University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is delighted to offer a fantastic opportunity to work with us.
Job Title: Lead Quality Assurance Officer
Contract Type: Permanent
This is an exciting opportunity to join our Pharmacy Quality Assurance team as a Lead Quality Assurance Officer. We are looking for someone who is passionate about quality, compliance, and continuous improvement. Thrives in a fast-paced, highly regulated environment where your expertise directly contributes to patient safety and service excellence.
In this key role, you will help ensure that the Quality Management System (QMS) supporting our pharmacy aseptic services remains effective, compliant, and continuously improving. Your work will play a vital role in maintaining the highest standards of quality, safety, and efficacy for medicines supplied to patients, while supporting compliance with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), licensing requirements, and accreditation standards.
As one of the largest acute teaching Trusts in England, we offer learning and development opportunities to help you achieve the career you aspire to. UHS is rated ‘Good’ by the CQC and in the latest national NHS Staff Survey, we were in the top 10 acute trusts for staff engagement and for staff recommending the hospital as a place to work or receive care.
We support flexible working and will consider requests taking into account the needs of the service. UHS employees are able to access a range of NHS discounts, are entitled to a minimum of 35 days paid holiday (pro rata), and we offer a generous pension scheme.
Southampton is an attractive place to live and work situated on the south coast, with an international airport and direct trains to London. The New Forest National Park and beaches of the Jurassic coast are also right on our doorstep. The city offers living costs 30% lower than London and 17 schools rated outstanding by Ofsted.
We believe that using technology wisely shows strong time management and commitment to innovation. However, personalising your recruitment application to highlight your unique skills and experiences is crucial. Relying too heavily on generic, AI-generated content instead of drawing from your own strengths and accomplishments may lead to your application being rejected if multiple candidates present identical or similar information.
In this role you will act as a designated Releasing Officer, you will hold a key responsibility within the aseptic service, undertaking the final quality assurance review and release of compounded products for use. Using your knowledge of GMP, aseptic processing, environmental monitoring, validation, and quality systems, you will assess production documentation and quality data to ensure products meet all required standards before release. You will make critical decisions relating to product quality, investigate and escalate concerns where necessary, and work closely with production and the wider pharmacy team to ensure medicines are supplied safely, effectively and in a timely manner. This highly accountable role places you at the forefront of safeguarding patient safety and maintaining regulatory compliance across the service.
We are looking for a motivated and organised individual with experience of Quality Assurance and GMP environments with excellent communication skills. You will be confident managing competing priorities, investigating quality issues, developing staff, and building effective working relationships with stakeholders at all levels.
This role offers the chance to further develop your leadership and specialist quality assurance skills within a supportive and progressive team dedicated to delivering outstanding patient care. Participation in weekend, bank holiday, and on-call rotas will be required as part of the service.
If you are committed to quality excellence and want to play a pivotal role in supporting safe, high-quality aseptic services, we would love to hear from you.
