Quality Assurance Technician – Panhead

Brewers Guild; Upper Hutt, Auckland; Hybrid; NZD 55,000 - 73,000; Full time

Job summary

Panhead Brewery in New Zealand seeks a Quality Assurance Technician to join our close-knit team. This permanent full-time role offers hands-on work across laboratory testing, microbiology, and quality systems while you learn brewery operations.

You’ll contribute to food safety, HACCP, and quality reporting, and collaborate with the brewing team. We value curiosity, initiative and a collaborative spirit, with opportunities to develop skills in a supportive environment.

Qualifications

• Experience in laboratory testing and quality assurance.
• Interest in microbiology and food safety.
• Strong attention to detail and collaborative mindset.

Responsibilities

• Conduct laboratory testing, sampling and analysis to ensure beer quality.
• Support microbiological testing, including yeast viability testing.
• Maintain laboratory equipment, calibration schedules and records.
• Support food safety systems, quality management and HACCP.
• Investigate quality issues and contribute to continuous improvement.
• Execute customer feedback reporting.
• Assist with quality reporting, documentation and SAP-based systems.
• Collaborate with brewing team on operations.

Skills

Laboratory skills

Attention to detail

Communication

Teamwork

Education

Food Science / Microbiology

Tools

SAP

Job description

At Panhead Brewery, we’re passionate about brewing great beer, and quality is at the heart of everything we do!

We’re looking for a Quality Assurance Technician – Permanent Full Time to join our close-knit brewery team. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who enjoys getting hands-on, has a curious mindset and wants to develop their skills across all aspects of quality assurance.

Working in a small, collaborative team, you’ll gain exposure to everything from laboratory testing and microbiology to food safety, quality management and brewing operations.

Whether you’re starting your career or already have experience in quality, we’d love to hear from you! We’re open to different experience levels and happy to support someone with the right attitude and willingness to learn.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Conduct laboratory testing, sampling and analysis to ensure our beer meets quality standards.
• Support microbiological testing, including yeast viability testing.
• Maintain laboratory equipment, calibration schedules and quality records.
• Support food safety systems, quality management processes and HACCP requirements.
• Investigate quality issues and contribute to continuous improvement initiatives.
• Execute Customer Feedback reporting processes
• Assist with quality reporting, documentation and systems, including SAP.
• Work closely with the brewing team and gain hands-on exposure to brewery operations.

About You

We’re looking for someone who’s curious, proactive and passionate about learning. You don’t need to tick every box!

Ideally, you’ll bring:

• A qualification in Food Science, Chemistry, Microbiology or a related discipline, or relevant practical experience.
• Experience in laboratory testing, and an interest in quality assurance and food safety.
• Strong attention to detail, good communication skills and a collaborative mindset.
• A willingness to learn, take initiative and get involved in different aspects of brewery operations.
• Experience in microbiology is highly regarded

Ready to Join the Crew?

If you’re passionate about quality, curious about brewing and keen to develop your skills in a hands-on environment, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re a certified B Corp, which means we care about people, planet and purpose—not just profit. We’re committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, and we celebrate the unique perspectives that help us grow and innovate. We intentionally embrace difference and cultivate belonging every day, whether through our investment in our Reconciliation journey through our Innovate RAP, our commitment to gender pay equity or providing progressive people policies.

If you need specific support or accessibility adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know at [e-mail] we can make sure that your recruitment process is fair and we enable you to shine. This includes tailored support for First Nations people, individuals with disabilities, those who are neurodivergent, and people who identify as transgender or gender diverse as we understand the unique challenges and concerns you may face.