Food Safety & Quality Engineer II - Hannibal, MO

OVERVIEW

The Quality Engineer II roles are the technical leaders related to the product, championing food safety, quality, and regulatory requirements throughout the systems or platforms they are assigned to, driving problem-solving and improvements in food safety, quality, and related losses. They also have the unique opportunity to impact the innovation, technology, and quality function by leveraging their knowledge and skills to provide deep technical expertise, become a leader of global connections, and be recognized as valued partners for their plant, sourcing, and business teams.

They use data and systems, they apply continuous improvement techniques, and they serve as coaches and technical leaders on the floor and within the business teams they partner with for their systems, demonstrating and embracing engaging leadership behaviors.

To learn more about the plant, click here. 

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES 

Safety

Lead food and human Safety through Safety 2.0 leadership principles and standards.

• Cultivate a human safety culture that reduces risk to our people and
  communities by increasing the capability to identify and control critical risk.
• Cultivate a food safety culture that is committed to manufacturing safe food that is compliant with policy and regulatory requirements.

People Leadership

• Invest in personal development & growth in quality engineering and beyond.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to continuously reduce risk, improve processes and quality, and sustainably reduce FSQ-related losses, instilling a strong food safety and quality culture in their assigned systems or platforms.
• Engage internally and externally with subject matter experts.
• Train, develop content, and coach Quality Associates, other Quality Engineers, and plant personnel in areas of expertise.
• Enable alignment and strategies with cross-functional partners in own systems or platform.
• Potential to manage quality technician teams.

Food safety, quality & regulatory programs leadership.

• Provide FSQ leadership and direction through technical depth in the areas of regulatory compliance, sanitation, food safety risk mitigation, quality improvement, and loss reduction in own systems or platform
• Organize action plans with Operations, R&D, Engineering, and FSQ teams to ensure product specifications and execution of FSQ policies & standards are appropriate and meet system capability and key consumer requirements in their systems or platform.
• Lead the FSRA program in their own systems/platform by conducting food safety & sanitation inspections, providing leadership in RMP (Risk Management Plans) initiatives, and SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) as part of the verification program
• Lead continuous improvement in the site’s GFSI certification for their
  system/line.
• Assess risk and make decisions related to food safety and quality for
  ingredients and finished products that pertain to their systems or platform.
• Spend time on the production floor, connect with employees, interact with the product transformation, and feel the real-time impact of their work in the finished product.

Food Safety, Quality & Regulatory technical leadership & subject matter expertise.

• Provide support for food safety and quality program management and training in your own systems or platform.
• Deliver training in the areas of food science, applied statistics, regulatory requirements, sanitation, and quality measurement systems. Review plans for new and changing systems and ensure effective product safety and sanitary design.
• Provide leadership and technical support for R&D, Cost Savings,
  reformulations, and new product start-ups.
• Maintain plant food safety programs (FSRA, HACCP, etc.) and annual GFSI and GMI policy requirements.
• Responsible for the management of raw material vendors and performance.
• Provide national accounts customer-facing support for food safety and quality audits and improvement.
• Provide sanitation and pest control leadership (equipment sanitation validation & run length validations, creation of SSOPs, pest control and chemical vendor relationships, and budget).
• Provide technical leadership in the identification and implementation of product and process quality improvement opportunities and productivity gains.
• Provide and lead risk assessment analysis and manage issues with non conforming products and ingredients to ensure proper control, minimize losses, and root cause analysis to eliminate future occurrences in their systems or platform that pertain to their systems or platform.

Problem-solving leadership

• Provide FSQ leadership and direction through technical depth in the areas of SPC, system capability, fishbone analysis & problem solving.
• Lead problem-solving events with cross-functional partners and use data to appropriately manage non-conformances and issues, prevent re-occurrence, improve product quality, reduce and eliminate risks & related losses, and run to target in own systems or platform.

Daily Direction Setting and Operations Foundational Systems

• Engage in identification of loss opportunities (food safety, quality, overuse, etc.) to drive performance and influence loss reduction through corrective and preventative actions using foundation systems.
• Actively participate in daily direction setting and the creation and execution of the platform improvement plan.

Know your Operation, Data, and Technology

• Lead digitization initiatives, leveraging advanced technologies such as automation, data analytics, and digitalization to enhance quality processes, improve product performance, and ensure compliance with industry standards in their system or platform.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret in-process and analytical data using quality engineering principles to make quality evaluations, recommend actions for improvement, and ultimately informed data driven decisions.
• Use FSQ and Supply Chain Systems (WiMS, MES, ERP, etc.), as well as basic and advanced, where applicable, Analytics and Tools (e.g., MA, Historian, Seeq, Sight Machine)
  • To sustainably address food safety and quality issues as part of day-to-day activities and rigorous problem-solving.
  • To identify opportunities for improvement across one's own systems or platform
• Leverage in process measurement capabilities (e.g., NIR, Vision systems) to
  sustainably address solutions as per root cause analysis and problem-solving
  events led.

Back-Up Coverage

• This position will also provide backup support as needed, ensuring business continuity and operational efficiency.
• Technical partners on the platform team (Systems Engineers and other Quality Engineers)

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's Degree in Food Science, Chemical Engineering, or other related fields with at least 3 years of relevant food safety or quality programming experience or other related experiences.
• Demonstrated ability to work well on a team, build effective relationships, and influence others across all levels of the organization.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple tasks and adjust priorities.
• Ability to develop mutual respect with operators, engineers, etc., to execute programs and achieve goals while communicating between work groups, cross-functional teams, and other members of the plant
• Have a strategic mindset and be able to develop long-term, impactful strategies
• Ability to effectively work with and coach cross-functional teams.
• Ability to lead a peer group and affect change/department direction via influence management.
• Bias for action and results, taking initiative.
• Ability to work both independently and in team settings, including work on project teams that involve other functions, SMES, divisions, or organizations.
• Learning mindset, curious and courageous

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Knowledge of product protection and Quality Engineering principles.
• Six Sigma Green Belt trained with projects delivered.
• Advanced Analytics and Tools (e.g., Seeq, Sight Machine)
• Strong understanding of product quality, sensory, and food safety.
• Demonstrated mechanical aptitude, ability to apply engineering principles, and ability to troubleshoot.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate complex organizations with strong leadership and initiative.
• Plant Quality Engineer, manufacturing, or auditing/consulting experience.
• FSQ/XQM/ESC Experience
• Ability to communicate with the leadership team to gain broad support for ideas.
• Ability to lead constructive, positive change within a plant environment.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

• International relocation or international remote working arrangements (outside of the US) will not be considered. 
• Applicants for this position must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. General Mills will not sponsor applicants for this position for work visas.

We exist to make food the world loves. But we do more than that. Our company is a place that prioritizes being a force for good, a place to expand learning, explore new perspectives and reimagine new possibilities, every day. We look for people who want to bring their best — bold thinkers with big hearts who challenge one other and grow together. Because becoming the undisputed leader in food means surrounding ourselves with people who are hungry for what’s next.