VPO SPECIALIST: QUALITY

SAB; Randburg; On-site; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

SAB in South Africa seeks a strategic leader to drive the VPO Quality Pillar across Africa Zone, defining strategy, governance and targets while ensuring pillar standards are embedded in operations.

You will coach plant leaders, build capability, and guide continuous improvement through PDCA/SDCA methods, with extensive travel across Africa.

This role requires a 5+ year quality management background in manufacturing and experience with quality, food safety and management systems.

Qualifications

• Relevant tertiary qualification in Quality, Food Science, Engineering, Brewing, Packaging, Manufacturing or related discipline.
• Minimum 5 years' Quality Management experience within a manufacturing or FMCG environment.
• Experience with VPO or similar manufacturing excellence systems.
• Experience working in brewery, production or operational environments.
• Audit and assessment experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead the deployment and continuous improvement of the VPO Quality Pillar across Africa Zone operations.
• Define and govern the Zone Quality Pillar strategy, priorities and performance targets.
• Drive sustainable improvements in business KPIs and VPO means through pillar standards, systems and routines.
• Guide and support Plant leadership teams in the execution of Quality Pillar requirements.
• Build organizational capability through coaching, training and development of Pillar Owners, Quality teams and Plant leadership.
• Analyse business, KPI and VPO means performance to identify risks, gaps and improvement opportunities.
• Lead VPO Check-to-Coach assessments, ensuring robust action planning, follow-up and gap closure.
• Drive structured problem solving and continuous improvement through VPO methodologies, PDCA and SDCA.
• Identify, validate and standardize best practices, ensuring replication across the Zone and escalation to Global where appropriate.
• Support Quality Pillar implementation in existing operations, greenfield and brownfield projects, acquisitions and new operations.
• Monitor, report and govern Quality Pillar performance in line with the Global VPO Business Cycle.
• Own and maintain all Quality Pillar standards, tools, documentation and governance processes.

Skills

Quality Management

Stakeholder management

Coaching & capability-building

Problem solving

Continuous improvement

VPO / manufacturing excellence

Audit & assessment

Travel across Africa

Education

Relevant tertiary qualification in Quality, Food Science, Engineering, Brewing, Packaging, Manufacturing or related discipline

Job description

Dreaming big is in our DNA. It's who we are as a company. It's our culture. It's our heritage. And more than ever, it's our future. A future where we're always looking forward. Always serving up new ways to meet life's moments. A future where we keep dreaming bigger. We look for people with passion, talent, and curiosity, and provide them with the teammates, resources and opportunities to unleash their full potential. The power we create together – when we combine your strengths with ours – is unstoppable. Are you ready to join a team that dreams as big as you do? The key purpose of this role is to provide strategic and technical leadership for the VPO Quality Pillar across Africa Zone, driving capability, compliance, pillar maturity and continuous improvement to deliver sustainable business and quality results.

Key Roles & Responsibilities:

• Lead the deployment and continuous improvement of the VPO Quality Pillar across Africa Zone operations.
• Define and govern the Zone Quality Pillar strategy, priorities and performance targets.
• Drive sustainable improvements in business KPIs and VPO means through effective implementation of pillar standards, systems and routines.
• Guide and support Plant leadership teams in the execution of Quality Pillar requirements and improvement plans.
• Build organizational capability through coaching, training and development of Pillar Owners, Quality teams and Plant leadership.
• Analyse business, KPI and VPO means performance to identify risks, gaps and improvement opportunities.
• Lead VPO Check-to-Coach assessments, ensuring robust action planning, follow-up and gap closure.
• Drive structured problem solving and continuous improvement through the effective application of VPO methodologies, PDCA and SDCA.
• Identify, validate and standardize best practices, ensuring replication across the Zone and escalation to Global where appropriate.
• Support Quality Pillar implementation in existing operations, greenfield and brownfield projects, acquisitions and new operations.
• Monitor, report and govern Quality Pillar performance in line with the Global VPO Business Cycle.
• Own and maintain all Quality Pillar standards, tools, documentation and governance processes.

Minimum Requirements:

• Relevant tertiary qualification in Quality, Food Science, Engineering, Brewing, Packaging, Manufacturing or a related discipline.
• Minimum 5 years' Quality Management experience within a manufacturing or FMCG environment.
• Experience with VPO or similar manufacturing excellence systems.
• Proven experience implementing and sustaining quality, food safety and management systems.
• Experience working in brewery, production or operational environments.
• Strong coaching, facilitation and capability-building skills.
• Demonstrated problem-solving and continuous improvement experience.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills across multiple organizational levels.
• Willingness and ability to travel extensively across Africa.
• Experience supporting multiple sites or regional operations.
• Audit and assessment experience.

Additional Information:

Band: VI SAB/ABInBev is an equal opportunity employer, and all appointments will be made in line with SAB/ABInBev employment equity plan and talent requirements. The advert has minimum requirements listed. Management reserves the right to use additional/ relevant information as criteria for short-listing. The South African Breweries (SAB) has reimagined what a beer company can be and has anchored this in a powerful brand purpose – We Dream Big to Create a Future With More Cheers – which articulates who we are and where we are going. At SAB it's always about more than the beer. We are driven by our passion to demonstrate the unique power of beer to propel South Africa forward. Since our inception over a century ago, SAB has grown to become South Africa's largest brewer, a powerful economic contributor, a leader in sustainability, and a champion of responsible consumption. SAB is one of South Africa’s admired companies and corporate brands. The company has 7 breweries and 42 depots in South Africa, a total workforce of approximately 5000, and supports a beer economy 'from seed to sip' of over 250 000 jobs. Its portfolio of beer brands meets the needs of a wide range of consumers and includes leading brands in beer and beyond such as Castle Lager, Carling Black Label, Corona, Brutal Fruit, and Flying Fish