Quality Assurance Manager

Quality Assurance Manager, Multi-Site

Bear State Kitchen | El Segundo, CA and Los Angeles, CA | Full-Time, On-Site

This search is being managed on behalf of Bear State Kitchen by Bayshore HR Solutions, a third-party HR consulting and recruiting firm. Qualified applicants will be contacted by a Bayshore HR Solutions recruiter.

About Bear State Kitchen

Bear State Kitchen is a chef-led wholesale food manufacturer and co-packer producing mayo-based sauces, dressings, bases, and specialty prepared foods across three Los Angeles area facilities operating under GMP, FDA, USDA/FSIS, and SQF requirements.

The Opportunity

We're hiring a Quality Assurance Manager to own the food safety and quality system across all three of our sites. Each facility has a QA Lead running day-to-day checks. This role provides the technical direction, program ownership, and documentation discipline that keeps every site continuously audit-ready rather than audit-reactive.

This is a true hands-on leadership role. You'll validate a CIP cycle in the morning, coach a QA Lead through a deviation at lunch, and close out a customer's supplier questionnaire and an SQF corrective action before end of day. We want someone who will spend real time observing and learning our operation before making recommendations, someone with the maturity to build trust on the floor before changing what's on it.

This role is bilingual English/Spanish. You'll train and coach our Spanish-speaking production and sanitation teams directly on the floor, while producing all formal documentation and representing the company to auditors, customers, and USDA inspectors in polished, professional English.

Growth path: As our third site matures, this role has a clear runway to grow into a Director of Quality position, eventually overseeing site QA Leads across all locations.

What You'll Own

• Audit readiness & certification: Serve as our SQF Practitioner of record; own the certification calendar, internal audits, mock recalls, traceability exercises, and CAPA closure across all sites.
• Food safety plans & regulatory compliance: Develop, maintain, and validate HACCP plans and FSMA Preventive Controls programs; ensure compliance with 9 CFR (USDA), 21 CFR 117 and 114 (FDA), and daily interface with our USDA In-Plant Inspector.
• QA Lead development: Provide direct supervision, mentorship, and performance management for the QA Lead at each site; standardize forms, methods, and escalation rules company-wide.
• QC programs & analytical methods: Own in-process QC (pH, salt, Brix, viscosity, water activity, seal integrity), calibration, environmental monitoring, and finished-goods release.
• Documentation & systems: Own document control across three sites and build QA dashboards and reporting in Google Sheets / Google Workspace and our ERP (BatchMaster). We're actively modernizing toward less paper and more digital, and want someone who can help drive that shift.
• Cross-functional partnership: Work closely with R&D on new product commercialization, support co-manufacturing customers, and partner with operations and maintenance on new equipment and line startups.

What You Bring

Required credentials (at time of hire):

• SQF Practitioner, current, registered, and in good standing
• PCQI (Preventive Controls Qualified Individual)
• HACCP certification (IHA/AIB/FSPCA or equivalent)

Required experience:

• 5–7+ years of progressive food manufacturing quality experience, including 3+ years managing QA staff
• Demonstrated ownership of an SQF (or other GFSI) certification through at least one full audit cycle
• Direct experience in a USDA-FSIS inspected facility, including inspector interaction
• Experience writing and reassessing HACCP plans and FSMA Food Safety Plans from scratch
• Bilingual English/Spanish: required, not preferred. You'll train and investigate in Spanish on the floor and write all formal documentation in strong, professional English.

You'll thrive here if you:

• Have come up through production and transitioned into QA; you understand the floor because you've worked it
• Are solution-oriented and genuinely enjoy partnering with production to solve problems, not just flag them
• Are comfortable being customer-facing and can hold your own with executives pressing on food safety issues
• Have strong spreadsheet skills (Google Sheets or Excel, including pivot tables and dashboarding) and are comfortable with ERP/quality software

Nice to have:

• Experience with both hot-fill and cold-fill/cold-blend products under one roof
• Experience with emulsions, mayonnaise-based, or acidified/pH-controlled products
• Multi-site QA leadership or systems-standardization experience
• Co-packing / contract manufacturing background
• Internal Auditor or SQF Lead Auditor training
• A degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Chemistry, or a related field (not required; we weight plant experience and audit track record heavily)

Work Environment

This role is in the building across multiple shifts and sites, including refrigerated/freezer areas and areas near heated kettles and steam equipment. Standard PPE required (hairnet/beard net, smock, hearing protection, safety footwear, gloves). Ability to lift up to 40 lbs and to be reached for occasional after-hours quality escalations.

Bear State Kitchen is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Reasonable accommodations are available upon request.