Technical and Quality Specialist Petfood Ingredients

Inghams Enterprises; Somerville; On-site; AUD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Inghams Enterprises in Somerville (VIC) seeks a Technical and Quality Specialist for petfood ingredients. You will own the quality program across multiple sites, lead HACCP, and drive new product development from concept to scale-up.

Responsibilities include reviewing quality data, managing customer relationships, and ensuring regulatory compliance. You will coordinate with third-party partners and contribute to PFIAA committees as the technical lead.

Qualifications

• Experience leading a quality management strategy.
• Experience managing customer relationships and educating customers.
• Meat/protein industry experience preferred.
• Proven experience implementing and monitoring Quality Management Systems.
• Inclusive leadership with collaborative style.
• Knowledge of food production and food safety.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the quality program across multiple sites.
• Develop and review HACCP plans, quality manuals, and documentation.
• Review quality test results and verify conformance with specifications.
• Investigate customer complaints and manage corrective actions.
• Lead NPD for wet petfood and AFB from concept to scale-up.
• Develop least-cost palatant formulations and manage ingredient pricing.
• Maintain ingredient palatant/wet petfood databases for revisions.
• Manage export documentation for flavourings and PCP products across sites.

Skills

Quality management

Customer relationships

Meat industry experience

Quality Management Systems

Collaborative leadership

Food safety

Stakeholder management

Education

Tertiary degree in Food Science or related

Job description

Technical and Quality Specialist Petfood Ingredients

As the Technical and Quality Sepcialist you'll lead quality and technical standards across our Ingredients, AFB, and PCP divisions— covering operations at our Somerville (VIC), Murarrie (QLD), and Wingfield sites (SA), plus third-party rendering partners.

This is a hands-on strategic role where you'll own HACCP, quality assurance, new product development, formulation, and regulatory compliance. You'll be the go-to technical partner for our key petfood manufacturing customers and an active voice in PFIAA industry committees.

What you’ll do:

• Own and maintain the quality program for Inghams Ingredients and AFB across Somerville, Murarrie, and Wingfield, keeping systems current, effective, and audit-ready
• Develop, maintain, and review HACCP plans, quality manuals, and supporting documentation for Murarrie and Somerville
• Collate and review quality testing results for wet petfood, PCP, and AFB product lines (finished products and raw ingredients), verifying conformance with approved specifications
• Investigate customer complaints and non-conformances with site managers; manage corrective action reports including root-cause analysis
• Lead NPD for wet petfood and AFB — concept through formulation, trial design, palatability testing, and commercial scale-up
• Research, develop, and formulate least-cost petfood palatants, optimising ingredient selection against cost, availability, compliance, and palatability performance
• Maintain the ingredient database for palatant and wet petfood divisions, enabling specification revision and least-cost formulation as availability and pricing change
• Manage export documentation for flavourings and PCP products (Nexdoc, Manufacturer Declarations, DAFF health certificates, certificates of origin and analysis) across all sites

What you’ll bring:

• Demonstrated experience leading a quality management strategy
• Experience with managing customer relationships, understanding their requirements and educating them on best practices
• Previous meat/protein industry experience would be an advantage
• Proven experience implementing and monitoring Quality Management Systems
• Inclusive in management style, with the capabilities to create a collaborative and positive working environment
• Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of food production including food safety
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to develop relationships and influence senior stakeholders internal and external to the organisation
• A tertiary degree in Food Science or a related discipline

What we’ll offer you:

• On-the-job training and support to set you up for success
• Access to Fitness Passport that gives you affordable access to gyms, pools and fitness facilities nationwide
• Employee benefits including product discounts and travel discounts
• Genuine opportunities to develop your career, supported by our performance and succession programs.
• The health, safety, and wellbeing of our people is our highest priority
• ASX-listed company with operations across Australia and New Zealand

We’re looking for people who arecurious, caring, courageous and committed to join us. People who want to contribute their best work every single dayand continue delivering delicious food that’s… Always Good.

Inghams values diverse experiences. If your skills align with some but not all of the listed requirements, we encourage you to still apply and explore the opportunity to join our team.