Europe Seed Quality Assurance Specialist

Corteva Agriscience is seeking a Quality Assurance Specialist for the Seed platform for the Europe region (must be located at or near a Corteva seed production location and is NOT a remote position). Optional locations/preferred to be within close proximity to one of our Europe Seed production locations such as: Sissa, Italy; Aussone, France; Afumati, Romania; Szarvas, Hungary; Parndorf, Austria.

The Quality Assurance Specialist works in conjunction with the Global Quality Assurance & Improvement Leader and other QA Specialists to help drive the implementation of the quality management system and quality improvements across the region in Seed Operations. This will be focused on production locations in the region to facilitate customer focus, stakeholder interaction, risk management, and waste reduction.

The position requires strong communication with a diverse group of stakeholders, building collaboration, and seeking a broad range of perspectives for implementing solutions. The ideal candidate provides seed production and Quality Management System expertise along with solution-focused problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities:

Drives the regional implementation of the Corteva Quality Management System (QMS or CAMS) and ensures that quality policies, requirements, work processes, tools and training are implemented and maintained. Uses outputs from management system data and stakeholders to identify areas for improvement and connects with stakeholders to work toward resolution.

Duties/tasks may be shared or completed in conjunction with another QA Specialist for the region and include:

Collaborates with and is a resource for Europe Seed Operations production locations and Supply Chain to ensure the consistent implementation of work processes, policies, procedures for the quality management system in the region.
Conduct training in the region regarding quality policies and procedures. Examples including but not limited to: Quality incident management policy, Global Business Support Procedures, etc.
Monitor, compile, and distribute quality metrics that identify opportunities for improvement and involve relevant stakeholders to ensure improvements occur. Metrics may include audit findings, non-conforming product, and customer complaints.
Participate and/or lead Quality improvement projects within the region.
Collaborate across regions to provide consistency and leveraging of best practices.
Member of the Global QA Network and actively represents the region and or/global team on projects to ensure harmonization and standardization across regions.
Responsible for regional reporting and global alignment of quality metrics, including incidents, with analysis and improvements identified and implemented.
Quality Incident Response Team Leader (IRTL) for significant issues within the region, and conducts/assists with Root Cause Analysis when necessary. Distributes learnings of regional issues/incidents to enable sharing and implementation of management system and production corrective actions. Conducts regional and site reviews of quality incidents.
Supports completion of quality management system reviews (MSR) at the site level and drives improvement in the region. Responsible for conducting the regional MSR (Tier 2).
Ensure quality management system is in place to meet product launch requirements in SPSC and to meet accreditation requirements.
Effectively partners with Commercial, Seed Production and Supply Chain, R&D, and Regional/Global leadership to meet customer needs.
Provides input to the regional audit plan aligned to the Corteva monitoring strategy to optimize global auditing resources, expertise, and business risk prioritization. May also conduct audits, assist with audits, or provide training to potential future auditors.
Facilitate/lead a regional Quality Ambassador Network that will be utilized to advance quality initiatives, auditing, and learnings across sites.
Assist in managing customer complaints in the region.
Facilitate and monitor the implementation and use of operational documentation such as Quality Plans, SOP’s, WI’s, and more.

Competencies:

Customer Focus: Engaged to provide product within specifications and best service to customers and solve potential issues. Drives the implementation of the global quality management system at internal sites to ensure the quality policies, work processes and tools are effective to reduce significant customer issues, building customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Balances Stakeholders: Builds internal stakeholder relationships and identifies and adapts to emerging needs to benefit as many stakeholders and customers as possible.

Collaborates: Promotes a culture of collaboration building trust across the internal sites and Corteva teams in the region, seeking a broad range of perspectives in leading initiatives, formulating solutions, and developing regional implementation strategies.

Drives Results: Identifies and leads elimination of the obstacles to deliver positive business performance. Leads efforts to identify KPIs and achieve targets.

Ensures Accountability: Responsible for regional reporting of quality metrics, including incidents, with analysis and improvements. Promotes cross-functional team culture to ensure success by bringing the outside in.

Cultivates Innovation: Fosters a climate that supports allocated resources to be creative and innovative, leading to implement breakthrough ideas and solutions.

Required Qualifications:

Minimum of a scientific, agricultural, or engineering bachelor’s degree with focus in agronomy, engineering, quality assurance, business, biology, or life sciences.
8+ years total industry experience with direct experience in the Seed production industry and seed production location experience preferred.
Knowledge of the principles and practical applications associated with seed production operations. Ability to use metrics to guide continuous improvement of the quality management system.
Optional locations/preferred to be within close proximity to one of our Europe Seed production locations such as: Sissa, Italy; Aussone, France; Afutmati, Romania; Szarvas, Hungary; Parndorf, Austria.
Position will be in-person at the office/production location with travel occasionally required.
Fluency in the English language (speaking, writing, reading) is also required

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience with Quality Management Systems and/or Seed Production and Supply Chain.
Demonstrated ability to lead teams without authority to ensure alignment with demonstrated objectives and company goals/policies.
Demonstrated ability to build relationships and influence outside the workgroup that enhance the performance of the teams.
An ability to think ‘outside of the box’ to develop novel, creative solutions for quality assurance challenges. Being proactive when possible to prevent quality issues from occurring.
Six Sigma and/or Lean certification.
Experience and understanding of how to conduct investigations and/or root cause analysis.
Experience leading or contributing to a continuous improvement project.
Understanding project management, including scoping, as it pertains to time and Return On Investment (ROI), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), etc.
Experience leading audits and/or being a Certified Quality Auditor.

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