Quality Manager II

Where you will work

The Cypress Bend facility is in the historic Mississippi River Delta and produces bleached paperboard and bleached Kraft pulp, used in the production of folding cartons, commercial print paperboard, carded packaging, and cupstock. This facility boasts over 300 talented employees and stretches across 730 acres. Clearwater Paper employees are proud to manufacture a high-quality product for an essential industry.

Cypress Bend is a rural community with close access to the Mississippi River. This is a wonderful location for those who love the outdoors and offers plenty of activities including fishing, hiking, camping, and biking. The Cypress Bend area also offers several opportunities for social and civic involvement including the McGehee Hospital, McGehee Boys & Girls Club, Food Pantry, Chamber of Commerce, Arkansas City Food Pantry, Paws and Claws Humane Society, and the Polite Foundation. Cypress Bend emphasizes exposure to the arts including the WWII Japanese Internment Museum, Desha County Museum, and SEArk Concert Association. Cypress Bend is in close proximity to McGehee, Monticello, and Drew Central public schools as well as UAM McGehee College of Technology and WAM Crossett College of Technology. McGehee is well-positioned within two (2) hours of Little Rock, AR, West Monroe, LA and three (3) hours from Jackson, MS or Memphis, TN. Accessibility to large metro areas with great venues, shopping and restaurants is easy and making for a great weekend getaway!

What you will do

The Quality Manager is responsible for leading a team of Quality Technicians and Analysts across the manufacturing footprint. Reporting to the Sr technical and Quality Manager, this role is responsible for developing and maintaining the quality management system inclusive of 3rd party audit management, while delivering consistency across the site's portfolio. The Quality Manager will work closely with the sales and marketing teams in support of quality standards, quality testing, and interface in customer complaints. As the department leader, the incumbent is accountable for developing and maintaining an engaged workforce, setting performance expectations while leading a culture of accountability, developing the team, and supporting employee growth and development.

Quality Systems and Assurance

• Lead development, execution, and maintenance of quality management system(s) -QMS - inclusive of documentation and reporting across manufacturing footprint delivering consistent products with a commitment to meeting and exceeding customer expectations
• Collaborate with commercial leadership team to understand and anticipate customer needs and to proactively identify and resolve customer concerns
• Interface with production across manufacturing footprint to provide expectations and guidance in product specifications and quality standards to ensure consistency in product quality
• Identify gaps in quality management systems, products, processes; serve as primary contact for issue identification in non-conforming materials and lead recall process

Technical Support and Compliance

• Primary point of contact for audits, customer site/product audits, and internal site audits; proactively lead external audit reparation across the site while ensuring reporting, issue resolution and best practice sharing
• Develop internal audit cadence and lead internal audits; develop organizational quality capabilities through best practice sharing from internal and external audits
• Primary point of contact for quality inspection checks and internal quality responses/escalations. Provide support and guidance for new item product quality, customer approval requirements, and escalate internal quality concerns/responses
• Ensure all required quality certifications and product safety regulatory requirements remain current in reporting, documentation practice, and process

Continuous Improvement

• Collaborate with manufacturing, marketing, and sales to identify opportunities to meet and exceed market expectations and participate in trial testing; identify opportunities for product improvement
• Identify opportunities to improve overall fiscal performance through process and/or product improvements while meeting and exceeding quality standards
• Proactively engage with manufacturing operations for opportunities to continuously improve productivity, product quality and process efficiencies
• Lead and participate in continuous improvement opportunities and projects

Leadership

• Ensures plant is achieving prescribed quality standards by setting clear direction and priorities, and by providing directional guidance to other departments
• Coordinate with all departments to plan and implement recipe and product changes that meet customer requirements timely and efficiently
• Provide leadership to mill or plant employees enabling the transfer of technical and knowledge in the area of quality; is seen as an expert in field; is approachable and willing to help at all levels
• Foster an operating environment that encourages employee engagement through demonstration and modelling of Clearwater Paper's Core Values
• Lead and develop direct reports through coaching and development plans; identify and develop successors; monitor progress against goals and development plans
• Drive a culture of technical collaboration throughout quality and operations teams

Key Competencies & Attributes

• Actively seeks and allocates appropriate decision-making authority or task responsibility to appropriate individuals based on their abilities, availability, motivation, and development needs; considers potential positive and negative impact, business unit priorities, organizational values, and the opportunity to enhance others' knowledge and skills
• Identifies barriers that impact customer service and retention; communicates concerns and recommendations to others
• Uses understanding of customer needs and the organization's customer service practices to set priorities, make decisions, and take actions that create customer satisfaction and prevent service issues from occurring
• Creates relevant options for addressing problems and opportunities that will achieve desired outcomes
• Systematically evaluates business opportunities, targeting those with the greatest potential for producing positive business results

What you will need

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or science; Chemical or Mechanical engineering preferred
• 5-7 years of progressive experience in quality, preferable in paper industry
• 5+ years of experience in developing and leading teams; virtual experience desired but not required
• Experience in working with multiple quality systems including ISO, GMP and SQF
• Experience with Parcview and other visual statistical data tools preferred
• Certifications in ISO, GMP, SQF, as practitioner and auditor strongly preferred
• Strong background in leveraging multiple data sets and inputs to drive decision making
• Highly adept at performing in a fast-paced environment; communicating and collaborating across multiple stakeholders
• Confident and proficient in navigating in an automated environment with proficiency in MS Office Suite- highly skilled in MS Excel with multiple business intelligence databases
• Commitment to ongoing personal and professional development through continuing education, certifications and coaching and developing others
• High speed manufacturing environment, sustained exposure to high frequency noises, multiple hours standing, walking on concrete surfaces
• Personal Protective Equipment required in mill environment
• Dirt, noise, odor, and temperature extremes
• Climbing stairs, ladders, and scaffolding
• Work environment includes exposure to compressed air, steam, lubrication oil, dust, and hydraulic fluid
• Extreme eye fatigue associated with continuous computer work
• Travel approximately 25% domestic

Total Rewards Details

We prioritize an exceptional workplace experience, offering a comprehensive total reward package. This position is eligible for our Incentive Plan. Compensation ranges are estimates based on market data. Actual offers account for internal equity and candidate's job-related knowledge, skills, education, experience, and geographic location. Benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and more, generally begin after 30 days. Our paid time off will include vacation days, personal days, and company holidays. For more on our compensation philosophy, please reach out to our Talent Acquisition Team at Talent.Acquisition@clearwaterpaper.com.

Clearwater Paper will not offer sponsorship for employment-based visa status (including, but not limited to, H-1B visa status and other employment-based nonimmigrant visas) for this position. Accordingly, all applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis and must not require Clearwater Paper's sponsorship to continue to work legally in the United States.

#ClearwaterPaper #CypressBend

This role will be open for a minimum of 2 weeks or at the point a successful candidate is selected.