The QIMA story

At QIMA, we are on a mission to offer our clients smart solutions to make products you can trust. Operating in over 100 countries, we serve the consumer products, food, and life sciences industries and help more than 30,000 brands, retailers, manufacturers, and growers achieve quality excellence. We combine on-the-ground expertise with digital solutions that bring accuracy, transparency and intelligence for quality and compliance data. What sets us apart is our unique culture.

Our 5,000 Qimates live and make decisions every day by our QIMA Values. With client passion, integrity, and a commitment to making things simple, we disrupted the Testing, Inspection, and Certification industry. Are you ready to hop on this exciting ride with us and help us achieve our mission?

The Role in Brief:

Head of Global Technical Operations for the four offices of QIMA WQS & IBD (US, Mexico, and Brazil) and their partners worldwide. “Technical Operations” entail the certification and technical decisions, the Quality Management System, qualification of technical team (auditors, inspectors, reviewers, decision makers), Accreditation and Compliance with schemes integrity programs. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Audit scopes include GFSI recognized schemes for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries; Animal Welfare; Organics (NOP, Brazil, Europe); Rainforest Alliance; RSPO; among others.  

• Management of the activities and staff of QIMA WQS & IBD Global Technical Operations, including their KPIs.  

• Management and definition of Operations budget, forecast review and cost control and ensure the proper use of resources.  

• Assessment & management of risks and high-level decisions with the CEO based on schemes and accreditation requirements and business needs.  

• Responsible for the Quality Management (QMS) and accreditation.  

• Manage the competence of auditors, inspectors and technical reviewers and guarantee that the company has enough resources to provide its services. 

• Develop certification and audit requirements and activities along with the Technical Managers and Quality team. 

• Manage regional offices and partners performance related to certification and audit activities. 

• Provide support to staff, subcontractors, offices and partners. 

• Ensure responsiveness to complaints, appeals and recalls. 

• Work closely with peers to achieve the company’s goals.  

• Manage internal and scheme owners KPI (key performance indicators). 

• Establish personnel competence requirements for the staff, process employees’ performance assessments and suggest promotions when applicable. 

• Report to CEO and peers on the performance of the QMS and technical team, and any need for improvement and resources. 

• 25% of traveling may be expected.  

Skills & Abilities:

In order to succeed in this role, you should have:

• English and Spanish speaker and writer (Portuguese is desirable)
• People and managerial skills
• Ability to set and manage goals of processes and employees under supervision
• Excellent customer service
• Negotiation & problem solving
• Team player
• Organization and time management
• Excellent written and verbal communication and ability to adhere to deadlines 

Education & Experience:

• A Bs. or Ms. Degree in an agricultural/crop based, food, bio-science related discipline.  
• At least six years of experience in areas such as quality assurance or quality management system preferably with ISO 17065 or ISO 17021. Experience in leadership and management.  
• Proven track record in managing large and multicultural teams. 
• At least two five years of full-time experience in the food/Ag industry in relation to food production activities (quality, production, R&D...)   
• At least five years of full-time experience working with food certification, preferably at a certification body.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.