related to microbiological controls, hygienic practices, and facility conditions
• Ensure appropriate escalation and resolution of food safety or sanitation concerns

Team Leadership and Development

• Lead, coach, mentor, and develop the facility's Quality organization.
• Establish departmental goals, performance expectations, accountability measures, and employee development plans
• Develop staffing plans, succession plans, training programs, and annual departmental budgets
• Build an engaged, knowledgeable, and responsive Quality team capable of supporting a high-volume manufacturing operation
• Promote collaboration, professional development, accountability, and continuous improvement
• Partner with Operations, Engineering, Maintenance, Supply Chain, R&D, and Sanitation to achieve facility and company objectives

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Microbiology, Chemistry, Biology, or a related scientific discipline.
• At least 10 years of progressive Quality Assurance and Food Safety experience within food manufacturing.
• At least five years of experience leading and developing quality teams.
• Experience managing Quality Management Systems and Food Safety Management Systems within a GFSI-certified manufacturing facility.
• Strong working knowledge of:
  • FDA regulations
  • FSMA Preventive Controls
  • HACCP
  • Current Good Manufacturing Practices
  • BRCGS and/or SQF standards
  • Environmental Monitoring
  • Allergen Management
  • Supplier Quality Management
  • Sanitation verification and validation
  • Root Cause Analysis and CAPA
• Demonstrated experience leading customer, regulatory, and third-party certification audits
• Experience investigating customer complaints, product nonconformances, and food safety concerns
• Strong leadership, communication, organizational, analytical, and decision-making skills
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, changing manufacturing environment
• Ability to communicate with employees and leaders at all levels of the organization

Required Certifications

• HACCP certification
• Preventive Controls Qualified Individual certification
• SQF Practitioner certification or comparable GFSI program experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in bakery, frozen foods, dairy, protein, beverage, or another high-volume food manufacturing environment
• Experience working within a BRCGS-certified manufacturing facility
• USDA-regulated manufacturing experience
• First-Party or Internal Auditor certification
• Statistical Process Control experience
• Experience using ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, or a comparable platform
• Experience with electronic Quality Management Systems
• Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, or comparable continuous-improvement training or certification
• Experience supporting facility expansions, new production lines, new product introductions, or significant operational growth
• Experience with automated, high-volume production and packaging systems

Leadership Scope

The QA Manager will provide leadership and development for the facility's Quality organization, which may include Quality Supervisors, Quality Coordinators, Quality Technicians, laboratory personnel, and other quality professionals as assigned.

Benefits

• Annual performance bonus opportunity
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Company-paid life insurance
• Company-paid short-term and long-term disability coverage
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match
• Paid time off
• Paid holidays
• Employee referral program
• Career development and advancement opportunities

Work Environment

This position is based within a fast-paced food manufacturing environment and requires regular presence on the production floor.

The QA Manager must be able to work safely around production equipment, ingredients, allergens, refrigerated or freezer areas, and varying temperatures. Occasional evening, overnight, weekend, or holiday support may be required for production needs, audits, customer visits, investigations, or other operational requirements.