Product Quality Assurance Manager

The Role

We are recruiting a Product Quality Assurance Manager responsible for overseeing product quality, food safety, legality, and integrity across a soft fruit operation, ensuring compliance with customer, retailer, and legislative standards.

This role requires a hands-on quality professional with strong communication skills and the ability to work closely with production, harvest, commercial, and technical teams to manage quality performance and resolve issues efficiently.

You will play a key role in maintaining high product standards from field to customer in a fast-paced fresh produce environment.

Key Responsibilities

Quality Assurance & Compliance

Ensure all products meet required food safety, legal, integrity, and customer standards
Deliver Quality Service Level (QSL) targets for the business and customers
Investigate complaints, rejections, and non-conformances, ensuring timely resolution
Maintain and improve QA systems in line with BRCGS v9 and retailer requirements
Analyse and trend quality data to drive continuous improvement

Team Leadership & Development

Manage and develop QA and Label Room teams
Ensure customer specifications and quality standards are consistently met
Promote a right first time culture across production teams
Manage the QA budget and support effective resource planning

Cross-Functional & Customer Support

Work closely with commercial, production, and operational teams to resolve quality issues
Support customer visits and technical discussions
Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders

Auditing & Site Engagement

Carry out internal and external quality visits
Document findings and communicate outcomes to relevant stakeholders
Support audit readiness and ongoing compliance activity
Contribute to internal initiatives and continuous improvement projects

About You

Experience in a Quality or Technical role within Fresh Produce
Strong knowledge of BRCGS v9, retailer standards, and food safety systems
HACCP Level 2 and Food Safety Level 2
TACCP/VACCP training and Lead Auditor training preferred
Experience leading or supervising QA teams
Confident communicating with customers and internal teams
Strong analytical, problem-solving, and IT skills
Proactive, detail-focused, and comfortable working in a fast-paced environment
Need to have a legal right to work in the UK

For further information, please get in touch with Oskar Ballard at MorePeople on 01780 480530 or email oskar@morepeople.co.uk