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Quality Assurance Vice President (Frozen and kettle cooked foods )
Location: New Orleans, LA

Position Summary:
The Vice President, Quality Assurance is a key leadership role responsible for developing, deploying, and maintaining quality standards across manufacturing operations and product lines. This role will drive quality improvements in internal manufacturing, distribution center inspections, and external supplier quality, while spearheading the evolution from Quality Control (QC) to Quality Assurance (QA).

Serving as a strategic partner across Operations, Sales, Customer Service, and with external customers, the VP of Quality Assurance will lead continuous improvement initiatives, oversee quality analytics and metrics, and ensure adherence to rigorous quality systems throughout the organization.

Key Responsibilities:

• Establish, implement, and lead quality assurance strategies to ensure all components, materials, and finished products meet or exceed defined quality standards.

• Through leadership of managers and professional staff, develop and maintain quality procedures and controls across internal manufacturing and contract manufacturers.

• Collaborate closely with manufacturing teams to execute QA activities and enforce compliance with raw material, product, and packaging specifications, as well as regulatory requirements.

• Partner with Research & Development during product launches to establish critical checkpoints for testing new products, parts, and processes.

• Drive corrective actions for procedural, product, or process deviations.

• Develop and deploy comprehensive quality systems and performance metrics to reduce supplier issues, internal rework, and improve customer satisfaction.

• Lead material review board meetings to uphold quality standards, optimize raw material use, reduce work-in-process inventory, and enhance "First Time Right" results.

• Champion continuous improvement initiatives across the organization, including Hoshin planning and global QA processes aligned with company strategies.

• Monitor and analyze internal audit results to strengthen manufacturing quality assurance.

• Manage departmental budgets and allocate resources effectively.

• Develop and deliver training programs focused on quality systems, problem-solving, and continuous improvement to elevate organizational competence.

• Perform other duties as assigned to support organizational goals.

Qualifications:

• Minimum of 7 years in Quality Management leadership roles.

• 10+ years of experience in lean manufacturing environments, with specific expertise in lean operating system deployment.

• Proven experience in plant transformation and change management.

• Background in food manufacturing is required.

• Expertise in Six Sigma principles and quality tools, including Design of Experiments, FMEA, ANOVA, reliability studies, and statistical software usage.

• Proficient in Lean Manufacturing methodologies such as poka-yoke, 5S, Kanban, value stream mapping, and work element analysis.

• Strong business acumen with effective presentation and conflict resolution skills.

• Demonstrated success in matrix environments, balancing enterprise-wide quality initiatives with plant-level priorities.

• Self-motivated, results-driven leader with a passion for process improvement and team development.

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Sciences, or a related field required.

• Master’s degree in Quality Systems, Business, or Engineering preferred.

• Certifications in Lean, Six Sigma, and Project Management are highly desired.