Rick Jay Guegue

A licensed Chemical Engineer in the Philippines with proven expertise in food quality assurance and process validation at one of the largest multi-national foods and beverage (FMCG) companies - Del Monte Philippines, Inc. (Philpack). His career trajectory showcases rapid advancement from intern to supervisor and specialist roles, emphasizing process optimization for optimum food safety and regulatory compliance, quality system performance, and team management to deliver the most profitable results to the company and offer the highest quality to the customers.

Quality Assurance & Quality Control Supervisor (February 2025 - January 2026)
Del Monte Philippines, Inc. (Philpack)

• Manages a quality control team for defectives and non-conformance interception within production lines, process optimization, and risk management.
• Oversee the inspection and testing of products throughout the supply chain to ensure that they meet quality specifications.
• Prepare regular reports for senior management highlighting quality performance, trends, and areas for improvement.
• Build a strong team through coaching, mentoring, training, performance evaluations, motivation, and recognition to foster a culture of continuous improvement.
• Conducts defect mapping, formulate effective solution, prevention and total quality control, and drive production first-time-quality at 100%.
• Provides on-time dispositions on non-conforming products.
• Support customer audits for business sustainability and growth.
• Promote continuous improvement initiatives to enhance system effectiveness and operation performance.
• Develop, implement, and maintain quality control procedures and policies to ensure compliance with food safety standards, including HACCP, GMP, ISO, FSMS, BRC, and local regulations.
• Ensures audit readiness and compliance at all times.
• Manages 5S initiatives for lean manufacturing.
• Maintain accurate documentation and records related to quality control activities, inspections, and corrective actions.
• Provides support to other departments within QA, Production Operations, and the company as a whole to generate profit.

Quality-in-Design Specialist (February 2025 - January 2026)
Del Monte Philippines, Inc. (Philpack)

• Ensures the success and compliance to customer audits and global standard certifications including Quality Management System (ISO 9001), Environmental Management System (ISO 14001), Occupational Health and Management System (ISO 45001), HALAL & Kosher certifications, Brand Reputation Compliance Global Standards (BRCGS), Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000), Safe Quality Food (SQF).
• Collaborates with cross-functional teams (QA, R&D, Production Operations, Maintenance, Supply Chain) for new products and process initiatives by providing technical expertise in product/process development and validation to ensure quality is built-in from the start.
• Ensures that processes comply with food safety, quality, and regulatory standards - Food Safety Modernization Act,General Food Law, Codex Alimentarius.
• Manages thermal process and critical control points validation initiatives for processes involving pasteurization and sterilization using GAMP-5 certified validation tools.
• Acts as the thermal process authority of the company.
• Product certification under US-FDA through RegistrarCorp SID filings.
• Takes part on HACCP, TACCP, VACCP, and GMP groups.
• Reporting and compliance audits, identifying areas for improvements.

Quality Assurance Intern (March - May 2024)
Del Monte Philippines, Inc. (Philpack)

• Conducts laboratory testing for product specification compliance.
• Documents non-conformances and create reports.
• Holds non-conforming batches and aids in dispositions.
• Generate trends of product specifications.
• Customer relations during audits, explaining product varieties, quality and manufacturing process.

Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering (August 2020 - May 2024)
Magna Cum Laude
Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan