Lead - Quality

Essar Group; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,500,000 - 2,100,000; Full time

Job summary

Essar Group is seeking a Quality Lead to oversee end-to-end QA and food safety across fresh fruits and vegetables supply chain and DC operations. You will ensure product quality, regulatory compliance, and operational excellence from procurement to dispatch.

The role requires hands-on inspection, audit management, RCA/CAPA, and leadership of QA teams, with a focus on reducing complaints, waste, and losses while driving continuous improvement across processes and standards like HACCP, GMP and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Technology, Food Science, Agriculture, or related field.
• 5+ years of QA/QC experience in fresh produce or FMCG.
• Expertise in fresh produce quality assessment and shelf-life management.
• Experience with HACCP, GMP, FSSAI and hygiene compliance.
• Experience with audits, RCA, and CAPA.
• Knowledge of warehouse and distribution center QA operations.
• Strong leadership, communication and stakeholder management.
• Ability to work in fast-paced operational environments.

Responsibilities

• Manage end-to-end QA across procurement, grading, storage, processing, packaging, and dispatch.
• Ensure adherence to food safety standards, SOPs, and regulatory requirements (FSSAI).
• Conduct sensory evaluations, grading checks, freshness assessments, and QC.
• Monitor shelf-life, storage conditions, and handling across produce categories.
• Lead audits, quality reviews, hygiene inspections, and compliance assessments.
• Perform RCA and implement CAPA for quality issues and complaints.
• Maintain QA documentation and dashboards.
• Train quality executives and operational teams on food safety and SOPs.
• Coordinate with Procurement, Operations, Supply Chain to ensure quality.
• Drive continuous improvement to strengthen freshness standards and controls.

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