Quality Manager - Private Label
$110k - $120k/yr
Senior, Expert
Bachelor's
Encinitas, CA, USA+1 moreMore locations: Los Angeles, CA, USA
RemoteLos Angeles, California, United States (remote): Candidate must be located in the Los Angeles area.
Manufacturing Quality & TestValidation, Compliance & Quality Systems
About the job
Requirements
- A bachelor's degree in Engineering, Chemistry, Quality, or a related field is required.
- Seven to ten or more years of experience in consumer packaged goods beauty or a closely related field, with hands-on quality management system leadership across suppliers and contract manufacturers.
- Demonstrated expertise in cosmetics good manufacturing practices, microbiology, stability and compatibility fundamentals, and packaging quality for beauty categories.
- A strong record in supplier quality, facility audits, corrective and preventive action, root cause analysis, and production release.
- Experience implementing redundancy, risk frameworks such as failure mode and effects analysis, and sustainability-aligned quality standards.
- Proficiency with quality management system, product lifecycle management, and enterprise resource planning systems, along with data and dashboard reporting skills.
- Ability to travel as needed to contract manufacturer locations during production runs; the candidate should be located in the Los Angeles area.
- Ability to connect design, sourcing, and manufacturing to consumer outcomes; make analytical decisions with statistical literacy in statistical process control, sampling plans, and acceptable quality limits; communicate effectively with suppliers, leadership, and customer-facing teams; act decisively under ambiguity; collaborate in developing team capability and supplier partnerships; and maintain specification, artwork, and documentation rigor.
Responsibilities
- Execute and maintain the Quality Management System aligned to industry standards for cosmetics and over-the-counter personal care products, including current Good Manufacturing Practices, International Organization for Standardization standards, and the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act.
- Establish and report quality key performance indicators and dashboards, including consumer incident rate, vendor scorecards, blocking failures, and other standard metrics.
- Lead quarterly Quality Business Reviews with leadership and translate trends into action plans for design, sourcing, and manufacturing partners.
- Own master standards and reference standards management, including pre-production and production samples, Certificates of Analysis and Certificates of Conformance, functional and aesthetic standards, print and color tolerances, and stability and compatibility acceptance criteria.
- Operate the consumer incident intake and triage process, including coding, severity assessment, evaluation routing, and response letters.
- Lead root cause analysis and corrective and preventive actions for consumer complaints, nonconformances, and returns; ensure timely closure and effectiveness verification.
- Maintain and communicate the Quality Incident Reaction and Escalation Matrix for incidents including safety-related issues, foreign matter, microbiological failures, packaging leakage, adverse events, and mislabeling.
- Coordinate field actions, including holds, retrievals, and recalls, with Operations, Regulatory, and Legal as applicable.
- Provide trend analytics to drive upstream product and process improvements, including scrap assessment and environmental, social, and governance design collaboration.
- Ensure full product traceability from finished goods to batch- or lot-level raw materials, components, and contract manufacturers or packers.
- Maintain and audit batch records, Certificates of Analysis, Safety Data Sheets where appropriate, and supplier Certificates of Conformance and Certificates of Analysis.
- Lead trace exercises and mock recalls; validate traceability integrity across enterprise resource planning, product lifecycle management, and quality management systems.
- Develop and execute the facility audit and qualification program for manufacturers, fillers, testing laboratories, and key component suppliers, covering good manufacturing practices, hygiene, allergen and contaminant controls, and change control.
- Track audit findings, risk ratings, corrective and preventive actions, and requalification timelines.
- Approve pilot runs, line trials, and process validation where applicable; verify documentation for high-risk categories.
- Collaborate with Sourcing to define material sourcing strategy, quality acceptance standards, Certificates of Analysis and Certificates of Conformance requirements, and supplier scorecards.
- Own component specification sheets covering dimensions, tolerances, resin type, post-consumer recycled levels, barrier properties, sealing torque, decorative specifications, ink and adhesive criteria, pump output, and gasket or liner material.
- Implement material and part compatibility guidelines, including formula-package compatibility, migration, stress and crack testing, thermal risk, and transit simulation.
- Manage engineering, pilot, pre-production, and reference sample reviews and first article inspection signoffs.
- Identify and escalate development projects requiring third-party packaging engineer support.
- Administer quality management system, product lifecycle management, and enterprise resource planning workflows for specifications, nonconformance reports, corrective and preventive action, change control, and traceability.
- Lead standard operating procedure creation and training for internal teams and suppliers; certify inspectors and line operators on critical-to-quality attributes.
- Drive continuous improvement projects using Lean and Six Sigma to reduce cost of poor quality and improve consumer experience.
Desired Qualifications
- An advanced degree or certifications such as ASQ Certified Quality Engineer or Certified Quality Auditor, ISO Lead Auditor, or Six Sigma are preferred.
About the company
L&R Distributors is a wholesale distributor of beauty, healthcare, and general merchandise. It supplies retailers through inventory management, warehousing, transportation, merchandising, and ecommerce-support capabilities. The operating model connects consumer-product brands with mass retail and other distribution channels. Work includes warehouse operations, driving, purchasing, sales, merchandising, data, ecommerce, technology, and administration. The profile is L&R Distributors and its wholesale services. Its workforce connects frontline delivery with the specialist, operational, technical, and business teams that support the organization.
Company Size
N/A
Company Stage
N/A
Total Funding
N/A
Headquarters
New York City, New York
Founded
1956
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- L&R claims 47-state coverage and 5,500+ retail locations for merchandising.
- Jim Athey became CEO in 2023, signaling operational focus and leadership continuity.
- L&R’s 2022 SJ Creations partnership expanded private-label and category breadth.
What critics are saying
- Platinum Equity ownership since 2020 demands aggressive growth and margin expansion.
- Retailer consolidation and supplier direct-sales programs compress L&R’s distributor margins by 2026.
- A major beauty or drug-chain customer loss would damage volume and threaten viability.
What makes L&R Distributors unique
- L&R serves 17,000 retailers with 40,000 products and 700+ merchandisers nationwide.
- L&R is the largest cosmetics distributor in the U.S. as of 2026.
- L&R combines distribution, fulfillment, merchandising, and reset execution under one platform.
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Benefits
- Health Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- Vision Insurance
- Life Insurance
- Paid Sick Leave
- Commuter Benefits
- Employee Referral Bonus