Food Safety and Quality Specialist

The Pet Care business unit of Spectrum Brands is based in St. Louis, Missouri with distribution, manufacturing and sales offices throughout the US and globe. Owners of dogs, cats, birds, small animals, fish and reptiles rely on our brands for exceptional value and trusted results. Our industry-leading brands include Tetra, Instant Ocean, Marineland, 8-in-1, Dingo, FURminator, Nature's Miracle, GloFish, DreamBone and SmartBones.

This position will support the Spectrum Brands' Global Pet Food Division Corporate Food Safety and Quality team ensuring compliance with internal, regulatory, and customers' standards. As the Global Supplier Food Safety and Quality Specialist you will work directly with the Food Safety and Quality team to maintain the Quality Management Supplier Program. This position will monitor and maintain all food safety and quality assurance requirements and associated documentation for the Supplier Quality Management Program related to all the rawhide/alternate rawhide suppliers. This includes but is not limited to supplier certifications and customer documentation requirements. The role will collaborate with Sourcing, R&D, Regulatory, and other functional areas as needed.

Supplier Documentation

• Maintain documentation for registrations, certifications, and other food safety, quality, and social compliance related requirements.
• Support in the preparation, scheduling, and documentation coordination of all food safety related supplier's approvals, risk assessments, and audits.
• Track certification requirements, initiate and manage processes to obtain and or renew certifications
• Evaluate potential new suppliers as part of the new supplier onboarding process.

Supplier Quality Management

• Perform risk assessments on finished goods.
• Monitor and report on quality performance metrics, identifying trends and areas for improvement.
• Initiate supplier corrective action requests: tracking timelines, approving corrective action, and verifying CAPA effectiveness.
• Support FSVP requirements and verification activities, as applicable.

Product Compliance

• Initiate and complete first article of inspections for chews & treats product approvals.
• Maintain and support quality customer documentation requirements
• Maintain supplier GA testing and inspection program related to all rawhide/alternate rawhide suppliers
• Ensure product meets all product specifications requirements outlined in the material declaration and label requirements.

Audits & Standards

• Prepare detailed reports and action plans based on audit findings from third parties.
• Collaborate with sourcing, production, operations and engineering teams to develop corrective actions.
• Follow up on all outstanding corrective actions observed during each audit.

Complaint Investigator

• Lead customer complaint investigations for all Chews & Treat brands (including root cause analysis, corrective actions, trend analysis, and record keeping) including collaborating with consumer relations to gather all pertinent details related to the food safety and quality issue.
• Analyze customer comments and product returns to identify trends.
• Prepare and maintain investigation documentation, including inspection reports, test results, and corrective action plans (CAPA) if applicable.
• Maintain all quality related retention samples.

Other

• Assist in developing, reviewing, revising, and improving standard operating procedures, templates, and inspection plans.
• Comply with CFR 211 FDA Guidelines
• Create and distribute reports to internal and external stakeholders relating to areas of food safety and quality
• Stay current with training in PCQI, HACCP, SQF, etc.
• Comply with all Company policies and procedures
• Other duties as assigned

• Bachelor's degree in technical-related field (Food Science, Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, etc.) required
• 3+ years of experience in food safety or quality assurance required
• 3+ years of experience in an FDA/HACCP environment preferred
• Experience in ISO 9001, Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) or other similar Quality Management System preferred
• Role not eligible for sponsorship

• Ability to perform requested tasks with minimal direction
• Technical writing skills
• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively with different functional areas
• Excellent organizational skills
• PCQI certified, preferred
• Computer knowledge of Microsoft Office applications
• Effective interpersonal skills
• Ability to perform in team environment

Working conditions are normal for an office environment.

The above information on this description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this job/classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.

Spectrum Brands is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer.

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