The Role:
Key Responsibilities
1. Build Ryze's Preventative Quality System
Establish upstream guardrails - process controls, ingredient acceptance criteria, and pre-production validation protocols - so deviations are caught before they compound.
Design and implement FMEA, HACCP-aligned risk frameworks, and pre-production readiness checklists for new products and BOM changes.
Partner with R&D to translate formulation requirements into manufacturing-ready specifications with realistic, equipment-grounded tolerances.
Build a quality culture at co-man partners that defaults to prevention, not detection.
2. Co-Manufacturer Technical Oversight & Onboarding
Serve as Ryze's primary technical liaison to all co-manufacturing partners - owning the quality and process relationship, not just the audit checklist.
Lead technical due diligence and onboarding for new co-man partners (at least one new high-caliber manufacturer in the next 6 months, with a second to follow within 12 months).
Evaluate partner equipment capabilities, production infrastructure, and quality systems against Ryze's requirements - and define what it will take to close the gap.
Drive CAPAs and engineering changes that are real and sustained, not papercompliance.
Benchmark co-man network performance and identify leaders, laggards, and systemic risks.
3. Process Engineering & Variation Elimination
Analyze and optimize co-man processes for blending, conveying, filling, and packaging of powders - with specific focus on blend uniformity and sensory consistency.
Diagnose root causes of deviations using structured methods (5-Why, Fishbone, DOE, Barrier Analysis) - and implement fixes that eliminate recurrence.
Implement SPC, control charts, and capability studies (Cp, Cpk) where absent; establish clear, enforceable process windows.
Oversee line trials, first production runs, and process validations at co-man sites.
Evaluate powder characteristics (PSD, density, flowability, solubility) and translate findings into improvements in mixing strategy and equipment selection.
4. Internal Lab & Sensory Program Buildout
Support the development of Ryze's internal lab in Santa Ana - defining equipment needs, testing protocols, and lab SOPs alongside incoming sensory and food science hires.
Collaborate on formalized stability testing programs and sensory calibration panels.
Help establish internal reference standards and specification frameworks that co-mans are held to.
5. New Product Manufacturing Readiness
Conduct manufacturability assessments for new formulas, packaging formats, and BOM changes - before production, not during.
Build scalable production instructions and process controls for co-man partners launching new SKUs.
Work with R&D to translate benchtop formulas into stable, repeatable manufacturing processes.
Attend trial runs, collect data, and formally sign off on manufacturing readiness before scale-up.
6. Cross-Functional Partnership
Partner with Supply Chain on lot traceability, alternate sourcing quality risk, recall readiness, and co-man capacity evaluations.
Work with the existing QA/regulatory team to elevate their technical floor capabilities over time.
Support Ops on cost optimizations tied to manufacturing efficiency and scrap/rework reduction.
Required Experience
8+ years in manufacturing engineering, process engineering, or technical quality in food, beverage, nutraceutical, or dry-powder processing.
Proven track record managing co-manufacturing relationships technically - not just auditing them.
Hands-on experience building quality or process systems from scratch in a high-growth, resource-constrained environment.
Mastery of SPC, DOE, FMEA, capability studies, and process validation.
Strong mechanical and process intuition - you can explain what's happening inside a blender or auger without guessing.
Ability to travel ~30-40% to co-man sites.
Preferred:
Experience at a high-growth consumer brand with a co-man-heavy manufacturing model.
Exposure to sensory calibration, stability testing, or internal lab setup.
ASQ CQE or equivalent certification.
Who You Are
Preventative by instinct. You build processes that make failure impossible - not systems that detect failure after the fact.
A fixer, not an auditor. You're most energized by intriguing problems that don't have clean answers yet.
Floor-oriented. You're comfortable diagnosing manufacturing issues directly on production lines, not from a desk.
Assertive without being adversarial. You can push co-man partners to upgrade systems while maintaining the relationship.
A systems thinker. You see how upstream variability drives downstream failures and work backwards from risk.
Autonomous. You thrive in environments where you're trusted to define the approach, not handed a playbook.
How We'll Know It's Working
At 6 months:
First new high-caliber co-man onboarded and producing to Ryze specification.
Pre-production validation protocol in place and being used for all new SKU launches.
Blend deviation rate trending down; root-cause investigations completing faster.
At 12 months:
Second new co-man onboarded; at least one lower-caliber partner exited or significantly upgraded.
Cpk improvements documented across critical parameters (fill weights, density, moisture).
Internal lab operational; sensory calibration program established.
Quality team's mode of operation shifted from reactive documentation to proactive prevention.
What We Offer:
