At Russell Stover, not only do we love chocolate, but we love our jobs! Every day we go to work exhibiting our values of excellence, innovation, entrepreneurship, responsibility, and collaboration. Working at Russell Stover you’ll be part of the leading manufacturer of boxed, seasonal, and sugar-free chocolates. For over 100 years, Russell Stover Chocolates, Whitman’s, and Pangburn’s have been crafted with the finest ingredients to bring happiness to generations. Today, we produce over 55 million pounds of chocolate annually, and our legacy brands can be found in 13 company-owned stores and over 9,000 wholesale accounts. Join our team and let’s continue making chocolate lovers happy! 

A day in the life…

As a Quality lead you will work directly with the Quality Assurance manager as well as your team members to ensure that only the finest product is shipped to our consumers. This will include conducting quality inspections, resolving quality issues, investigating root causes, directing and training team members, and following proper procedure for all documentation. You will also learn the job function of all quality team members so that you may relieve them during breaks or while on vacation or sick leave. Inventory management, audit prep, and general leadership are some of the other key functions. This is a night shift position. Hours will be discussed druing the interviewing process. 

What you will be doing…

• Ensure QA department team performs and verifies food safety, sanitation, and quality programs per plant food safety plan, prerequisite programs, ssops, sops, and training.
• Lead the QA team.
• Floor Support for audit preparation and during the audit
• Back-up to any hourly team member within the QA department
• Ensure daily, inventory (ingredients or consumables) shortages (due to rate of use, hold disposition, or expiration) does do not impact the plant meeting customer demand within the FSQA requirements.

Oversight and verification of food safety & quality programs such as but not limited to:

• Traceability management including mock recalls.
• Daily QA paperwork management to ensure the department and plant team has the correct forms needed to meet FSQA requirements. This includes update and management of QA setup and the weights master log to meet current product mix and process capabilities within FSQA requirements.
• Lab ingredient inventory management, batching process, traceability paperwork review, and SAP minor usage management to ensure batching is preformed to meet schedule needs.
• Expired and obsolete product management working cross functionally with other plant departments to ensure FSQA requirements while minimizing impact whenever possible to schedule compliance and OEE.
• CCPs and PRPs floor implementation
• CAPA floor implementation. Be an active member in root cause analysis and preventative measures on the floor.
• QA department training including new QA team members, update training to current QA team, and annual requalification of the QA team.
• Daily PCQI record and audit supporting record review including tracking and following-up on issues identified to ensure FSQA requirements are met.
• Be leader and first line of contact for plant FSQA procedures and sanitation SSOPs implementation on the floor. Answer questions and give guidance related to these programs to support training and direction given by the FSC and/or QA manager in day-to-day production.
• Floor support for Audits in preparation and during the audit
• Hold program management on the floor on daily basis including ensuring all potentially affected product is segregated and identified, and then working with other departments as needed to complete final disposition with proper records to prove this.
• Manage department consumable inventory to ensure FSQA required tasks can be completed and department stays within QA manager’s budget plan.
• The QA lead reports directly to the QA manager, however in her absence she will escalate concerns or issues to the Food safety coordinator or specialist unless otherwise directed by the QA manager.
• Other tasks as assigned by QA Management.

Do you have what it takes? 

(Basic Qualifications)

• Experience using the MS Office Suite
• Ability to stand or sit for extended period of times.
• Plant experience

Do you stand above the rest?

(Preferred Qualifications)

• Two or more years in a plant involved with quality and/or food safety tasks.
• Demonstrated written and verbal communications skills.
• HACCP and PCQI Certifications
• Sanitation experience
• SAP/CRM experience
• Demonstrated written and verbal communications skills.
• Must be results-driven with good interpersonal skills.
• Strong conflict resolution and problem-solving skills to help drive culture of plantwide ownership of proactive FSQA process.

What it’s like at the Russell Stover Plants

• Safety. Your safety is important to us, so we provide protective gear. We also go through an in-depth Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) training on your first day and continue to share safety tips daily
• Surroundings. You’ll be working around different machines – Schubert’s, forklifts, electric pallet jacks, and chocolate candy banks/steels.
• Activity. Some activities may require standing in one place for long periods, walking around, or climbing stairs/ladders, and routinely lift 50 lbs.
• Temperature. You will be comfortable year-round with our climate-controlled environment. Our temperatures are consistently around 63°F but could fluctuate depending on your specific role.
• Smell. You will enjoy a variety of deliciously sweet aromas and you may end your day smelling like chocolate!
• Dress code. Relaxed, with a few rules to follow for food safety, personal safety and in guidance with our good manufacturing practices (GMP). Comfortable, closed-toe shoes are required. Leather, imitation leather, or rubber boots or shoes must be worn in the kitchen and other areas when working around hot liquid/product or hot water.

At Russell Stover Chocolates, we don’t just accept difference — we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products, and our community. Russell Stover Chocolates is proud to be an equal-opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer.

We provide equal employment opportunities to all people without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, religion, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, protected medical condition, genetic information, military service, veteran status, or any other status or characteristic protected by law.

Employment by Russell Stover Chocolates is contingent upon I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification, passing the urinalysis drug screen, education verification, and satisfactory reference and background checks.

Make Happy. Work Happy.