Plant QA Manager Bergen op Zoom

You will report to the Director Operational Quality and dotted line to the Bergen op Zoom Plant Manager. You will be responsible for achieving consistent Quality of processes and products, by assuring compliance with the required (inter)national standards, regulations, legislation, Customer and LW policies regarding (food/feed)safety and quality. You will be part of the Bergen op Zoom Management Team (MT), and will have hierarchical management over 7 direct reports. This role is based at the factory in Bergen op Zoom.

What will you do:

• Motivate and provide guidance and direction to your hierarchical and functional teams to setting and meeting SMART targets and priorities
• Monitor your teams’ performance and guide them to improvement – situational leadership.
• Network and build relationships across the plant to create involvement/collaboration and enable your teams’ success.
• Safeguards product and process quality by ensuring compliance with operating standards.
• Responsible for hosting internal and external audits, as well as ensuring that effective action plans are developed and executed for any outages identified during these audits.
• Ensure products are tested and released according to specifications. Responsible for QC team.
• Monitors and audits adherence to standards and specifications through regular inspections and quality checks.
• Collaborates with cross-functional teams, including Production, Technical Services, and Continuous Improvement, to implement and execute quality standards and specifications.
• Responsible for the implementation and monitoring of the HACCP program and be responsible for the HACCP team activities, ensuring alignment with the corporate standards.
• Ensures timely and effective resolution of quality incidents and complaints that arise from customers and consumers. Investigates and identifies the root causes and implements corrective and preventive actions.
• Implements quality improvement initiatives and best practices to minimize the occurrence of quality issues.
• Provides training and guidance to relevant stakeholders on quality incident management and prevention.
• Set up and manage teams to manage food and feed safety and quality at plant level.
• Responsible for the annual quality management review.
• Collaborates with quality managers from other factories for benchmarking and standardization of the quality systems.

What do you bring?

• Minimum Bachelor in Food safety, Food Technology, Quality Management or a related field, or equal level reached through similar education and relevant job experience
• A minimum of 10 years relevant experience related to managing food and feed safety and quality, preferably in Food Industry, including in a food manufacturing environment.
• A minimum of 2 years’ experience in people management in a matrix organisation.  
• Excellent knowledge of food and feed safety and quality related topics such as but not limited to: quality control and quality assurance; potato quality; track & trace; laboratory testing; automated measurement and control loops; sensory science; allergens; contaminants; (micro)biology; hygiene; HACCP; and hygienic design.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills & strong tactics (e.g. for handling conflicting opinions) to manage relationships with internal and external parties in all layers of the factory.
• Read, write and speak fluently Dutch and English. Understands German.
• Self-driven team player
• Self-Supporting.