The Vernon, CA facility is one of General Mills’ 5 internal flour mills. This facility produces bakery flour in sacks for small bakeries and distributors, as well as bulk flour for large wholesale bakeries. Vernon is located in the heart of Southern California’s bustling LA Metro area which offers a great opportunity to diversify learnings in new platform, to utilize and enhance sanitation skill sets, and offers great opportunities for people management and plant leadership. The Plant Food Safety & Quality (FSQ) Manager reports to the Plant Manager and is critical to the success of the facility. This role offers a great deal of breadth, depth and accountability.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead all aspects of Quality, Food Safety, Regulatory and Sanitation within the facility. 
• Provide organizational and personal leadership for the plant and Quality & Regulatory Operations (QRO) organization to deliver against its core mission and key measurables.
• Motivate and empower quality staff. Lead development and performance management process of quality engineer.
• Provide leadership in making quality and regulatory decisions that balance business and quality factors while ensuring consumer safety and compliance with regulatory requirements. Provide timely and appropriate risk assessment. 
• Be the key regulatory contact for the plant with State and Federal regulators. Maintain positive and constructive relationship while ensuring full compliance with regulatory and General Mills (GMI) policies. 
• Provide leadership and have accountability for sanitary performance of plant as measured by internal (FSRA) and external (AIB, Corporate, regulatory, customer) audits. 
• Deliver on all core tactical accountabilities of a FSQ Manager: maintain balanced budget, manage lab, address personnel issues, ensure a safe and positive work environment, and manage QRO/Sanitation contractors, run analytical testing.
• Provide leadership in food safety with management of FSRA, HACCP, FSMA, Zero Loss Culture (ZLC), and prerequisite programs.
• Leadership and management of key sanitation programs. Manage all aspects of plant sanitation. 
• Provide leadership and technical support in the areas of Quality Management with an emphasis on customer requirements, continuous product quality, and productivity improvement. 
• Initiate product and process improvements through the use of Continuous Improvement (CI) tools. 
• Recommend actions for improvement and assure resolution. 
• Conduct sanitation and product safety inspections, including HACCP. 
• Provide risk assessment analysis and facilitate decisions for all quality and food safety events. 
• Manage issues with non-conforming product to assure proper control, minimize losses and provide analysis to eliminate future occurrences. 
• Provide training in all areas of Food Safety, Regulatory and Quality. 
• Provide technical expertise to resolve problem areas.
• Interface and communicate directly with the customer of your products.
• Provide technical expertise to resolve problem areas. 
• Communicate at all levels of the organization.