Head of Technical & Quality
đź“Ť London (4 days on-site) | Senior Leadership Role | FMCG
We’re hiring a Head of Technical & Quality for a fast-growing drinks brand operating in multiple markets, with ambitious product, packaging and sustainability plans. The business is scaling quickly and needs a senior technical leader who can own risk, enable growth, and still roll their sleeves up when it counts.
You’ll sit within Operations, report directly to the COO, and take full ownership of quality, food safety, regulatory and technical assurance globally.
What you’ll actually be doing
- Owning the global Quality & Technical strategy — food safety, regulatory compliance, supplier assurance, QMS and continuous improvement.
- Leading technical input from NPD handover through scale-up, trials, shelf-life, packaging integrity and launch readiness.
- Develop a culture of “quality first” aligned with brand expectations
- Ensure compliance with all relevant global food & drink regulations, customer standards
- Managing co-packers and suppliers across ingredients and packaging
- Building and leading a small but mighty technical & quality team
- Working cross-functionally with Ops, Supply Chain, Product and Commercial
- Budget ownership for the technical & quality function; determine resource needs and investment priorities
What we’re looking for
- Senior technical leadership experience in beverages (ideal), or wider food & drink manufacturing.
- Deep, practical knowledge of HACCP, GMP, BRC / GFSI, ISO 22000, supplier quality and co-packing models.
- Strong experience with packaging formats, shelf-life, stability, scale-up and technical risk management.
- Comfortable operating at pace - up for factory trials at silly o’clock one day, SLT presentation the next.
- Pragmatic, agile and comfortable being hands on when needed
Why this role stands out
- Genuine ownership and visibility at senior leadership level.
- A brand with momentum.
- Space to shape systems properly - not inherit someone else’s mess.