Job Description:
Provide leadership and technical support to ensure the safety, regulatory compliance and quality of General Mills’ products produced at external manufacturing locations. As part of our External Supply Chain team, you will work with operations, R&D, logistics, engineering and finance functions to support multiple brands across several businesses with a focus on thermal processing systems. As the primary quality resource for several partner plants, you represent General Mills brands, customers and consumers. Partnering with internal resources, you will support new product introductions, manage risk and drive continuous improvement efforts with a direct, personal impact on our business results.
Key Responsibilities:
Optimize Partnership Value: Partnering with our operations, logistics, finance and engineering teams, effectively manage external manufacturing locations to assure key metrics are achieved.
• Key metrics include safety, quality, cost, service, productivity, and sanitation.
• Build strong, effective relationships with our external partners to provide a high level of collaboration to achieve shared objectives.
• Act as the primary quality interface between GMI and our external partners.
• Utilizing GMI resources, knowledge and expertise, act as an internal consultant to improve the capability of our external partners.
• Set annual quality goals and lead efforts to achieve those objectives.
• Supported by our continuous improvement culture, learn and use our various CI tools to drive improvements.
• Provide training to assure awareness of GMI requirements, programs and best practices.
Protect our Brands: Work directly with our external partners to assure effective controls are in place to meet our expectations for product safety, quality and regulatory compliance.
• Complete facility quality system audits at new and existing locations. Identify and lead improvement activities. Effectively on board new partner companies and personnel.
• Complete thermal process system audits to assure compliance to regulatory and food safety requirements and ensuring that all components of the specified thermal process are continuously being met.
• Ensure that product specifications, system capability, analytical procedures, sampling programs and control systems are appropriate to manufacture products as designed.
• Collaborate with our external partners to drive risk reduction efforts.
• Manage non-conformance events to protect our consumers and minimize losses.
• Lead problem solving activities to assure root cause identification and sustainable corrective actions.
Accelerate Innovation: Interacting with our R&D, business and marketing teams, support plant trials and start-up activities.
• Support the design and implementation of new product introductions from the trial phase through start-up and ongoing production.
• Lead product improvement projects.
• Identify and lead productivity improvement projects.
• Identify and share novel approaches and best practices internally and externally to improve our business processes.
Additional duties as assigned.
Job Dimensions:
The external supply chain thermal process quality engineering consultant will interact with multiple internal and external organizations:
• Multiple external manufacturing locations
• General Mills External Supply Chain team
• General Mills Business Teams, R&D personnel, Engineering personnel
• General Mills Corporate Quality and Thermal Process teams
Requirements:
• BS degree in Engineering (Chemical or Industrial preferred), or BS or MS degree in Science (Microbiology, Food Science, Chemistry, or related field preferred).
• Minimum 2 years, prefer 4+ years, thermal processing experience with low-acid, acid & acidified food processing (roles may include Quality, Manufacturing, Engineering, R&D). Additional experience in aseptic processing is preferred.
• Better Process Control School certified, applied knowledge/experience with FDA/USDA canning regulations.
• Ability and flexibility to travel up to 75% of the time. Financial travel relief benefits are available to assist with dependent care, household maintenance, or other expenses associated with substantial travel.
• Demonstrated experience and results in quality engineering and statistical analysis.
• Demonstrated experience and results in food science, sensory and sanitation programs including food safety programs and regulatory requirements.
• Demonstrated experience using continuous improvement tools (LEAN, Six Sigma, or related).
• Demonstrated ability to work independently.
• Effective at building strong relationships with external and internal partners.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence and achieve results.
• Solid computer application skills.
• Willingness to work flexible schedules as needed to support 7-day per week, 24-hour per day production facilities. Work schedules will include occasional off-shift or weekend work.
• Ability to meet physical demands of job working in food manufacturing facilities.
Our Brands. Your Legacy.
Great brands start with the people that make them great. One of the world's leading food companies, General Mills operates in more than 100 countries and markets more than 100 consumer brands, including Cheerios, Häagen-Dazs, Nature Valley, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Green Giant, Old El Paso, Yoplait and more. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, General Mills had fiscal 2011 global net sales of US$14.9 billion.
We seek out the best of the best and give them development, support and the chance to lead something big. If you’re ready to fulfill your potential, consider sharing your talents with the outstanding people of General Mills. You will work with legendary brands, nourish people around the world, and start building your own legacy.
