Head of Quality (Transformation Project)

Miller Leith; Melbourne; On-site; AUD 200,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Miller Leith is seeking a Head of Quality for a transformation project within a large, international manufacturing group with sites across Australia and New Zealand. You will shape the future quality strategy, operating model, and governance to drive operational performance.

Reporting to executives, you will lead a holistic assessment of quality, define centralised, decentralised or hybrid approaches, and build a practical transformation roadmap that links quality outcomes to commercial value.

Qualifications

• Experience leading quality transformations in large manufacturing environments.
• Ability to map strategy to operating models and governance structures.
• Strong stakeholder management with executive leadership.

Responsibilities

• Shape the future quality strategy and operating model across a substantial manufacturing portfolio.
• Partner with executive leadership to drive organisational transformation and commercial improvement.
• Lead a significant strategic assessment across Australia and New Zealand.
• Develop a transformed quality roadmap with clear ownership and measurable outcomes.
• Balance central oversight with local accountability to improve performance.

Job description

Head of Quality (Transformation Project)

• Shape the future quality strategy and operating model across a substantial manufacturing portfolio.
• Partner with executive leadership to drive organisational transformation and commercial improvement.
• Lead a significant strategic assessment across Australia and New Zealand.

Initially offered as a six-month contract, the role carries potential for a permanent appointment to lead execution of the agreed strategy.

The Brief

• Shape the future quality strategy and operating model across a substantial manufacturing portfolio.
• Partner with executive leadership to drive organisational transformation and commercial improvement.
• Lead a significant strategic assessment across Australia and New Zealand.

The organisation

Our client is a large, internationally established manufacturing group with an extensive operational footprint across Australia, New Zealand and international markets. Its diverse portfolio serves consumer and industrial customers across multiple product categories and regulatory environments.

The scale and complexity of the organisation create a significant opportunity to strengthen quality leadership, improve consistency and establish an operating model that supports operational performance and future business needs.

The opportunity
This is a substantial senior leadership appointment with a mandate to assess, challenge and shape the future of quality across a complex manufacturing organisation. You will take a holistic view of the function, evaluating its structure, leadership, capability, systems and governance to establish a clear strategic direction. Working closely with executive, divisional and operational leaders, you will determine how quality can deliver greater business value across a diverse and largely decentralised network. The current landscape incorporates site-based teams, differing reporting arrangements and varied systems and processes. Your responsibility will be to bring clarity to this environment and develop a commercially grounded transformation roadmap.

The appointment requires the judgement to determine where consistency and central oversight will improve performance, while preserving the specialist expertise and local accountability required by different businesses, products and regulatory environments.

The mandate

• Lead a comprehensive assessment of the quality function, mapping its risk landscape, organisational structure, accountabilities, capability, systems and ways of working.
• Define the future quality strategy and operating model, evaluating centralised, decentralised and hybrid approaches across geography, divisions and regulatory requirements.
• Review leadership and resource effectiveness, identifying opportunities to strengthen accountability, eliminate duplication and redirect effort towards activities that create greater value.
• Strengthen quality governance and audit effectiveness, establishing a proportionate approach to risk, performance oversight and sustained improvement.
• Build meaningful performance visibility, using reliable data, dashboards and visual management to inform executive decisions and operational action.
• Simplify systems and document control, identifying opportunities to standardise processes and embed appropriate responsibilities within operations.
• Connect quality performance to commercial outcomes, examining the drivers of claims, warranty costs and other quality-related losses, alongside opportunities to improve productivity and efficiency.
• Develop a prioritised transformation roadmap, supported by clear ownership, resource requirements, implementation sequencing and measurable outcomes.
• Build executive and operational alignment, influencing across organisational boundaries and establishing commitment to the proposed direction.

The executive profile

You will be an accomplished senior quality leader with a demonstrated record of transforming quality functions across complex manufacturing organisations with multiple sites and diverse product portfolios. Your experience will include assessing organisational capability, redesigning operating models, clarifying leadership accountabilities and improving quality systems, governance and audit practices. You will bring strong analytical capability, experience working with fragmented data and the ability to translate findings into practical systems, meaningful performance measures and a credible transformation strategy. Experience across differing regulatory environments is valuable.

Commercially astute and pragmatic, you will combine strategic thinking with a clear understanding of manufacturing operations and the financial consequences of quality performance. You will have the credibility to engage executive leaders, the confidence to challenge established practices and the interpersonal judgement to build support across decentralised teams. We are seeking someone who has delivered measurable organisational change, can navigate ambiguity and understands how to balance group-wide direction with the needs of individual businesses. Your ability to influence beyond direct reporting lines and develop recommendations that leaders and site teams can implement will be central to your success.

The impact
This appointment offers the opportunity to shape the future of a significant business function within a major manufacturing group. Your work will inform decisions on quality leadership, organisational structure, investment, systems and capability, establishing a foundation for sustained operational and commercial improvement.