Job Description
About the company
Albertsons Companies is at the forefront of the revolution in retail. With a fixation on innovation and building culture, our team is rallying our company around a unique vision: forging a retail winner that is admired for national strength, deep roots in the communities we serve, and a team that has passion for food and delivering great service.
Albertsons is one of the largest retail employers, providing approximately 300,000 jobs across 2,200 stores, 22 distribution centers, 20 food and beverage plants and various support offices. We operate in 34 states and the District of Columbia under the Albertsons banner, as well as Safeway, Tom Thumb, Jewel Osco, Shaw’s and many more recognizable names.
What you will be doing
The Own Brands Technical Services Department has an opening for a Senior Technical Services Associate. This position is located in Pleasanton, California.
The Senior Technical Services Associate provides support to the Own Brands Technical Services team compliance operations activities. Support the review and approval of In-Store (Bakery, Deli, Meat & Seafood, Produce, and other applicable categories) products technical information to ensure all packaging information meets applicable federal and state regulations. Interact regularly with many other functions including but not limited to Product Development, Food Safety and Quality, Merchandising Data Services and Data Governance, Sourcing, and Legal. Manage product registrations, and work with suppliers to complete registration tasks, on a state, or local county, as required. Maintain digital compliance of all Own Brands products, including support to facilitate review and approval of labeling information in different systems to maintain the chain of custody of documents received directly from suppliers. This position is critical to ensuring product labels have the information necessary for regulatory compliance and avoidance of the product retrievals and recalls that can result from noncompliance to product and package regulations. Conduct and deliver other projects, including data maintenance, as assigned by the Technical Services Leadership team, in relation to product development and regulatory & quality compliance commitment.
Main responsibilities
- Provide technical expertise on cross functional project teams for In-Store (Bakery, Deli, Meat & Seafood, Produce, and other applicable categories). This involves daily interactions to ensure that all existing, new and revised ingredient and formula reviews are in compliance with menu-labeling, FDA, and USDA regulations.
- Review and approve ingredients and finished products in different food labeling systems.
- Communicate with division partners and suppliers on approval status as well as on missing ingredient and finished product information.
- Develop and maintain a quarterly audit process in the system to ensure compliance with FDA menu labeling regulations and non-menu labeled requirements.
- Create and maintain training documents, checklists, and SOP’s to support digital compliance, product registrations, serving size, and label requirements in collaboration with the Sr. Manager of Technical Services.
- Confirm all documents’ required fields as determined by the product type are completed.
- Lead compliance systems requirements and testing, and continuous improvement initiatives for the Technical Services team as part of the compliance reviews core team.
- Support the Technical Services team in data acquisition for other projects as required to maintain accuracy of data within agreed upon project timelines.
- Utilize various business platforms and/or systems to provide support to the Regulatory teams in the form of trackers and reports, and mining data for Regulatory metrics reporting.
- Update tracking tools used for compliance program to provide updates on progress and challenges. Provide information to other team members as requested.
- Provide information and data to the management team for other projects as required to maintain accuracy of data within agreed upon project timelines.
- Act as back up resource to help with regulatory analytics and metrics reporting as well as product registrations.
- Assist with other key Technical Services compliance, regulatory, product development or quality projects, as needed.
- Support digital compliance, organic certification, and product registration activities, as needed
- Support in-store recall or withdrawal events on regulatory, labeling, and systems expertise working with cross-functional partners in a timely manner and potential after hours based on crisis management needs
- Collaborate with cross-functional partners to facilitate process improvements and support development of corrective and preventive actions to resolve issues found in compliance systems
- Ability to think strategically as well as independently monitor, interpret, and ensure compliance with US regulations today and into the future.
**The salary range is $ 80,100 to $ 104,160 annually. Starting salary will vary based on criteria such as location, experience, and qualifications. There may be flexibility for exceptional candidates.
Benefits may include medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance, sick pay (accrued based on hours worked), PTO/Vacation Pay (accrued based on hours worked) or Flexible Time Off, paid holidays (8-9 days annually), bereavement pay, and retirement benefits (such as 401(k) eligibility). [If applicable:] Associates in this position are also eligible for a quarterly bonus. **
What we are searching
- Bachelor’s degree in Food Science or related field preferred or combination of education and relevant equivalent work experience
- Minimum of 4 years combined regulatory affairs, compliance, product development, nutrition or technical related experience required, with strong knowledge of FDA and USDA food regulations.
- Proven knowledge with consumer-packaged goods labeling experience.
- Proficiency working with regulatory on labeling, product development on formulation requirements, marketing, and graphics design personnel on package graphics.
- Must have strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to prioritize multiple projects across multiple categories with competing timelines.
- Strong sense of urgency, time management, and commitment to meet aggressive timelines.
- Must be comfortable with asking questions and having direct discussions of project requirements with peers, supervisors, and product development personnel up to the VP level.
- Ability to think both strategically and tactically and have experience in project management, multi-tasking, meeting tight deadlines and shifting work focus based on shifting business and technical priorities.
- Excellent computer skills and attention to detail, and experience with online specification systems.
- Strong communication and organizational skills.
- Must be able to communicate cross functionally between directors, managers, technical staff and vendor community daily.
What it is like at Albertsons?
Albertsons Culture Principles
Compassion: We always treat each other with kindness and respect
Team: We always support and recognize each other
Inclusive: We always value everyone’s perspective
Learning: We always strive to grow and develop ourselves and others
Competitive: We always act with integrity to win over the customer
Ownership: We always take actions to drive our success
#LI-PN1 #LI-ACIPRO #LI-Hybrid