Manager, Quality Assurance

Simple Mills is a rapidly-growing company on the forefront of the clean food movement, transforming center store grocery aisles with products made from nutritious, purposeful ingredients. Simple Mills is a female-founded business, started by Katlin Smith in 2012 out of her own Kitchen. In the company’s short history, Simple Mills has disrupted the market to become the #1 bestselling natural baking mix, the #1 bestselling natural cracker, and the #1 bestselling natural cookie.

The company’s mission is to advance the holistic health of the planet and its people by positively impacting the way food is made. Simple Mills is distributed in 25,000+ stores nationally including Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, Kroger, Costco and more, and available online at retailers like Amazon and Thrive Market. The brand’s newest products include: Organic Seed Flour Crackers, Seed & Nut Flour Sweet Thins, and Soft-Baked Almond Flour Bars. Simple Mills has earned broad recognition from top tier media and industry associations- including a segment on our Founder & CEO Katlin Smith on NPR’s How I Built This . Our products have been featured in a wide array of top publications including Vogue, Women's Health, Forbes, Business Insider, mindbodygreen, NOSH and many more. Simple Mills was also a 2020 Health Magazine Snack Award Winner!

Role Description

The Manager, Quality Assurance will be a critical role in the Quality & Technical Services department and will be responsible for implementing Simple Mills quality expectations throughout our comanufacturing network. This includes ensuring that all Quality and food safety objectives are met during innovation, commercialization, and ongoing production. This role will identify continuous improvement opportunities with our products and comanufacturing sites to drive improvement on key quality performance metrics. This role will need to establish strong, positive relationships with on-site quality teams to partner on delivering exceptional quality to our consumers.

The position will report to the Senior QA Manager and responsibilities will include:

• Lead key continuous improvement projects/strategies that enable the delivery of QA/FS KPI objectives and performance (Consumer Complaint, First Pass Quality, etc.) The tasks are executed in close collaboration with internal and external teams.
• Ensure that potential food safety / QA risks to Simple Mills production are properly identified, assessed, controlled, or eliminated.
• Partner with key cross-functional team members internally and externally to ensure compliance to all Simple Mills Quality/Food safety expectations.
• Establish positive relationships with the external quality teams at our co-manufacturing partners to drive ongoing continuous improvement.
• Support co-manufacturing sites in adherence to Simple Mills quality standards during trialing, production, and renovation.
• Identify and communicate roadblocks or risk areas during projects that could impact the timing or quality of that product.
• Ensure that commercialization, innovation, and renovation projects are executed on time and meet all Food Safety and Quality requirements with proper communication to management and cross-functional teams.
• Develop and implement new or optimized finished product specifications.
• Set up and execute product quality evaluations including physical set-up of product evaluations, measurement of product attributes, evaluation of sensory attributes, data collection and data reporting.
• Partner with internal cross functional team members on all aspects of product quality including supplier quality, consumer complaint review and follow-up, and product development/renovation.
• Develop, drive, and continually improve a comprehensive quality program as defined by Simple Mills Quality expectations.
• Performs other projects as assigned

Requirements

• 4 years comprehensive food safety and quality experience with an extensive background in product commercialization, continuous improvement, HACCP, USDA or FDA preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in science preferred (Chemistry, Food Science, etc.)
• Previous experience with GFSI scheme and FDA audits.
• Preferred certifications: PCQI, HACCP, SQF practitioner and/or other GFSI scheme.
• Food Safety and Quality Auditing (CQA) and/or Quality Engineer (CQE) experience is a plus.
• Knowledge of Continuous Improvement Six Sigma and Lean Principles
• Record of leadership and demonstrated success in collaborative development, documentation, planning, and implementation and continuous improvement of quality systems.
• Knowledgeable in Statistical Process Control programs and Process capability studies
• Ability to collect, organize, analyze, and disseminate significant amounts of information with attention to detail and accuracy.
• Must be proficient in Microsoft Office suite of software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and other applications as needed.
• Must be able to work in a fast-paced environment and must also effectively manage and execute changes.
• Position requires ability to act as a member of a highly functioning team.
• Great communication, writing, analytical, and critical thinking skills.
• Intermediate PowerPoint, and strong Excel skills (ability to structure and analyze data, manipulate pivot tables, create trackers, and utilize basic functions)
• Ability to complete other projects as assigned and needed.
• The position requires 30 – 50% travel.
• A passion for natural food and healthy eating as well as a desire to change the way we think about ingredient labels

Benefits

• You will make a huge impact as a key member of an emerging brand that’s changing the way we eat and facing explosive growth
• Working with a vibrant community of passionate team members that are driven by healthy food that tastes good and fuels your body
• We strive to foster and embed a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion across our organization. We know it is not only critical to the success of diversity initiatives - but instrumental in creating an equitable and inclusive workplace! It also creates a positive employee experience. DEI will remain at the center of our people strategy as grow and scale our organization.
• Our culture is aligned with doing good in the world and we are committed to the environment, fairness to employees and to our customers
• Integrating into a company that is passionate about its people and their development, with consistent training and multiple forums/platforms to participate in, contribute to and learn from
• Employee benefits include robust Health Benefits packages, 401(k) plan, Unlimited PTO offering, one-time stipend for getting your home workspace setup, monthly cell phone/internet stipend, health & wellness stipends, product stipends and many other perks! 

Compensation will be competitive for the ideal candidate. Simple Mills operates with a hybrid-model: a balance of in-person and virtual work. Hybrid employees will work from our Chicago, IL office at least once per week. When working remotely, employees must work from a designated location in the United States (the new hire’s permanent residence, as documented in our HR System, Rippling) with sufficient internet access to support video conferencing. Safety protocols in accordance with CDC recommendations are followed.

At Simple Mills, we are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect and inclusion. Equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and teammates without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, past or present military service, physical or mental disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of business need, job requirements, and individual qualifications. #LI-DNI

Simple Mills is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Simple Mills will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodations are needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact careers@simplemills.com.