Quality Assurance Manager

The Sterling Choice; Watton; On-site; GBP 48,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

The Sterling Choice is assisting a major food manufacturing site in Watton, Norfolk, to recruit a seasoned QA leader. You will own the day-to-day QA function, guiding a ~25-strong team through the supervisor structure, ensuring quality and regulatory compliance across a busy operation.

Your role will focus on developing people, sustaining high standards, supporting audits, customer quality plans, and driving quality improvement projects site-wide, with scope to broaden into broader technical

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading a QA team in food manufacturing.
• Strong knowledge of BRC/retailer standards.
• Ability to drive quality improvements and audits.

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day QA across a large site.
• Lead ~25 staff and supervise through established structure.
• Deliver audits, customer quality plans, and site-wide improvements.

Skills

People management

QA leadership

BRC knowledge

Regulatory compliance

Job description

You don't need to have seen every product, process or problem before. You do need to know how to lead people.

This business is looking for a strong food manufacturing QA leader who can take ownership of a sizeable team, challenge how things are done and keep developing themselves along the way.

You will take responsibility for the day-to-day QA function across a large, busy manufacturing operation, leading a team of around 25 people through an established supervisor structure. There is already plenty of technical knowledge within the team, so you are not walking into something that needs rebuilding. The opportunity is to provide strong, consistent leadership, develop the people around you and keep raising the standard.

You will be highly visible within the factory, supporting your supervisors, making decisions, dealing with issues as they arise and making sure quality remains firmly embedded within the operation. You will also work closely with an experienced Technical Manager who genuinely believes in developing people and giving them the opportunity to grow.

As you establish yourself, the role can become broader. There is scope to get involved in quality improvement projects, customer quality plans, audits and developing how the site operates rather than simply maintaining what is already there.

It is a complex manufacturing environment with significant retailer exposure, so you will need a solid grounding in food manufacturing, BRC and retailer standards. However, they are refreshingly open-minded about where that experience comes from. You do not need to have spent your entire career within one particular product category.

What matters is that you understand factory QA and can lead.

You will need to be comfortable managing a sizeable team, coaching supervisors and getting the best from people with different levels of experience. You should be willing to challenge when something could be better, but equally capable of bringing people with you rather than simply telling them what needs to change.

There is also plenty of room to keep developing your own career. Being part of a much larger food manufacturing group creates potential routes into broader site technical leadership, group functions, supplier quality, auditing and technical projects over time.