Lead - Quality

Essar Career Site; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,500,000 - 2,300,000; Full time

Job summary

Essar seeks a Quality Lead to oversee end-to-end quality assurance and food safety across fresh fruits and vegetables supply chain and distribution center operations. You will drive product quality, freshness standards, regulatory compliance, and operational excellence across procurement, storage, handling, processing, packaging, and dispatch activities.

The role requires HACCP, GMP, FSSAI expertise, audit management, team leadership, and cross-functional coordination in a fast-paced

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Food Technology, Food Science, Agriculture or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in Quality Assurance/Quality Control within fresh fruits & vegetables or related supply chain environments.
• Strong knowledge of HACCP, GMP, FSSAI, and hygiene compliance.
• Experience handling audits, RCA (root cause analysis) and CAPA implementation.
• Good leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Manage end-to-end QA processes across procurement, storage, processing, packaging, and dispatch.
• Ensure adherence to food safety standards and regulatory requirements including FSSAI guidelines.
• Conduct quality inspections for fruits & vegetables including freshness and physical quality verification.
• Monitor storage conditions and shelf-life parameters across produce categories.
• Drive continuous improvement to minimize complaints, rejections, waste, and gaps.
• Lead internal audits and hygiene inspections across operations.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless quality execution.

Skills

Quality Assurance

Food Safety

Leadership

Audit Management

Root Cause Analysis

CAPA Implementation

HACCP

GMP

Stakeholder Management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Food Technology/ Food Science/ Agriculture

Job description

Role Overview

The Quality Lead will be responsible for managing end-to-end quality assurance and food safety operations across fresh fruits & vegetables supply chain and Distribution Center (DC) operations. The role focuses on ensuring product quality, freshness standards, regulatory compliance, and operational excellence across procurement, storage, handling, processing, packaging, and dispatch activities. The position plays a critical role in maintaining quality consistency, minimizing customer complaints and operational losses, and driving continuous improvement across quality processes. This role requires strong expertise in fresh produce quality assessment, food safety standards, audit management, team handling, and cross-functional coordination in a fast-paced operational environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage end-to-end quality assurance processes across inbound procurement, grading, sorting, storage, processing, packaging, and dispatch operations
• Ensure adherence to food safety standards, hygiene protocols, SOPs, and regulatory compliance requirements including FSSAI guidelines
• Conduct quality inspections for fruits & vegetables including sensory evaluation, grading checks, freshness assessment, and physical quality verification
• Monitor freshness standards, shelf-life parameters, storage conditions, and handling practices across all fresh produce categories
• Drive quality consistency and minimize customer complaints, QC rejections, wastage, shrinkage, and operational quality gaps
• Lead internal audits, quality reviews, hygiene inspections, and compliance assessments across operations
• Investigate quality issues and customer complaints through root cause analysis (RCA) and implement corrective and preventive actions (CAPA)
• Maintain quality documentation including inspection reports, rejection logs, audit records, compliance trackers, and operational dashboards
• Supervise and train quality executives and operational teams on food safety standards, quality SOPs, hygiene protocols, and handling practices
• Coordinate with Procurement, Operations, Category, Supply Chain, and Warehouse teams to ensure seamless quality execution across the supply chain
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to strengthen freshness standards, process efficiency, and operational quality controls

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Food Technology, Food Science, Agriculture, or related field
• Minimum 5 years of relevant experience in Quality Assurance / Quality Control within fresh fruits & vegetables, food processing, FMCG, D2C, or fresh produce supply chain environments
• Strong expertise in fresh produce quality assessment, grading standards, shelf-life management, and perishables handling
• Hands-on experience in food safety systems including HACCP, GMP, FSSAI, and hygiene compliance standards
• Experience handling audits, root cause analysis (RCA), and corrective & preventive action (CAPA) implementation
• Strong understanding of warehouse, distribution center, and supply chain quality operations
• Strong leadership, communication, problem-solving, and stakeholder management skills
• Ability to work effectively in fast-paced and operationally intensive environments