Associate, Raw Material Quality

Salary Range: CA$58,000.00 To CA$65,000.00 Annually

Village Farms International (Nasdaq: VFF) is a vertically integrated global leader in cannabis and plant-based consumer packaged goods, driven by sustainable innovation. As one of North America's longest-standing produce operators built on decades of expertise, we're a company where growers, innovators, and creators come together to shape the future of high-performing plant-based brands around the world.

Joining Village Farms means joining a global team built on purpose, integrity, and ambition. Here, we grow people, ideas, and possibilities.

The Opportunity

The Associate, Raw Material Quality is accountable for the quality control of raw materials, packaging components, and co-manufactured goods from receipt through disposition. This role bridges warehouse operations and QA, ensuring materials are inspected, sampled, specified, stored, retained, and tracked in compliance with Health Canada Cannabis Regulations, GACP/GMP requirements, and internal quality systems. The Associate owns the ongoing quality health of raw materials over time: maintaining specifications, monitoring storage conditions, trending supplier and material performance data, managing retention samples, and coordinating with internal and external stakeholders to resolve and prevent non-conformances. While reporting to the Director, Supply Chain & Logistics for day-to-day operations, the role holds a dotted-line reporting relationship to Quality Assurance. Material disposition authority is formally delegated by, and remains under the oversight of, Quality Assurance

What You'll Do

Incoming Material Inspection and Disposition

• Oversee inspections of incoming raw materials, packaging components, and co-manufactured goods against approved specifications.
• Verify Certificates of Analysis, Certificates of Compliance, and supplier documentation for accuracy and completeness prior to release.
• Assign and update quality status (quarantine, approved, rejected) in the inventory/ERP system in a timely manner to avoid production delays, exercising disposition authority delegated by Quality Assurance.

Specification, Material, and Supplier Qualification Support

• Support the development, review, and maintenance of raw material and packaging component specifications.
• Coordinate specification changes through change control and communicate updates to affected stakeholders.
• Support material qualification activities for new or alternate raw materials and packaging components.
• Support supplier qualification activities, including onboarding documentation, qualification status tracking, and supplier audit coordination.
• Maintain the specification library in a current, audit-ready state.

Storage, Retention, and Traceability

• Monitor storage conditions for raw materials, including temperature/humidity control and FEFO rotation to manage shelf life and expiry.
• Pull, label, and store retention samples for raw materials and packaging components per SOP; maintain retention inventory and manage timely disposal of expired samples.
• Maintain chain of custody and security logs for restricted-access raw material storage.
• Support lot and batch traceability requirements at the point of receipt in the inventory/ERP system.

Material Performance Data, Trending and Reporting

• Track material and supplier performance data, including rejection rates, non-conformance frequency, and CoA/specification deviations.
• Trend data over time to identify recurring supplier or material issues and surface them proactively
• Prepare periodic reporting summaries for QA and Warehouse leadership, including KPIs such as inspection turnaround time, right-first-time receipt rate, and non-conformance closure rate.

Non-Conformance Management

• Identify and flag non-conforming materials at receipt and initiate holds and quarantine actions per SOP.
• Document non-conformances and elevate discrepancies in quantity, documentation, or physical condition for disposition.
• Coordinate with Purchasing and Warehouse on return, rework, or destruction of rejected materials.
• Support CAPA activities and investigations related to raw material or supplier quality issues.

Stakeholder Collaboration and Training Support

• Act as the quality liaison between Warehouse, Purchasing, Production, and Planning on raw material availability and release status.
• Maintain the dotted-line reporting relationship to Quality Assurance; escape quality risks, disposition disputes, and compliance co