Director/Sr. Director – Head of Quality Assurance

Location: San Diego, California (remote applicants also considered)
Position Type: Full-Time
Salary Range: $185,000 to $220,000
Area(s) of Expertise Desired: Agricultural product development, Quality Management Systems, non-conformance management, in-coming materials management, release of final product
Job Code: CO2304

Description:

Cibus is a biotechnology company with advanced technologies to precisely target and direct a plant’s natural gene-editing processes. This approach accelerates natural plant breeding that has been a staple of farming for thousands of years and has resulted in a rapid, versatile and low-cost way to produce sustainable industrial and agricultural products and improve human health by safely harnessing nature's own genetic diversity.

The company has a worldwide presence, with subsidiaries in Europe and North America and a state-of-the-art research and development center in San Diego. Cibus has a pipeline of traits for canola and rice and is developing crop platforms and a pipeline of trait products in other major global crops including soybean, corn, and wheat. The broad applicability of Cibus’ technologies is highlighted by the company’s strain-advancement program, which develops sustainable products in microbial platforms for the food, flavor and fragrance, and personal care markets.

Cibus has an immediate opening for Director/Sr. Director, Head of Quality Assurance. This position will be responsible for defining an industry leading quality assurance strategy, approach, and execution, applied to trait products generated by our industrialized gene editing production pipeline from development to commercialization.

The successful applicant will oversee the strategy and implementation of a global quality assurance function. This position will play a central role in building and implementing a vision of Cibus quality assurance by leading a multi-disciplinary team. This role will also represent Cibus’ quality assurances to external customers, including global regulatory agencies.

Role Responsibilities:

• Build and lead global quality organization to achieve product quality excellence and ensure the highest levels of customer and industry satisfaction for gene edited traits and seed products.
• Partner with R&D, Trait Delivery, and Commercial leadership to develop a functional quality strategy and implementation plan that meets the expectations of all relevant stakeholder groups and aligns with Cibus company vision and quality goals.
• Responsible for building, leading, and directing the quality assurance leadership team.
• Ensure that Trait Delivery and Commercial teams adhere to the principles, requirements, and best practices of quality assurance and stewardship strategy as defined, including health, safety and environmental.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement in quality assurance, quality control, and the quality management system.
• Ensure consistency in quality methodologies, processes, and procedures across all trait development and commercialization activities.
• Facilitate the management review process, setting priority tactics and the development of quality improvement plans with cross-functional senior leadership.
• Ensure effectiveness of quality risk management within trait development and commercial activities.
• Build and sustain a quality culture where quality is clearly understood and recognized as a driver to improve both the customer experience and business performance.
• Enable the discovery of new tools and ensure their proper usage to manage the quality assurance effort organization wide.
• Maintain awareness and understanding of key quality trends and expectations in the agricultural product space and related industries, as well as external quality institutions, to ensure that quality innovations are identified, evaluated, and implemented proactively.

Requirements:

• BS/MS in science, engineering, or quality related field with a minimum of 25+ years of experience for Sr. Director or 20+ years of experience for Director.
• Quality Management expert with broad experience in the implementation of quality and continuous improvement across an organization, with certified quality auditor and line management experience.
• Demonstrated leadership experience in implementing and shaping the company’s quality assurance processes and strategies.
• Strong communication skills with key stakeholders to ensure quality assurance vision is understood and implemented correctly, with focus on building and sustaining a robust quality culture.
• Knowledge of quality management (ISO processes) and experience advocating for quality assurance, continuous improvement, and industry leading best practices within an organization.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and manage teams of direct and indirect reports to achieve technical and professional growth success.
• Excellent communicator, influencing skills and negotiation skills with demonstrated success of achieving management buy-in on ideas and concepts.
• Able to communicate with all levels of management and peers within the organization.
• A strong collaborator who can work across diverse teams to drive projects to completion and demonstrated ability to work effectively in a matrix structure.
• Leads by example and has a strong sense of accountability. Willing to work side-by-side with reports while using positive strategies to establish a professional environment of trust, respect, and collaboration.
• Quality assurance management experience in an agricultural products company is highly desired.
• Knowledge of steps involved in agricultural seed and trait product development, agronomic validation, and commercialization.
• Understanding of agricultural product stewardship best practices, including industry stakeholder and customer expectations.
• Operational experience in trait or variety development in the seeds industry is a plus.
• Willing to travel up to 25% of the time.

Cibus provides an attractive compensation and benefits package that includes medical/dental/vision, flexible spending, 401(k) plan, vacation and sick leave. If you enjoy working as part of a team and want to participate in this exciting research, please e-mail your resume to and put down job code: CO2304.

ONLY CANDIDATES WITH WORK AUTHORIZATION IN THE U.S. ARE CONSIDERED AT THIS TIME.