Distillery Quality Manager

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Company: Wild Turkey

Job Title: Quality Manager – Wild Turkey

Job Location: Lawrenceburg

Reports to: US Quality Director

Organizational Layer: Local

General Description of the Role

The Quality Manager is responsible to ensure that the plant follows and adheres to quality and food safety protocols. This position works across all Wild Turkey Plant processes including incoming materials, cooking, fermentation, distillation, ageing, liquid manufacture, bottling and warehousing, to ensure continuous and consistent production and distribution of products that meet current applicable Regulation, mandatory requirements, Campari Group standards and consumers / customers’ expectations and need for quality and food safety.

Key Responsibilities and Activities

• Ensure that the ingredients, packaging materials, liquids and distillates used in the finished product meet specifications and operational requirements established through the procedure execution, instructions, protocols, test and methods previously defined;
• Ensure that every finished product coming from the plant accomplish specifications and legal requirements through quality control and inspection implementation that verifies the conformity of the products;
• Stop any process or activity, place material and product on hold or block in case it is detected a potential problem putting in risk the personnel integrity, facilities, inputs, products, equipment or regulatory aspect not in compliance;
• Oversees quality laboratories operations and ensures that testing is accurate and material usage decision is done in a timely manner;
• Lead resolution of escalated Quality & Food Safety issues at Site level, including internal communication, root cause investigation, preventative and corrective actions.
• Conduct data analysis and prepares monthly management reports on Quality and Food Safety KPIs and the operations of the department;
• Drive continuous improvement, develop and implement programs to improve Q&FS performance, reduce non-conformances and consumer and customer complaints in a systematic way and with specific focus on reducing serious ones and avoiding repetitive occurrences;
• Prepares and presents technical reports as required;
• Manages resources for the area, including people, ensuring that there is adequate training and capabilities in place;
• Drives the performance of the team by cascading organizational objectives, defining personal performance targets and appraising performance of direct reports at the end of the performance management cycle.
• Ensures technical and FS&Q awareness training to Quality and Operations personnel to drive a FS&Q culture;
• Technical support for the Supply Chain, Marketing and Trade Marketing areas in innovation, CAPEX projects and development of new equipment, processes, products, packaging materials, or ingredients;
• Effectively interacts with Production and Development teams to maintain product supply and help introduce new products;
• Develops the department budget and CAPEX and reviews expenses on a monthly basis to ensure that expenses are within budget and variance are explained;
• Reviews, creates and modifies analythical methods, procedures and work instructions as required;
• Ensure that registers, forms and documents in the area are updated, properly filled and stored according to quality management system implemented.
• Member of the Plant’s HACCP and/or Food Safety Teams
• Manage in SAP system the damaged material and finished product inventory related to non-conformities, customer/consumer complaints and supplier rejections blocking and releasing product according to food safety and quality criteria.
• Cooperate with departmental managers and senior management on various tactical and strategic objectives to enable sound decision making.

Key Relationships

Internal: Manufacturing, Procurement, Maintenance, Engineering, Planning, Innovation, Customer Service, Plant Director, RnD, Logistics, HR, EHS, Finance, Campari Central Laboratory, Personnel in various Campari Business units who deal with specifications and distribution of US Alcoholic Beverages 

External: Suppliers, 3PL, Contact Manufacturers, external consultants, testing laboratories

Education, Experience & Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in: Chemistry, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering or Food Engineering.
• Working experience in a similar position, or minimum of 4 years of experience in a Quality Supervisor position with a consumer food product manufacturer.

• Execution and results oriented;
• Leadership and Team work;
• Quality orientation and high attention to detail.
• Good time management and organizational skills;
• Ability to analyze and trend statistical data;
• Critical thinking and problem solving skills;
• Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in written format with different levels of the organization;
• A working knowledge of US alcoholic beverage regulations;
• Solid knowledge on GMP, FSSC 22000 and/or ISO 22000 requirements and experience in conducting audits;
• Sound knowledge of the methodology used in the quantitative and qualitative analyses of chemicals, including of whiskies, other spirits and ingredients;
• Sound knowledge of fermentation and distillation principles;
• Solid knowledge on industrial processes, packaging materials and ingredients used in the beverage industry.
• Capable of organoleptic evaluations;
• Proficiency in Office: Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint;
• Familiarity with SAP ;
• Project management experience is a plus
• Lean/Six Sigma certification is a plus.

Other requirements:

Availability for travel

May be required to work outside of normal work hours in order to fulfil the requirements of the position

Our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:

At Campari Group we believe in building more value together, thus we see diversity in all forms as a source of enrichment. Our employment policies and practices ensure that we are committed to providing equal employment opportunities in all aspects of employment without regard to any individual’s race, religion, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or characteristics or expression, political affiliation or activity, age, veteran status, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Note to applicants:

Your application will be assessed based on your abilities, expertise, general knowledge and experience, not because of any confidential, proprietary or trade secret information you may possess. You must not disclose to Campari Group any such information. In the event that you are asked a question that cannot be answered without disclosure of any confidential, proprietary or trade secret information (including from a current or prior employer or their vendors or customers), you must decline to answer the question.

Notice to third party agencies:

Please refrain from cold-calling or emailing our executive leadership team or the HR community directly. The Talent Acquisition department manages centralized recruiting operations globally, including the selection and management of external suppliers. Currently, our preferred supplier list is at full capacity. To ensure we have your information on file for future consideration, we kindly request that you complete the online form provided here.