ABOUT PORTA

From the same culinary team behind Terroni, Sud Forno and Spaccio, comes PORTA™, Ontario’s first Italian meal delivery service. PORTA’s restaurant-quality dishes are handmade with authentic Italian ingredients, flash frozen and bring the taste of Italy to your home with no prep and minimal clean up. Launched in over 50+ cities across Ontario, PORTA is a venture-backed food-tech company that is led by a team of experienced entrepreneurs, culinary geniuses, and brand builders.

PORTA is seeking an experienced Senior Manager, Food Safety and Quality Assurance to lead the build-out of its FSQA platform across several food manufacturing facilities. As a start-up company in its first year of business, PORTA is on an impressive growth trajectory and recognizes the need to quickly develop best-in-class food safety processes and programs that meet all CFIA requirements at the very fundamental level. As the company strives to deliver consistent and premium product quality, the... development of comprehensive quality systems is key to sustaining that level of customer commitment.

THE ROLE

This role offers a unique opportunity for an accomplished, hands-on individual who has a passion for bringing about change and for building a culture from the very basic fundamental level – one that has food safety, product quality, and ultimately, the consumer, at its core. Designing the build-out strategy for all required programs, content documentation, employee education and training, the effective roll-out, and hiring the FSQA staff are fundamental requirements. The Senior Manager will be the subject matter expert for all food safety, regulatory, and compliance matters across the company, and will ensure that company procedures and GMPs are followed daily across all PORTA and related commissary facilities. Tools such as auditing, process evaluation, hazard assessment, risk management strategies, and root cause analysis, will be utilized to achieve compliance objectives as well as to facilitate continuous improvement. Close interface with Operations, R&D, Procurement, Logistics, Marketing other functional groups in providing strong communication and leadership is key to success.

RESPONSIBILITIES
• Lead the staffing build-out of the FSQA and Sanitation Teams across several production facilities ranging from commissary operations to a dedicated food manufacturing facility
• Develop and maintain oversight of all requisite Food Safety & QA programs to ensure regulatory compliance and continuous improvement as well as consistent enforcement of procedures throughout the facility
• Lead audit teams during regulatory and/or third-party audits of facilities and drive consistent compliance
• Be proactive and ready for all regulatory reviews
• Assist with standardization of sanitary operating procedures by observing and identifying areas in need of improvement and implement programs to ensure production processes are consistent with established standards
• Effectively communicate food safety and ingredient/product quality concerns to the management team
• Assist in monitoring the plant environmental conditions and monitor trends for elimination of problematic areas
• Develop, implement, train, all quality programs, HACCP programs, SSOPs, and maintains CFIA/FSMA compliance
• Develop lot traceability and Recall Program, using a working knowledge of ERP systems to track and trace items throughout the supply chain
• Oversee root cause analysis in investigation of customer complaints
• Lead process improvement/focus team meetings to drive improvement plans related to FSQA issues
• Assist in cross training of Food Safety Plans and all supporting procedures in new and current facility locations
• Oversee implementation and full execution of the Food Safety Plan for multiple facilities, including 3PL refrigerated distribution/assembly facilities
• Minimum Bachelor’s Degree in Food Science, Microbiology or related technical field required
• Five (5) to ten (10) years of FSQA related management level experience in frozen and prepared food plant manufacturing experience is preferred. Previous start-up experience is a plus.
• Solid working knowledge of food safety and quality assurance, sanitation, food manufacturing, packaging, and distribution
• Proficient with Implementation of various food safety standards as known throughout the industry, including GFSI, CFIA and local health department standards
• Previous food safety management systems training and implementation experience
• Must be capable of working independently and in a fast paced, team environment
• Detail oriented and capable of managing multiple projects simultaneously
• Excellent written and verbal communication as well as strong leadership skills in mentoring and developing others. The ability to educate and communicate to all levels of the organization is vital
• Ability to provide guidance to subordinates to manage deliverables on a timely basis
• Ability to travel within the GTA to support all locations will be necessary
• Competitive salary
• Bonus plan
• Benefits
• Free Italian food!

PORTA is committed to providing a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace. Our people are our business and we celebrate our differences, encourage a breadth of perspectives, and offer equal opportunity for all employees to join and excel at our company. PORTA gladly provides accommodations to candidates if necessary, so please send us an email if you would like us to do that for you: [email protected]
Toronto ON

Salary Criteria