QC & QA Manager

Plascene Inc.

Oxnard, CA

Pay: $100,000-$120,000/yr

Shift: Full time

**Summary:** The QC & QA Manager leads all quality assurance, quality control, and food safety activities for Plascene's packaging manufacturing operations in Oxnard, California, and at future Plascene sites, serving food-contact packaging customers. This position owns and maintains the Quality Management System (QMS) and the GFSI-certified food safety program (SQF/BRCGS), establishes inspection and testing requirements from incoming materials to finished goods, holds the authority to stop production and hold product, ensures compliance with customer and regulatory requirements, and drives continuous improvement. **Experience with PET or plastics packaging, or food-contact manufacturing a plus.**

The QC & QA Manager leads the quality team across all shifts and serves as the primary quality and food safety representative for customers, suppliers, auditors, certification bodies, and internal stakeholders.

**Essential Duties and Responsibilities:**

Quality Management System & Food Safety

· Build, maintain, and continuously improve the Quality Management System (QMS), including SOPs, work instructions, quality procedures, forms, document control, and change control.

· Serve as the designated SQF Practitioner (or BRCGS equivalent), responsible for the food safety and quality plan, the HACCP-based hazard analysis, and maintaining the plant's GFSI certification.

· Establish and enforce Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for food-contact packaging, including personnel hygiene, housekeeping, and sanitation of production and storage areas.

· Own foreign-material and contamination control, including glass and brittle plastic, metal, and loose-material controls, and oversee the pest control program and contractor.

· Ensure quality and food safety procedures and standards are consistently implemented across all shifts, crews, and production areas.

· Ensure compliance with applicable customer specifications, company standards, certification requirements, and regulatory requirements.

Inspection & Testing

· Establish inspection and testing standards for incoming materials, in-process products, finished products, and packaging.

· Define sampling plans (including AQL), test methods, and acceptance criteria based on customer specifications and product risk.

· Ensure inspection and testing requirements are clearly defined, documented, and consistently followed on every shift.

· Maintain appropriate calibration and control of inspection, measurement, and testing equipment.

· Review quality data and inspection results to identify trends, recurring issues, and opportunities for improvement by production line, product, and tooling.

Process Control & Quality Authority

· Approve first-article inspection at every production order start, tooling change, and material or color change before release to full production.

· Define in-process sampling frequencies and apply statistical process control (SPC) to critical product and process characteristics.

· Ensure traceability by lot, time, and production line, from incoming materials to finished goods, including retained samples for each production order.

· Enforce line clearance at changeovers to prevent mixing of products, colors, or materials.

· Hold the authority to stop any production line or hold product when quality or food safety is at risk; production may restart only after QC sign-off.

Audits & Compliance

· Lead internal quality and food safety audits against the SQF/BRCGS code, and coordinate customer, certification, supplier, and regulatory audits.

· Prepare audit documentation, responses, corrective action plans, and follow-up activities through closure.

· Maintain current SQF/BRCGS certification, customer compliance documentation, quality questionnaires, and related records.

· Ensure food-contact and product safety compliance of materials and finished products, including applicable FDA regulations and California Proposition 65, with supplier declarations kept current.

· Maintain verification records for recycled-content and other packaging regulatory requirements.

Nonconforming Product & CAPA

· Manage nonconforming products, including hold tagging, segregation, investigation, disposition, sorting, rework, scrap, and release decisions, with traceability by lot, line, and production time.

· Lead root-cause analysis and corrective and preventive action (CAPA) activities.

· Use structured problem-solving tools such as 5 Whys, Fishbone/Ishikawa, 8D, and other appropriate methodologies.

· Monitor corrective actions to ensure they are implemented effectively and prevent recurrence.

Customer Quality

· Serve as the primary quality contact for customers regarding quality issues, complaints, corrective actions, and quality documentation.

· Investigate customer complaints and returns using retained samples and production records, identify root causes, develop corrective actions, and provide timely written responses.

· Work closely with customers and inte