Food Safety & Quality Manager
Location: Ashbourne
Hours: Monday to Friday 4.45pm-1.15am
Are you a passionate food safety and quality professional looking to make a real impact in a fast-paced food manufacturing environment? We are seeking an experienced Food Safety & Quality Manager to lead our quality function, ensuring the highest standards of food safety, quality, compliance, and customer satisfaction are consistently achieved.
The Role
Reporting into the Technical leadership team, you will be responsible for overseeing all technical and quality aspects of production, ensuring products consistently meet customer, legal, and food safety requirements. You'll work closely with operational teams to drive continuous improvement, maintain site standards, and foster a culture of quality excellence across the business.
Key Responsibilities
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Lead and develop the site Quality Team, including recruitment, training, coaching, and performance management.
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Ensure compliance with HACCP-based Quality Management Systems, BRCGS standards, food legislation, and customer requirements.
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Drive continuous improvement initiatives relating to product quality, food safety, hygiene, and environmental standards.
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Manage factory hygiene, housekeeping, and cleaning programmes through auditing and corrective action plans.
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Monitor and investigate non-conforming products, customer complaints, product holds, rejects, and returns.
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Analyse microbiological and chemical results, identifying trends and implementing preventative and corrective actions.
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Support customer visits, external audits, and interactions with regulatory authorities.
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Deliver technical training and guidance to operational teams to enhance food safety awareness.
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Lead crisis management testing and support effective incident management processes.
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Oversee water quality management and environmental improvement initiatives.
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Produce and communicate quality performance reports, supporting operational decision-making and KPI achievement.
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Participate in and lead internal auditing activities, ensuring robust compliance across the site.
Essential Criteria
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Third-level qualification in a Food Science, Food Technology, Microbiology, or related discipline.
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Proven experience within a food manufacturing/FMCG environment.
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Previous people management and leadership experience.
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Strong understanding of HACCP, Food Safety, Food Hygiene, and Food Legislation.
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Excellent communication, organisational, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
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Experience managing audits and driving corrective actions.
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Ability to build effective relationships with customers, colleagues, and external stakeholders.
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Strong report writing and procedural documentation skills.
Desirable Criteria
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Degree-level qualification in a relevant discipline.
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Working knowledge of ISO 9001 and BRCGS standards.
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Internal Auditor qualification or auditing experience.
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Chilled food manufacturing experience.
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Microbiology experience.
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Training, coaching, and project management experience.
Pilgrim's Pride Limited is a division of Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation, our business is part of the second largest food company in the world, whose team farm, process, prepare, package and deliver fresh, frozen and value-added food products for sale in more than 100 countries.
We are proud to partner with more than 1,000 UK farmers who share our belief in the highest standards on animal welfare, efficiency, and quality. Our own farming operation is 100% RSPCA Higher Welfare, making us the largest producer of higher welfare pork globally, delivering 25% of pig meat to UK consumers.
