Imerys
QC Laboratory Supervisor
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The Position
QC Laboratory Supervisor
Job Summary
Laboratory Supervisor - Ball Clays
Location: Heathfield, Devon
Salary: Competitive
Hours: 37.5 hours per week
Contract: Full Time, Permanent
What We Offer
At Imerys, our laboratories play a critical role in maintaining product quality, supporting operational performance and ensuring we continue to meet the high standards expected by our customers.
In return, you'll receive:
- Competitive salary
- 25 days holiday plus Bank Holidays
- Generous pension scheme
- Private Medical Insurance
- Group Life Assurance
- Income Protection
- Enhanced family-friendly policies
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- Employee Discount Portal
- Ongoing learning and development opportunities
About Our Opportunity
We're looking for a Laboratory Supervisor to join our Ball Clay Quality team based at Heathfield.
This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced laboratory professional who enjoys leading people, maintaining quality standards and supporting continuous improvement.
Leading a small team of Laboratory Technicians, you'll be responsible for coordinating laboratory activities, ensuring testing is completed accurately and on time, and supporting the quality assurance processes that underpin our Ball Clay operations.
You'll also play a key role in promoting a strong Health, Safety and Environmental culture, ensuring safe laboratory practices are maintained, supporting compliance activities and helping to drive continuous improvements in both laboratory performance and safe ways of working.
This role combines technical laboratory expertise with people leadership and would suit someone who enjoys remaining hands-on whilst developing others, promoting high standards of safety and quality, and creating a positive team environment.
What You'll Be Doing
Laboratory Operations
- Coordinating day-to-day laboratory activities and priorities.
- Supporting routine quality control testing and validation activities.
- Reviewing and approving laboratory data and quality results.
- Managing sample requests and laboratory workflow.
Health, Safety & Environment
- Promote a zero-harm safety culture.
- Lead EH&S inspections and programmes.
- Investigate accidents, incidents and near misses.
- Conduct root cause investigations and implement corrective actions.
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Team Leadership
- Supporting, coaching and developing Laboratory Technicians.
- Coordinating workloads and ensuring priorities are achieved.
- Promoting a collaborative and high-performing team culture.
- Supporting training and competency development.
Quality, Safety & Compliance
- Maintaining high standards of quality, safety and environmental compliance.
- Supporting ISO9001 and ISO14001 requirements.
- Investigating quality issues and supporting corrective actions.
- Contributing to audits and compliance activities.
What Success Looks Like
- Enjoys guiding, coaching and supporting others to achieve their best.
- Takes ownership of delivering accurate, high-quality results.
- Builds strong working relationships and communicates effectively with colleagues at all levels.
- Thrives in a hands-on laboratory environment and enjoys problem-solving.
- Is well organised, proactive and able to prioritise competing demands.
- Champions high standards of safety, quality and continuous improvement.
- Enjoys combining technical expertise with leadership and team coordination responsibilities.
- Leads by example and encourages a positive, collaborative team culture.
- Takes a practical approach to identifying and implementing improvements.
- Is committed to ensuring customers receive products that consistently meet quality expectations.
What We're Looking For
Essential
- Previous experience working within a laboratory, quality control, testing or analytical environment.
- Experience leading, supervising or coordinating the work of others.
- Strong organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise workloads and meet deadlines.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
- A methodical approach with a high level of accuracy and attention to detail.
- Experience investigating quality issues and supporting corrective and preventative actions.
- Confidence using laboratory systems, databases and reporting tools.
- A full UK driving licence and flexibility to travel between sites when required.
- A scientific, laboratory or technical qualification, or equivalent industry experience.
- Previous experience in a Laboratory Supervisor, Quality Supervisor, Senior Laboratory Technician or Team Leader role.
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Desirable
- Experience within the minerals, ceramics, manufacturing, chemical or industrial processing sectors.
- Knowledge of SAP or similar ERP systems.
- Experience using Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS).
- Familiarity with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards.
- Experience supporting continuous improvement activities.
- Knowledge of health, safety and environmental requirements within a laboratory or production environment.
Why Imerys?
At Imerys, every member of our team matters. Our priority is the health and safety of our people, and we're committed to creating inclusive workplaces where everyone feels valued, supported and empowered to succeed.
This role offers a genuine opportunity to combine technical laboratory expertise with people leadership within a supportive team environment. You'll have the opportunity to influence quality standards, develop others and make a visible contribution to operational success.
If you're looking for a role where you can lead, collaborate and drive continuous improvement, we'd love to hear from you.
Closing date for applications 20th October 2026
Position Type
Full time and Permanent
Only technical issues will be monitored through the below inbox:
recruiting.support@imerys.com
PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT RESUMES OR APPLICATIONS TO THIS EMAIL, AS THEY WILL NOT BE REVIEWED.
To ensure fairness and legal compliance in our recruitment processes, only applications received through the online application process will be considered.
IMERYS is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and it is our policy to not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by federal, state or local laws.
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