Qa Team Leader

Pilgrim'S Europe; Bodmin; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 46,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free on-site parking

Weekly pay

Refer a Friend Scheme

Discount on retail, cinema, travel

Life assurance policy

Long service award

Staff sales access

Job summary

Pilgrim’s Europe in Bodmin is seeking a QA Team Leader to oversee on-site QA operations, champion food safety and quality standards, and drive continuous improvement. You will lead and develop the QA team, support audits, and collaborate across site functions to ensure compliance and operational excellence.

The role covers shift patterns Mon-Fri from 06:00 to 16:00 with on-site responsibilities, requiring strong leadership, investigation skills, and proactive communication.

Qualifications

• Experience in a Technical and/or QA related function.
• Experience in internal audits.
• Excellent communication skills; able to influence internal/external stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Promote food safety and product quality on-site.
• Support production teams to meet specifications via audits.
• Lead investigations of NCRs, Concessions, and customer complaints.
• Communicate clearly with internal stakeholders on factory issues.
• Drive continuous improvement and KPI stewardship within the team.
• Ensure swabbing and sampling programs are completed OTIF and action non-conformances.

Skills

Food safety

Quality assurance

Internal audits

GMP

Root cause analysis

Communication

Team leadership

Documentation

Attention to detail

Education

Level 3 Food Safety

Level 3 HACCP

GCSEs (5, incl. English/Math/Science)

Food safety degree (desirable)

Train the trainer certificate (desirable)

Microbiology knowledge (desirable)

Job description

Join Pilgrim’s Europe as a QA Team Leader in Bodmin

An exciting leadership opportunity for an experienced Quality professional to oversee daily QA operations, champion food safety and quality standards, and drive continuous improvement. You will motivate and develop the QA team, support audit programmes, and work collaboratively across site functions to ensure compliance and operational excellence.

Salary & Benefits

• Competitive pay rates
• Premium overtime rates
• Free on-site parking
• Weekly pay
• Access to occasional staff sales, offering discounted company products
• Refer a Friend Scheme
• Discount on retail, cinema, travel and much more
• Life assurance policy
• Long service award

Shift Pattern

• Monday to Friday
• 06:00am to 16:00pm

Responsibilities

Accountable for the on-site QA function, ensuring:

• Actively promote Food Safety and product quality
• Through audits and other suitable means, support the production team in producing product that meets specification
• Involvement (and where appropriate management) of any relevant factory issues
• Clear communication with internal stakeholders with regards to issues within the factory
• Responsible for creation and completion of NCR and Concession processes on site including supporting investigations and improvement actions
• Responsible for leading investigations of customer complaints including supporting improvement actions
• Utilising the site Technical & Quality KPI’s to encourage appropriate improvement actions that may arise
• Assisting completion of any non-conformances arising from internal and external audits
• Ensuring the site’s swabbing and sampling programme are completed as per schedules, all actions are completed OTIF and any Out of Specification results are actioned appropriately
• Ensure the QA allocated GMP audit program is completed
• Identify and implement improvement opportunities within the team’s ways of working to drive efficiencies and adapt to change
• Support customer and third party audits
• Demonstrate flexibility around working hours as required to facilitate customer audits and visits, holidays and other business needs as directed by the Quality Manager.

Other key accountabilities

• Actively promote and deliver good health and safety working conditions and practices
• Any other task as is reasonably requested to support the effective operation of the site

Requirements

• Working safely every day
• Experience in a Technical and/or QA related function
• Experience in internal audits
• Organised and able to work to tight deadlines and under pressure
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to talk to customers and external agencies
• Able to influence internal and external stakeholders
• Ability to collate and process information rapidly and make agile decisions relating to food safety, legality and quality within remit
• Demonstrate exceptional GMP standards to achieve high quality products
• RCA skills
• Team player
• Strong IT Skills
• Eye for Detail

Qualifications

• Holding or working towards Level 3 Food Safety
• Holding or working towards level 3 HACCP
• Minimum 5 GCSE’s (or equivalent) including English, Maths and Science
• Desirable – Food safety degree or 3 years experience in the food industry
• Desirable – Train the trainer certificate
• Desirable – Knowledge of microbiology