Sr. Quality Engineer - Des Moines, IA / Avon, IA

JOB OVERVIEW

As a Senior Quality Engineer, you will be responsible for championing food safety and quality on your systems as well as across the 2 Operating Units, Meals & Baking, Foodservice Bakery Flour that Avon services.

This role reports to the Food Safety & Quality (FSQ) Manager and will have four direct reports. This position will work closely with the Operations team to provide quality, regulatory, and sanitation technical expertise to deliver excellence in product quality and food safety.

You will also have the unique opportunity to impact the Innovation, Technology, and Quality function by leveraging your knowledge and skills to provide deep technical expertise, become a leader of global connections, and be recognized as a valued partner for our plant, sourcing, and business teams.

The right candidate for this role will leverage strong project management skills, relationship management skills, be results-oriented, and be able to find opportunities for value creation to help the company succeed. In this role, you will have the opportunity to develop communication and influencing skills, people leadership, a deep technical expertise of food safety and quality, and you will have exposure to manufacturing environments both inside and outside of General Mills.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Provide FSQ leadership and direction through technical mastery in the areas of regulatory compliance, SPC, system capability, sanitation, and food safety risk mitigation, and champion material supplier food safety and regulatory compliance
• Food Safety Team Leader, FSSC program management
• Provide plantwide support for Food Safety Program management and training.
• Build alignment and strategy with cross-functional partners, lead risk assessments, and root cause analysis activities for issue resolution.
• Provide leadership and technical support for R&D, HMM, reformulations, and new product start-ups.
• Provide leadership in the identification and implementation of product and process quality improvement opportunities and resultant productivity gains.
• Develop action plans with Operations, R&D, Engineering, and FSQ teams to ensure product specifications, analytical procedures, and sampling programs are appropriate and meet system capability and key consumer requirements.
• Using quality engineering principles, collect, analyze, and interpret in-process and analytical data to make quality evaluations, and recommend actions for improvement.
• Provide manager of people leadership for four direct reports.
• Review plans for new and changing systems and ensure effective product safety and sanitation design.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Food Science, Packaging, Material Science, or related field
• 5+ years of related quality engineering experience
• HACCP and PCQI Certified
• Ability to manage cross-platform projects and be comfortable with ambiguity
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with strong results orientation
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and adjust priorities
• Knowledge of product protection and Quality Engineering principles with demonstrated mechanical aptitude, ability to apply engineering principles, and ability to troubleshoot

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Self-starter who can prioritize workload while meeting commitments
• Strong understanding of product quality, sensory, and food safety
• Strong understanding of Zero Loss Culture philosophy and tools
• Demonstrated leadership and initiative
• Demonstrated ability to navigate complex organizations
• Plant Quality Engineer, manufacturing, or auditing/consulting experience
• External Quality or Quality Audit Management Experience

We exist to make food the world loves. But we do more than that. Our company is a place that prioritizes being a force for good, a place to expand learning, explore new perspectives and reimagine new possibilities, every day. We look for people who want to bring their best - bold thinkers with big hearts who challenge one other and grow together. Because becoming the undisputed leader in food means surrounding ourselves with people who are hungry for what's next.

Salary Range

The salary range for this position is $93700.00 - $140700.00 / Annually. At General Mills we strive for each employee's pay at any point in their career to reflect their experiences performance and skills for their current role. The salary range for this role represents the numerous factors considered in the hiring decisions including, but not limited to, educations, skills, work experience, certifications, etc. As such, pay for the successful candidate(s) could fall anywhere within the stated range. Beyond base salary, General Mills offers a competitive Total Rewards package focusing on your overall well-being. We are proud to offer a foundation of health benefits, retirement and financial wellbeing, time off programs, wellbeing support and perks. Benefits may vary by role, country, region, union status, and other employment status factors. You may also be eligible to participate in an annual incentive program. An incentive award, if any, depends on various factors, including, individual and organizational performance.

Reasonable Accommodation Request

If you need to request an accommodation during the application or hiring process, please fill out our online accommodations request form by following this link: Accommodations Request.