Job Summary
This position reports to the FDF Sr. Manager Food Safety and Quality Assurance. The Regional Food Safety and Quality Assurance Manager will interact directly with the FDF Management and Associates in his/her Region in order to drive our food safety initiatives, FSMA/HARPC compliance and Quality assurance, actively interacting with a cross functional team, such as Sanitation, Safety, Projects, Maintenance, and Supplier QA.

The Regional Food Safety and Quality Assurance Manager will be responsible to monitor and ensure compliance and execution of Panera's food safety programs and local and Federal Regulatory Agencies. This person will be an active agent on Food Safety cultural change and an advocate for the protection of our Brand.

This position has duties which include the monitoring of the execution and effectiveness of the Panera Food Safety System in our FDFs, report writing, data analysis, facility auditing, customer complaints, raw material, produce, and product quality, assistance in the development of CAPA plans, provide support and training to FDF Management and Associates related to food safety and food quality, and interaction/building relationships with third party and regulatory agencies when audits or visits are taking place.

Location

Jessup, MD

Accountabilities

• To assist the region's FDFs (Atlanta, Chandler, Houston, Ontario CA, and Orlando) in the compliance and execution of the Panera Food Safety System in accordance with FSMA, HARPC, FDA, HACCP, and other appropriate regulatory guidelines.
• To promote the importance and understanding of Food Safety & Quality across his/hers FDFs, that will allow to perceive Food Safety as an embedded way of working to provide our guests "Food as it should be."
• Monitoring customer complaints (dough and produce) and working with the FDF to find a root cause to the issue, and supporting the FDF with the creation of CAPAs that will foster accountability and ownership.
• Actively assist in the training and development of FDF Management and Associates on food safety guidelines, fostering participation, accountability and engagement
• Provide technical expertise and support to the field on projects designed to improve our food quality, food safety and sanitation.
• Conduct periodic internal audits in the assigned FDFs to ensure we remain in compliance with all local, state, and federal (FDA) regulatory agencies.
• Collaborate and work in tandem with Support Quality Assurance to resolve food safety issues relating to fresh dough and produce.
• Support and drive the execution of key food safety initiatives in our fresh dough manufacturing facilities.
• Drive Continuous Improvement across the FDFs by sharing best practices and promoting standardization.

Other Functions

• Understanding of Sanitation, Sanitary Design, Process workflows, food defense
• General knowledge of basic process improvement tools such as 5 Whys and root cause analysis.

Education

• B.S. in Food Science, Microbiology, or related field
• Microsoft Excel, Word, Power Point, SharePoint

Experience

• Knowledge and understanding of requirements for GFSI Certification
• Knowledge of food microbiology, food safety, food safety controls, food defense, sanitary design, sanitation, internal auditing, and cGMPs
• Technical and professional knowledge as it relates to Regulatory Compliance, FSMA, and HARPC.
• 3-5 years of work-related experience in food industry, bakery manufacturing and/or produce experience desired.
• Prior Auditing experience
• Mock recalls and/or Recalls-Withdrawals experience.
• Ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast pace and plant environment
• Strong team and interpersonal skills and the ability to influence positively with Associates and Management at the Plant level
• Initiative-taker with realistic and practical approach of Food Safety Execution
• Active agent on culture change, motivation, accountability, ownership and the capability of engaging others.
• Ability to travel as much as 50% (1st year could be as much as 75%)