About the job Quality Excellence Leader
Quality Excellence Leader - Drive Continuous Improvement in Food Manufacturing
Join our Quality Team as a Quality Excellence Leader and be a pivotal force in driving continuous improvement in our food manufacturing processes. You'll champion quality standards, ensure strict compliance with food safety regulations, and cultivate a robust culture of quality throughout our operations. This role demands close collaboration with cross-functional teams to develop and implement systems that elevate product quality, enhance operational efficiency, and maximize customer satisfaction.
Key Responsibilities:
1. Quality Excellence:
- Implement Quality, Environmental, and Food Safety plans as directed, contributing to the overall strategic direction of the Quality Team.
- Drive a culture of quality excellence and continuous improvement, positively influencing behaviors and practices at all organizational levels.
- Proactively identify opportunities for innovation and process improvements within our quality systems.
2. Quality Assurance and Compliance:
- Ensure strict compliance with all food safety regulations, certifications, and standards, including FSSC/ISO22000, HACCP, BRC, and specific customer requirements.
- Conduct routine audits of plant, processes, and procedures to verify adherence to both internal and external standards.
- Manage food safety plans, risk assessments, and traceability programs to effectively prevent contamination and product recalls.
- Perform external supplier compliance audits as required.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for customer audits, third-party certifications, and regulatory inspections.
3. Continuous Improvement:
- Apply Lean, Six Sigma, or other relevant continuous improvement methodologies to minimize waste and optimize processes.
- Lead root cause analysis and drive the implementation of corrective and preventative actions for quality incidents.
- Provide support to business teams in improving their respective areas of responsibility.
- Conduct regular quality training sessions to enhance the skills of business teams and promote best practices.
4. People Development:
- Foster cross-functional collaboration to drive team and business improvement.
- Champion and promote a consistent quality-centric business focus.
- Collaborate effectively with BarthHaas group Quality teams as needed.
5. Measures and Reporting:
- Monitor and report on key quality performance indicators (KPIs).
- Support team and cross-functional teams in achieving improvement goals and measuring success.
- Promote a strong culture of health, safety, food safety awareness, and environmental responsibility within our UK operations.
Key Competencies:
- Attention to Detail: Demonstrate meticulous accuracy and thoroughness in quality evaluations, investigations, and reporting.
- Analytical Thinking: Employ data-driven approaches to improve processes and effectively solve problems.
- Influence and Collaboration: Build strong, collaborative relationships across all functions to drive quality objectives and improvements.
- Adaptability: Thrive in a dynamic and fast-paced manufacturing growth environment.
Qualifications and Experience:
- Bachelors degree in a related field, such as chemistry.
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in quality assurance, quality control, or a similar role within the food manufacturing industry.
- Proven track record of leading quality improvement initiatives and achieving measurable results.
- HACCP certification.
- Quality Management or Six Sigma Black Belt certification (advantageous).
- Project management skills.
- Proficiency in ISO 9001, 14001, and 22000 (FSSC) standards.
- Excellent leadership, problem-solving, and communication skills.
- Strong IT skills, particularly in Excel and PowerPoint.