At Bluegrass Ingredients, we believe exceptional products start with exceptional people. As a growing ingredient manufacturer, we are building a team of agile thinkers, problem solvers, and doers who take pride in quality, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

We are committed to creating an environment where employees feel supported and valued. If you are looking for a company where your work matters, Bluegrass Ingredients may be the right place for you.

About the Role

The Quality Manager is responsible for overseeing the Bluegrass Ingredients Quality Assurance programs, sanitation management, and regulatory compliance activities at the Springfield, KY manufacturing facility and warehouse. This role ensures that all products meet established quality and food safety standards while maintaining compliance with SQF, USDA, FSMA, FDA, and customer-specific requirements.

Key Responsibilities

Quality & Food Safety Leadership

• Lead plant-level and corporate quality initiatives to ensure compliance with company standards, customer expectations, and regulatory requirements.
• Provide technical guidance on quality systems, HACCP, preventive controls, and sanitation programs.
• Analyze trends in customer complaints, nonconformances, and audit findings to identify root causes and drive the implementation of the corrective action through continuous improvement at the site.
• Provides strategic direction and oversight to the Plant QA Supervisor.
• Reviews and approves key QA decisions at the plant level, including product releases, nonconformance dispositions, and corrective actions.
• Sets clear expectations and KPIs(e.g., audit scores, hold/release accuracy, sanitation verification rates, complaint trends).

Sanitation Management

• Develop, implement, and monitor the Master Sanitation Schedule for the site.
• Supervise sanitation supervisor to ensure effective cleaning and verification programs.
• Audits, pre-operational inspections and verification activities conducted by QA Supervisor and Production Supervisor to ensure sanitary conditions before production are adequate.
• Review and approve sanitation chemical usage, SSOPs, and validation documentation in alignment with all regulatory governing bodies.
• Standardize data entry procedures and ensure consistency and accuracy across plants.

Audit & Regulatory Support

• Support plant-level audit preparations, including SQF,USDA, FDA, USDA, and customer audits.
• Coordinate pre-audit readiness checks, mock audits, and post-audit corrective action follow-ups.
• Maintain documentation and records required for regulatory and customer compliance.
• Serve as a key liaison with regulatory inspectors and customers during audits and inspections at plant.

Leadership & Team Development

• Provide coaching, mentoring, and performance feedback to Plant QA and Sanitation teams.
• Lead plant-wide QA meetings and promote a culture of food safety and accountability.
• Collaborate with cross-functional departments (R&D, Operations, Maintenance, Supply Chain) to ensure alignment with quality and sanitation goals.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in food science, Microbiology, or equivalent combination of education and relevant work experience may be considered.
• 5 or more years of progressive Quality Assurance experience in food manufacturing (preferably dairy, spray drying, or ingredient processing).
• Strong knowledge of GMPs, HACCP,USDA, SQF, FSMA standards, and sanitation principles.
• Experience managing sanitation programs and leading audit preparations.
• Hands-on experience with ERP Quality modules (BatchMaster, Sage, or SAP).
• Excellent leadership, communication, and training skills.
• Ability to travel to company facilities as required (approx.5-10%).

Performance Indicators

• Audit readiness and score improvements.
• Reduction in customer complaints and nonconformances.
• ERP QA data accuracy and system compliance.
• Sanitation validation results and compliance with MSS.
• Training completion and QA staff competency levels.

Physical Demands:

• Frequently required to stand, walk, and move throughout manufacturing, warehouse, laboratory, and office environments for extended periods of time.
• Regularly required to use hands and fingers to handle, inspect, feel, and operate equipment, instruments, computers, and office tools.
• Standing, walking, touring various work environments including production and labs with exposure to various temperatures, elevated noise, etc.
• Frequently required to communicate verbally and hear in environments with moderate to high noise levels.
• Occasionally required to climb stairs, bend, stoop, kneel, crouch, reach, and navigate around production equipment and tight spaces.
• May be required to lift and/or move items up to 25 pounds periodically.
• Must be able to visually inspect products, ingredients, labels, documentation, and production processes, including close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus.
• Regular exposure to varying temperatures, including hot, cold, humid, and refrigerated production environments.
• Must be able to wear required personal protective equipment (PPE), including hairnets, beard nets, safety glasses, gloves, hearing protection, lab coats, and safety footwear.
• Ability to travel between production areas, storage facilities, and office locations multiple times throughout the workday.
• May occasionally work extended hours, weekends, or flexible schedules to support production demands, audits, investigations, or customer needs.

Other Job Requirements: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by this employee. He/she will be required to follow any other instructions and to perform any other duties requested by management.