Corporate Supplier Approval Specialist

Job Address:
1425 The Queensway, Etobicoke, Ontario, M8Z 1T3

Corporate Supplier Approval Specialist

Wonderbrands, is a leading North American bakery (formerly Weston Foods, fresh and frozen businesses) with 140 years of experience in baking packaged breads, artisan breads, and donuts. We are one of the largest bakeries in North America and makers of Wonder Bread, Country Harvest, D’Italiano, Gadoua, and Casa Mendosa, and are committed to delivering great quality and high value baked goods and bakery solutions to our consumers and customers across North America. We conduct our business with integrity, contribute to our communities, and foster a supportive company culture.

This role will support building world-class food safety and quality standards while capitalizing on new technologies and platforms. The Supplier Approval Specialist, will lead Weston Foods’ practices and regulatory compliance audits of food, packaging, and comanufacturer, as well as Distribution Centers, service suppliers, and Weston Foods bakeries as required. You will support approval and ongoing monitoring, supplier/comanufacturers non-conformances, customer and consumer complaints, raw material testing, and support implementation of WonderBrands food safety and quality compliance IT systems.

CORE ACCOUNTABILITIES:

- Regular travel (up to 40% to 50%) across North America to conduct Weston Foods suppliers, Comanufacturer, Distribution Centers and Weston Foods Corporate bakery internal audits and ongoing monitoring. Monitoring includes but is not limited to CAPA reviews and supplier/comanufacturer analysis. Lead implementation and ongoing work with 3rd party audits where required.
- Ensure all potential risks are identified, mitigated and escalated within the FSQ team to confirm risk level, root cause, corrective action plan effectiveness, business impact and alternative solutions.
- Support food safety team risk assessments of packaging and raw materials (includes contacting suppliers, comanufacturers, assessing the non conformance history and risk levels of the same).
- Support comanufacturers first production runs and lead the quality reviews and complaint investigations/CAPA to deliver on the KPIs, as required.
- Communicate and influence positive progress toward New Ways of Working across all of Weston Foods.
- Supplier/Comanufacturers non-conformances/consumer complaints: lead the partnerships and root cause/CAPA activity with suppliers and comanufacturer, including verifications/validations of effectiveness.
- Support capability building of quality team members in the network through training (ie: shadow audits).
- Work with the team to drive continuous improvement of programs and supplier standards
- Support transition of divisions, working collaboratively with other teams, such as FGF Frozen division
- Back-up to Supplier & CoMan Manager

ABOUT YOU:

- A minimum BSc degree in food science, microbiology, food processing, engineering or similar.
- Minimum 5 years of food safety and audit experience in QA and/or food production.
- Strong leader who can make data driven decisions with confidence and be able to communicate effectively to internal stakeholders the rationale for the decisions being made.
- Certified Quality Lead Auditor, GFSI, PCQI or related certification in auditing or equivalent experience
- Working knowledge of GFSI requirements (preferably BRC), Regulatory requirements USA and Canada, cGMP’s, HACCP/HARPC, Risk Analysis, 5S, team building and employee development
- Experience in a variety of food manufacturing processes, suppliers and Comanufacturer management or CPG industry an asset
- Strong project management and multi-tasking skills to balance projects and stakeholder teams across multiple lines of business while adhering to firm timelines
- A proactive advocate and champion of change and continuous improvement; able to influence and drive action and results
- Able to travel freely throughout North America, and comfortable working often in remote environments
- Flexible to support during emergencies and urgent situations
- Committed, passionate, takes initiative, and enthusiastic about discipline in the food safety and quality space.

Weston is committed to fostering a work environment with strong core values that support diversity through various policies, programs and activities that encourage sensitivity and accommodations. Weston offers employment regardless of race, colour, gender, national origin, religion, age, disability, or sexual orientation. Diversity is integral to our success as an organization and we will use diversity as a model to help identify and develop the best talent, create effective teams, and achieve overall excellence. In addition, we believe that compliance with laws is about doing the right thing. Upholding the law is part of our Code of Conduct - it reinforces what our customers and stakeholders expect of us.

Number of openings:
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