Quality Assurance Specialist

Who we are

At Voyage Foods, our mission is to make delicious, sustainable and accessible foods that are better for people and the planet. All of our products work together to support and sustain a food system designed for everyone, now and into the future. We're a team of food scientists, CPG experts, and professionals with a passion for making good food available for generations to come.

What do peanut butter, chocolate and coffee have in common? They're some of our favorite foods, but are inaccessible and unsustainable. That's why we created our Nut-Free Spreads, Cocoa-Free Chocolate and Bean-Free Coffee. From food allergies to climate change and unjust labor practices, the foods we love are in serious need of an upgrade. Our future-proofed foods are always top 9 allergen-free, vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO, affordable and most importantly, utterly delicious.

In 2022, Voyage Foods announced our $36 million Series A to enable the growth of our teams as well as support demand generated from our retail and B2B partnerships. Voyage Foods’ Series A was led by UBS O-Connor and Level One Fund with participation from Horizons Ventures, SOSV’s Indie Bio, and others. It’s a great time to join our team!

How we work

We’re a rapidly growing team of people who value diversity in all its forms. We love adding new perspectives and appreciate those who ask questions that help us challenge assumptions, explore new directions, and improve what we’ve already built. We are a group of like-minded difference makers. Curiosity drives our development. We have tenacity and a risk-taking mentality at every level of our organization to keep challenging normalcy. We believe it’s our responsibility to create an environment in which every person can bring their full, authentic selves to work. We push each other to be our best and do our products proud. Read more about us by visiting our careers page!

About the role 

We are looking for a Quality Assurance Specialist to support the growth and building of our internal food safety and quality programs and systems. This individual will play a key role in the implementation and continuous improvement of the food safety and quality programs from the early stage of the systems establishment process. The ideal candidate will monitor, review, and verify the effectiveness of the quality systems and also assist in developing and updating the quality systems documentation. If you are someone who enjoys working in a fast-paced, collaborative, and evolving work environment, is uncompromising in your organizational abilities, and has impeccable attention to detail, then this is an incredible opportunity. 

This is an exempt, non-supervisory position based at our Oakland, CA HQ location and will report directly to the Quality Assurance Manager. 

What you’ll do

• Assist Operations team in achieving excellent food safety culture
• Provides guidance and technical knowledge to more junior staff, including monitoring the performance of daily tasks.
• Provide training to the production team members on GMPs, SOPs and other updated policies as needed
• Apply Root Cause Analysis tools to identify root causes and propose effective corrective and preventive actions
• Coordinate with 3rd party laboratories to perform the required testing of environmental samples and products
• Verify the effectiveness of food safety prerequisite programs, critical control points and preventive controls
• Conduct internal audits, inspections and implement corrective actions
• Conduct pre-operational inspections, environmental monitoring sampling and review data for in-process and finished products. 
• Implement effective document control and record keeping 
• Develop, review, and update the standard operating procedures and monitoring records
• Support SQF documentation control and record keeping
• Update and maintain approved supplier database and conduct annual evaluation
• Support Production and R&D teams to conduct scale-up and process improvement trials
• Provide support including acting as a backfill if the QA Tech is absent
  

What makes a great candidate 

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Nutrition, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, or equivalent related experience
• Minimum 2 years of QC/QA experience in a food manufacturing environment 
• Knowledge of applicable FDA regulations and third party audits
• HACCP or Preventive Controls for Human Foods training is a plus