Ice Cream Quality Lead, North America

Travel 30% North America

Overview

Quality is a key driver of competitive advantage in the ice cream business. The BU Quality Head plays a crucial role in embedding a strong culture of quality within the business unit, ensuring every product delivers the best experience and delights our consumers. This role champions product safety and superior quality, leading teams with passion and precision to uphold the highest standards.

The Quality Director NA IC leads all aspects of Quality of products in IC North America with a Turnover of 2.5 billion USD. The role will be responsible for deploying Quality strategy, governance and goals that directly impacts marketplace success, our credibility with customers, consumer safety and on‐shelf quality of our products in the marketplace. This in turn impacts Unilever reputation and brand equity in ensuring quality for new innovations and promotions.

The role has direct interface with 5 UL factories; tens of Third-party collaborative manufacturers on shore and import; 450 Customers (Gold, Silver, Bronze); (FDA, USDA, CFIA, Health Canada, and EPA) Regulatory Authorities.

Key Responsibilities:

• End-to-end quality responsibility across the entire region: Design, Sourcing Raws and Packs, Manufacturing, Distribution, Cold Chain and Customer/Consumer Feedback
• Member of the NA Leadership Team and Global Quality Leadership team.
• Define and deliver the global and BU quality strategy and effective management systems
• Lead BU quality team and talent development within the function
• Conduct regular audits and inspections to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of quality control procedures.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams, suppliers, and external stakeholders to address quality issues and drive continuous improvement initiatives.

• Investigating customer complaints and implementing corrective and preventive actions to address quality issues and prevent recurrence.
•  Communicate quality objectives, performance metrics, and improvement initiatives to senior management and key stakeholders.
• Stay informed about industry trends, emerging technologies, and regulatory changes to ensure the company remains compliant and competitive in the market.
• Support BU teams to enable them to develop and implement the Quality Management System (QMS) to ensure fully compliant products - develop and maintain all relevant procedures in line with the requirements of the Global policies and procedures
• Ensure that the QMS is maintained in a state of inspection readiness.
• Ensure systems are in place to manage local embellishment, re-pack, and co-packing work to meet all relevant standards and local requirements.
• Maintain an effective Change Management system to ensure business changes are effectively managed.
• Investigate quality issues (Non-conformances) and failures, lead Critical Event Process and apply Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPA) to prevent recurrence. Advise regarding CAPA necessary at BU quality level for items not under local control. Ensure that improvements to products and procedures can be identified and fixed.
• Audit/Inspection Management – Ensure that processes are in place to assess the adequacy and effectiveness of the local QMS.
• Ensure a routine review program and audits are in place for Third Party providers.
•  Drive and deploy a digital Quality transformation program
• Lead in the BU E2E Culture Quality Transformation Program

Professional Skills & Competencies:

• Strong knowledge of North America food safety regulations and standards: Ensuring compliance with regulations such as HACCP, FSSC22000, and  food labeling requirements.
•  Quality management expertise: Developing and implementing quality control procedures, conducting audits, and managing quality assurance programs to maintain product safety and consistency.
• Analytical skills: Utilizing data analysis tools to monitor quality metrics, identify trends, and implement corrective actions to improve overall product quality.
• Communication skills: Collaborating with cross-functional teams, suppliers, and regulatory agencies to address quality issues, communicate quality objectives, and drive continuous improvement initiatives.
• Problem-solving abilities: Resolving quality-related issues, investigating customer complaints, and implementing corrective and preventive actions to prevent quality deviations.
• Experience in virtual teamwork.
• Experience in developing and maintaining a robust QMS, familiar with external accreditation audit process.
• Track record of delivering quality performance improvement within multiple large to small manufacturing sites;
• Auditing skills, appropriate qualification