Quality Assurance Technician

Description

SUMMARY OF DUTIES:

The Quality Assurance Technician is responsible for supporting and monitoring food safety, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, and sanitation standards throughout commissary operations. This position conducts inspections, verifies quality and food safety requirements, maintains critical records, and works collaboratively with culinary, warehouse, transportation, and sanitation teams to ensure products, processes, and facilities meet organizational and regulatory standards. The Quality Assurance Technician serves as a resource for food safety and quality initiatives and provides operational support to ensure a safe, compliant, and efficient production environment.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Conduct routine quality assurance inspections of production, packaging, storage, warehouse, and distribution areas to verify compliance with established food safety, quality, sanitation, and operational standards.
• Monitor environmental monitoring and bacterial management programs by collecting samples as required, reviewing results, maintaining records, and notifying management of any out-of-specification findings or concerns requiring corrective action.
• Monitor food production, packaging, and distribution activities to ensure compliance with food safety requirements, quality standards, sanitation procedures, HACCP plans, regulatory requirements, and established standard operating procedures.
• Verify, document, and maintain records of food temperatures, including receiving, production, cooling, cold-holding, hot-holding, storage, freezer, refrigeration, and transportation temperatures to ensure safe food handling practices and compliance with food safety standards.
• Verify and document product dating, labeling accuracy, allergen controls, inventory rotation practices, traceability requirements, product disposition activities, and storage conditions to support product quality and regulatory compliance.
• Perform pre-operational and operational inspections of equipment, production lines, food-contact surfaces, warehouses, storage areas, delivery vehicles, and general facility conditions to verify cleanliness, sanitation effectiveness, and readiness for operations.
• Assist with the implementation, monitoring, and verification of food safety programs, sanitation programs, quality assurance initiatives, environmental monitoring activities, HACCP plans, and regulatory compliance requirements.
• Review, complete, and maintain quality assurance records, temperature logs, sanitation verification records, environmental monitoring documentation, inspection reports, corrective action documentation, audit records, and other required food safety and quality records.
• Identify, investigate, document, and report food safety, quality, sanitation, maintenance, or operational concerns. Assist with monitoring corrective actions to ensure issues are addressed appropriately and in a timely manner.
• Participate in internal audits, mock recalls, third-party inspections, customer audits, and regulatory reviews by conducting inspections, gathering documentation, assisting with facility readiness activities, and supporting corrective action follow-up.
• Support product traceability and recall preparedness initiatives by maintaining accurate records, assisting with tracking activities, and ensuring required documentation is complete and readily accessible.
• Review sanitation activities and verify the effectiveness of cleaning procedures for production equipment, food-contact surfaces, storage areas, warehouses, delivery vehicles, and facility environments to support food safety objectives.
• Assign and monitor routine sanitation-related tasks as directed, including verification of cleaning schedules, deep cleaning activities, drain maintenance activities, footbath programs, and other sanitation initiatives.
• Monitor chemical usage, sanitation practices, pest control observations, and environmental conditions to identify potential food safety, quality, or regulatory compliance risks.
• Ensure production areas, warehouses, storage locations, and equipment remain inspection-ready and compliant with organizational, customer, and regulatory expectations.
• Report equipment deficiencies, facility maintenance concerns, sanitary deficiencies, pest activity, environmental concerns, or food safety hazards to management and appropriate departments for resolution.
• Work collaboratively with culinary, sanitation, warehouse, procurement, transportation, and facilities teams to identify, communicate, and resolve food safety, quality, sanitation, and compliance issues.
• Provide day-to-day guidance and training support to employees, volunteers, and temporary staff regarding food safety practices, sanitation procedures, quality standards, personal hygiene requirements, allergen awareness, and regulatory compliance expectations.
• Assist with the collection, tracking, and reporting of food safety, quality assurance, sanitation, and compliance data, metrics, and inspection findings as requested.
• Establish and maintain a safe work environment by identifying workplace hazards, observing employee safe work practices, communicating concerns to management, participating in safety meetings, and completing incident or accident documentation as assigned.
• Assisting with any and all mission work as needed and requested with some or no prior notice including, but not limited to: serving as a truck spotter, helping with Farm Market/Community Garden/Freight Farms/on and off-site food distributions, preparation of meals and serving home-delivered meals; and
• Other duties as assigned or needed.

Requirements

• Knowledge in usage of sanitation chemicals, environmental contamination, and cleaning and reassembling equipment procedures.
• Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals. Ability to calculate dilution rates to obtain specific final PPM concentrations
• Must be able to control high-pressure hoses, lift heavy containers of chemicals, and empty trash receptacles around production.
• Must be able to tolerate sudden and extreme changes in temperatures and stand for at least 8 hours a day
• Ability to work in hot or cold conditions for long periods of time;
• Ability to work with all food types, including but not limited to gluten, dairy, and raw proteins, including pork;
• Must be able to climb on a ladder the distance of 5 feet to reach stored items and carry them to the floor
• Must be able to push, pull, and guide carts which weigh approximately 70-325 pounds on a tile surface
• Must bend or stoop frequently throughout the day and reach short distances into carts to retrieve trays
• Must be able to twist and rotate 180 degrees during each day and follow DOH food service standards