Quality and Food Safety Manager

Overview

Shearer’s Foods, founded in 1974 and headquartered in Massillon, OH, is a leading manufacturer of salty snacks, cookies, and crackers. Specializing in private label and co-manufacturing, Shearer’s is the largest supplier of private brand salty snacks and second-largest supplier of private brand cookies and crackers.

With a strong focus on innovation, service, quality, and sustainability, Shearer’s has been awarded the food industry’s highest award for environmental sustainability, as well as multiple Supplier of the Year awards.

Operating 16 locations across North America and employing more than 5000 team members, Shearer’s is driven by its core values of People, Grow, Impact and Win. The company mission is to deliver exceptional products and services that make snacking a time to celebrate for our customers, colleagues, and community.

At Shearer’s Foods, we believe in a skills-first approach to recruitment and employment. This means focusing on what you can do and how you can grow, rather than traditional metrics alone. We are committed to adhering to anti-exclusion practices, removing barriers to access, and enhancing opportunities for all individuals based on merit and potential. Your skills, experience, and perspective are valuable—and we want to empower you to make your mark here with us.

Responsibilities

Quality and Food Safety Manager

The Quality Assurance/SQF Manager leads the facility’s Quality Assurance and Food Safety programs, ensuring compliance with company, customer, regulatory, SQF, and AIB standards.

• Lead the plant’s Quality Assurance and Food Safety programs , driving a strong culture of quality, compliance, and continuous improvement.

• Serve as the facility’s SQF Practitioner and Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) .

• Manage the Food Safety Plan , prerequisite programs, GMPs, SOPs, and related quality systems, including verification and validation activities.

• Maintain audit readiness and support SQF, AIB, customer, internal, and regulatory audits and inspections .

• Partner with Operations to ensure quality and food safety standards are consistently followed and quickly address issues on the production floor.

• Lead, coach, and develop the QA team , strengthening technical expertise, accountability, and problem-solving capabilities.

• Investigate customer complaints and quality concerns, lead root-cause analysis and corrective actions , and identify trends and improvement opportunities.

• Monitor quality metrics and data to drive continuous improvement, product quality, food safety, and operational performance .

• Coordinate mock recalls, traceability exercises, and food safety inspections .

• Provide technical support and guidance to plant leadership, Operations, customers, and cross-functional partners.

Qualifications

• Minimum requirement of a bachelor’s degree in food science, Animal Science,Microbiology, Biology, or other science related degree.

• Minimum of 10 years of overall professional experience in Quality Assurance, Food Safety,and Sanitation.

• Minimum of 5 years in a supervisory or management position in a plant of similarcomplexity and size.

• Leader of Change and Strategic Thinking.

• Broad knowledge and experience in quality and food safety management gained atsuccessive levels of responsibility in a plant atmosphere.

• Certifications required include Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI), SQFPractitioner or other GFSI standard, and HACCP.

• Knowledge of FDA standards and FSMA Regulations.

• Demonstrated ability to direct, coach, and train associates as well as plan, monitor andschedule work.

• Lead and able to demonstrate “Best in Class” behaviors with focus on food safety, qualityassurance, and plant regulatory compliance.

• Experience working directly with customers and suppliers.

• Demonstrated ability in using statistical process control for quality monitoring,improvement, and problem-solving.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.