<b>Finance, Accounting, Banking</b> Birkenhead

QA Manager

Location: Burton-on-Trent
Salary: Competitive, depending on experience
Contract: Full-time
Reports to: Head of Technical

Are you an experienced Quality Assurance professional within food manufacturing, with the leadership skills to develop a team, drive quality standards and ensure products are consistently safe, legal and compliant?

Our client is looking for a QA Manager to lead its Quality Assurance function at its Burton-on-Trent manufacturing site. This is a key role within the Technical team, offering the opportunity to influence factory-wide quality standards, strengthen food safety systems and build a culture where doing things right first time is the priority.

Reporting to the Head of Technical, you'll manage and develop a multidisciplinary QA team, including Senior QA personnel, QA Technicians and an Analysis Coordinator. You'll work closely with Production and the wider Technical function to ensure that processes, products and records meet HACCP requirements, customer expectations, legal standards and the site's Quality Management System.

The Role

You'll take ownership of day-to-day Quality Assurance activities across the factory, ensuring high standards of product quality, food safety, legality and compliance are consistently maintained. Working closely with manufacturing teams, you'll promote a proactive approach to quality, identifying issues early, challenging non-compliant practices and ensuring corrective actions are implemented effectively.

A major part of the role will be leading, coaching and developing your QA team. You'll set clear expectations, monitor performance, identify training needs and encourage individuals to take ownership of their responsibilities. You'll build a cohesive team that works collaboratively with Production while remaining confident in challenging standards and recommending improvements where necessary.

You'll also oversee QA monitoring and auditing activities throughout the site, ensuring good manufacturing practice (GMP), hygiene standards and documented procedures are followed. Where non-conformances arise, you'll ensure they are recorded, escalated appropriately, investigated and resolved, with a focus on preventing recurrence rather than simply correcting the immediate issue.

Food Safety, Audits & Compliance

You'll play a key role in maintaining the site's BRCGS certification and supporting customer and third-party audits. This will include preparing the factory for audits, coordinating evidence and documentation, managing corrective and preventative actions, and applying root-cause analysis to address underlying issues.

You will have responsibility for supporting HACCP compliance and ensuring that product safety, legality and quality are properly verified. This includes overseeing raw material intake assessments, product and process checks, weight control, recipe validation, daily quality records and the collection and submission of microbiological and environmental samples.

You'll also lead the site's environmental monitoring programme, including pest control activities, working with the QA team to identify trends, investigate concerns and maintain effective controls.

Reporting & Continuous Improvement

Using QA data and audit findings, you'll identify trends, recurring issues and opportunities to improve factory performance. You'll carry out detailed analysis and present relevant information to internal stakeholders, ensuring findings are discussed and appropriate action plans are agreed, implemented and monitored.

You'll work with the wider Technical and manufacturing teams to strengthen systems, improve consistency and reduce the risk of failures affecting product quality, food safety or customer confidence.

You will also support critical incident management when required, helping the business respond effectively to significant quality or food safety issues.

What We're Looking For

You'll have experience managing a team within a fast-paced food manufacturing environment, with a strong understanding of Quality Assurance, food safety systems and factory-floor compliance.

Experience with BRCGS certification and ongoing site compliance is essential, alongside Food Safety Level 4 or equivalent and HACCP Level 3. A sound understanding of microbiology and experience as an internal auditor will also be important.

You'll be confident using Microsoft Office and other IT systems, with the ability to analyse complex data, identify meaningful trends and turn findings into practical improvement plans.

As a leader, you'll be organised, self-motivated and comfortable balancing immediate production requirements with longer-term quality objectives. You'll have excellent communication skills and the confidence to challenge poor practices constructively, maintain consistent standards and make objective decisions, including when working under pressure.

Just as importantly, you'll understand the importance of building strong relationships with Production, Technical colleagues and other stakeholders. You'll lead by example, support your team and promote a culture of accountability, teamwork and continuous improvement.

Flexibility is essential, as the role must respond to the operational demands of a busy manufacturing site and the needs of a multidisciplinary team working across different shift patterns.

The Opportunity

This is an opportunity to take ownership of a key quality function within a food manufacturing operation, combining people leadership with technical responsibility and the chance to make a measurable impact on factory standards.

You'll play a central role in maintaining audit readiness, strengthening food safety culture, developing your team and ensuring quality remains embedded throughout the manufacturing process.

If you're an established QA professional ready to lead a team, influence site-wide standards and drive continuous improvement, we'd like to hear from you