Food Safety & QA Team Leader 3 views

Department: Quality Assurance & Compliance
Employment: Full-Time / Permanent
Role & Standards: HACCP Team Leader (BRCGS Packaging / FSSC 22000)

About the Role

Crown Packaging & Plastics PLC is seeking a dynamic Food Safety & QA Team Leader to spearhead, manage, and continuously verify the food safety and quality management systems across our high-speed packaging conversion workflow (spanning sheet extrusion, thermoforming, and multi-color offset printing).

This role owns 100% compliance with international food-contact packaging regulations, physical integrity standards, and GFSI-benchmarked systems. You will build a rigorous quality culture on the manufacturing floor, overseeing the development, execution, and day-to-day validation of our HACCP system and Prerequisite Programs (PRPs).

The ideal candidate merges deep knowledge of food safety microbiology/chemistry with a strong grasp of technical plastics manufacturing, ensuring that high-volume polypropylene (PP) yogurt cups meet strict structural, aesthetic, and food-grade hygiene standards.

Key Responsibilities

1. HACCP Leadership & Food Safety Management (40%)

• Hazard Analysis: Act as the designated HACCP Team Leader, managing the hazard analysis process for chemical, physical, and biological risks across the entire line.
• Documentation: Maintain, update, and audit the formal Food Safety Manual, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOPs).
• Control Points: Establish, monitor, and verify Critical Control Points (CCPs) and Operational Prerequisite Programs (OPRPs).
• Traceability: Lead the traceability program, ensuring rigorous mock recalls can map raw materials (PP resin, additives, color masterbatches, offset printing inks) through extrusion and forming down to finished lot shipments.

2. Operational QA & In-Process Control (35%)

• Quality Testing: Oversee quality control testing schedules across three manufacturing sequences:
• Extrusion: Gauge uniformity, material mix/regrind ratios, thermal stability, and volatile outgassing.
• Thermoforming: Flange thickness, stackability, brim integrity, uniform wall distribution, and structural stress-cracking resistance.
• Offset Printing: Ink adhesion, text clarity, color registry accuracy, and complete UV curing validation to eliminate migration risks.
• Calibration: Manage the calibration program for measurement and processing instrumentation (micrometers, weighing scales, etc.).
• Non-Conformance: Lead the Non-Conformance Report (NCR) process: immediately quarantine out-of-specification raw materials, in-process sheets, or finished cups; head root-cause analyses (5-Whys, Fishbone); and deploy Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPA).
• Audits: Drive preparation, execution, and root-cause resolution for external GFSI standard third-party audits and regulatory inspections.

3. Team Management, Training & Culture (25%)

• Supervision: Supervise and mentor shift QC inspectors, establishing clear testing schedules, rotating duties, and verifying standard verification logs.
• Training: Develop and deliver training modules on personal hygiene, GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices), allergen controls, knife/brittle plastic policies, and raw material handling for all plant staff.
• Culture: Foster a decentralized food safety ownership model, empowering floor operators to raise quality flags, stop lines when deviations are found, and actively participate in continuous improvement circles.
• Collaboration: Collaborate with Maintenance and Production managers to review preventive maintenance logs, ensuring tool wear or lubrication issues do not present physical or chemical contamination paths.

Job Requirements & Qualifications

Education & Professional Certifications

• Required: Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Polymer/Chemical Engineering, Industrial Chemistry, Microbiology, or a closely matching technical field.
• Preferred: Accredited HACCP Certification (International HACCP Alliance or equivalent).
• Highly Desired: Experience with BRCGS Packaging Materials or FSSC 22000/ISO 22000.

Experience

• Minimum of 3-5 years of progressive quality control/assurance experience directly within a food-contact manufacturing environment.
• Proven technical background handling plastic conversion operations (sheet extrusion and thermoforming) or automated high-speed, high-volume consumer goods packaging lines is highly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience playing a critical or leading role in successful GFSI-level compliance audits is a plus.

Technical & Behavioral Competencies

• Deep understanding of global food-contact material regulations (FDA, EU regulations on plastics intended to come into contact with food).
• Proficiency in executing root-cause analytical frameworks (CAPA, 8D, Ishikawa diagrams) to eliminate operational drift.
• Strong leadership capabilities characterized by high emotional intelligence, transparent cross-departmental communication, and the ability to inspire compliance without relying solely on top-down mandates.
• Excellent data interpretation skills; comfortable managing statistical process control (SPC) data and translating floor metrics into crisp management summaries.