Quality Assurance Manager

Tirlán

Tirlán, is a world-class food and nutrition co-operative, with a diverse portfolio of quality ingredients, leading consumer and agri brands.

Tirlán owns leading brands such as Avonmore, Kilmeaden Cheese, Millac, Solmiko, Truly Grass Fed, Premier Milk, Wexford, mymilkman.ie and GAIN Animal Nutrition.

A talented team across Ireland, the US, MEA and China, delivers annual revenues of over €3 billion. Our purpose is to nourish the world, while safeguarding our environment for future generations.

Role Profile

The Quality Assurance Manager reports to the Site Head of Quality. The overall purpose of this role is to embed and sustain Quality and Food Safety policies in the plant. Drive a ‘right first time’ culture and performance in the plant by ensuring that processes and operations meet customer and regulatory requirements. A key deliverable is reducing the occurrence of defects against quality standard. The role collaborates with plant stakeholders to continuously improve performance to quality standard and to drive all quality-relevant Corrective and Preventative actions to timely and effective completion.

Responsibilities

• Drive a strong Quality & food safety culture within the plant;
• Implement the Tirlán Quality Management System in the plant;
• Manage quality performance and KPIs in the plant relating to: Product & Process Quality, Continuous Improvement, Regulatory Compliance;
• Maintain customer product specifications / certifications and final product grading/release;
• Point of contact for Customers for product/process-specific quality support;
• Work collaboratively with Operations Management and team to ensure Quality Assurance requirements are fully resourced to deliver plant in- process, sampling and testing schedules;
• Oversight and support of the plant RCA’s, effective CAPA implementation and verification for all process deviations;
• Audit quality practices and processes within the site focusing on Hygiene, HACCP and the prevention of deviations;
• Play a key role in planning and participating in Plant audits with customers, regulatory and other third parties;
• Accountable for delivering a robust plant hygiene monitoring programme;
• Accountable for change control of quality aspects of the plant Operations.

Education and Experience

• Third level degree minimum in the Food Sciences;
• Role-relevant experience (3-5 years) in Dairy, Food or Pharmaceutical company in Quality Assurance, Food Safety;
• Experience & certification in Auditing (Lead auditor course) and facilitating Corrective Action, preferably in a Dairy / Food production environment;
• A track record in process improvement activity, ideally from the quality perspective;
• Strong problem solving skills and experience in applying the principles of Lean and TPM;
• Strong team-working and communication skills;
• Aptitude for operational processes, working with cross- functional teams, Lean and continuous improvement;
• Computer literate (Microsoft Office suite & ideally LIMS and Statistical analysis)

We offer

• Free parking;
• Collaborative work culture;
• Career progression opportunities.

About us

Through our expertise in research and development, customer insights, food safety and state-of-the-art manufacturing we bring innovative food and nutrition solutions to a global market. Our new and vibrant headquarters in Kilkenny City operates as a collaboration hub where multi-functional teams come together in a hybrid work environment. We believe in the value of difference. We know that different perspectives, life experience and backgrounds can drive innovation and deliver growth.

We welcome people from all walks of life without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, or disability status. 

Join our Talent Pool

Considering a new career in Tirlán but this isn’t the role for you? Join our talent community and sign up for job notifications at www.tirlan.com/careers