Quality Assurance Manager

Location: Greater Yakima, WA Area
Job Title: Quality Assurance Manager
Salary Range: $115,000 - $125,000

Join a leading food and beverage manufacturer as their next Quality Assurance Manager. You'll lead plant‑wide quality and food safety programs, champion continuous improvement, and ensure every product meets the highest customer and regulatory standards. You'll also cross‑train with a nearby sister facility, strengthening collaboration and building seamless quality continuity across both sites. If you thrive in a hands‑on, fast‑moving environment and love elevating standards, this role puts you at the heart of it.

The Responsibilities of the Quality Assurance Manager will include:

• Champion all Food Safety & Quality Systems, ensuring ongoing compliance and certification readiness across SQF, HACCP, Organic, and Kosher programs.
• Drive full regulatory compliance with FDA, USDA, and other governing bodies, maintaining a proactive, audit‑ready culture.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives to elevate Quality Systems, strengthen preventive controls, and enhance operational excellence.
• Ensure alignment with customer‑specific quality standards, delivering best‑in‑class product integrity and service.
• Partner with vendors, customers, and internal stakeholders to resolve quality issues through root‑cause analysis, corrective actions, and data‑driven decision‑making.
• Maintain the technical expertise required to serve as the site's SQF Practitioner and HACCP Coordinator, staying current on evolving industry standards.
• Provide expert technical support to cross‑functional teams on quality, food safety, and process optimization challenges.
• Deliver hands‑on support to production teams, leading GMP reinforcement, troubleshooting, and CI initiatives on the floor.
• Mentor, coach, and develop Quality team members, fostering a high‑performance, quality‑first culture.
• Manage and optimize the annual Quality department budget, ensuring strategic resource allocation.
• Stay ahead of emerging regulatory changes, scientific advancements, and chemical safety requirements to keep programs cutting‑edge.
• Oversee and deliver plant‑wide training on HACCP, GMPs, and Food Safety Fundamentals, ensuring consistent competency across all departments.

The Ideal Quality Assurance Manager will have the following skillset:

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Microbiology, or a related scientific field; years of experience might be substituted for degree
• 5+ years in the CPG industry, ideally within high‑speed food or beverage manufacturing/processing & packaging.
• 3+ years of QA experience with strong knowledge of Food Safety & Quality Systems and regulatory expectations.
• Skilled in statistical analysis, precision measurement, and process capability studies to support data‑driven quality decisions.
• Proven ability to develop, implement, and optimize QA programs, SOPs, and preventive controls.
• Hands‑on experience with SQF Code, GMPs, HACCP, and other GFSI‑aligned standards.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence cross‑functional teams and drive a quality‑first culture.
• Certifications such as Juice HACCP, SQF Practitioner, Internal Auditor, and PCQI.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with regulatory authorities, industry experts, academic partners, co‑packers, vendors, customers, and auditors.
• Works seamlessly with hourly employees, supervisors, managers, and purchasing to ensure Quality Systems are consistently executed.
• Provides leadership, coaching, and development for all QA department personnel.