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Food Safety & Quality Compliance Lead
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Food Safety & Quality Compliance Lead Home-based with UK travel
We're recruiting on behalf of a multi-site technical food ingredients business for an experienced Food Safety & Quality Compliance Lead to join their UK & Ireland team. This is a great opportunity for a QA Manager, Assistant Technical Manager, Technical Manager, or Quality Systems Manager looking to step into a role with genuine influence — helping to build and standardise a quality-focused culture across multiple manufacturing sites.
The Role
You'll be a key member of the Food Safety and Quality team, taking driving food safety and quality compliance standardisation across sites.
You'll ensure products are manufactured to meet all internal and external requirements, including legal compliance and customer expectations, while supporting a robust, audit-ready quality culture.
Ideally located on the M6/M1 corridor for ease of access to sites across the Midlands and up to the North. This is a hands-on, factory-focused role. You'll be home-based, with travel to sites across the East Midlands, West Midlands, and up to the North, working closely with site operations teams to challenge and improve standards where needed.
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Key Responsibilities
- Drive food safety and quality compliance standardisation across multiple sites
- Lead internal and external auditing programmes to support continuous improvement
- Implement and maintain the Quality Management System (QMS)
- Ensure adherence to HACCP, GMP, and operational procedures, escalating non-conformances as required
- Coach and develop others across pest control, hygiene, allergen management, HACCP, and auditing
- Support Vendor Assurance and supplier site auditing
- Report on key quality metrics, including consumer complaints, and drive performance improvements
- Represent the business at food safety, quality, and regulatory forums in the absence of the line manager
- Provide regulatory horizon-scanning and support food law analysis
What Our Client Is Looking For
- Current experience as a QA Manager, Assistant Technical Manager, Technical Manager, or Quality Systems Manager
- A UK-recognised professional qualification in food safety, quality, and/or regulatory affairs
- In-depth knowledge of GFSI standards within food and beverages
- Minimum 2 years' experience in a similar role within an FMCG environment
- A strong track record of developing and implementing food safety and quality systems to GFSI standards
- Expertise across pest control, hygiene, allergen management, HACCP, food defence, and auditing
- Strong understanding of UK and EU food regulations and legislation
- Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to bring teams along and build genuine buy-in for change across all levels of the business
- A self-motivated, continuous improvement mindset with sharp attention to detail
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