Food Safety & Quality Assurance Specialist, USDA-Regulated Production

Job Description

Job Description

Join Our FSQA Team in Romeoville

If turning rigorous standards into reliable, repeatable routines sounds like your kind of challenge, you’ll thrive here. Help us protect our brands, our customers, and our teammates by ensuring every frozen pizza we produce meets USDA, BRC, and customer expectations.

Where & When

• Location: Romeoville, IL, USA
• Schedule: Mon–Fri, 5:00 a.m.–2:30 p.m. with flexibility for weekends and overtime
• Department: Food Safety & Quality Assurance
• Reports to: Quality Assurance Supervisor and Quality Assurance Manager

What You’ll Tackle

• Lead daily pre-operational inspections and conduct USDA-required SSOP checks.
• Collect ATP swabs to validate sanitation; perform monthly allergen validation swabs.
• Oversee the labeling room and print master case labels.
• Collect finished pizza samples; maintain a clean, organized retain/sample area.
• Accompany the USDA inspector on the daily facility walkthrough.
• Verify receiving records and QA paperwork; update GKMS documents when discrepancies are found.
• Place and release product holds; submit maintenance/sanitation work orders.
• Send a daily shift summary covering the USDA walkthrough and all holds.
• Champion process improvements that simplify work while staying compliant with SOPs.
• Own key documentation: weekly hold logs, NCR findings spreadsheet, temperature logs, calibration records, retain sample logs, work orders, and Supplier NCRs.
• Conduct internal audits as scheduled by the Compliance Coordinator.
• Assign next-day pre-op and production tasks to QA Techs; provide ongoing training and re-training.
• Partner with Operations and other teams to resolve food safety/quality issues; provide Shipping/Receiving coverage when needed.
• Escalate employee discrepancies to QA leadership or the appropriate department manager.

How You’ll Grow

• Build leadership skills by scheduling QA Techs and guiding daily priorities.
• Expand audit readiness experience through internal audits and BRC alignment.
• Increase cross-functional impact by collaborating with Operations, Maintenance, and Sanitation.

Must-Haves

• Background in a USDA-regulated facility and prior FSQA experience.
• Adaptability to changing priorities; weekend and overtime availability.
• Clear, professional email communication with management, suppliers, and laboratories.
• Ability to partner seamlessly with other FSQA leads.

Nice-to-Haves

• High school diploma required; Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree is a plus.
• 1–2 years of experience within a USDA environment.
• Bilingual Spanish.
• MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) proficiency.
• Travel under 10%.

Our Non-Negotiables

• Follow GMPs and the employee hygiene plan.
• Meet USDA and BRC requirements in full.
• Comply with customer requirements when applicable.
• Immediately report any food safety or quality concern to supervision/QA.
• Escalate any risk or evidence of unsafe or out-of-spec product, equipment, packaging, or raw materials to a designated manager.

Your Network

• Leaders: QA Supervisor, QA Manager (role backups include Alternate QA Supervisor and Alternate QA Manager)
• Partners: Operations, Sanitation, Maintenance, Shipping/Receiving

Core Proficiencies

• Food & Beverage Manufacturing
• FSQA practices and programs
• FDA and USDA Regulations