Join a long-established, values-driven food manufacturing business with a strong heritage in quality, innovation, and sustainability. The Head of Quality is accountable for end-to-end food safety, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance across the site, ensuring products consistently meet legal, customer, and internal standards while leading the Quality Management System and embedding a strong food-safety culture.
Responsibilities
- Own and maintain the Quality Management System (e.g. BRCGS, FSSC 22000, ISO).
- Ensure compliance with all applicable legislation, customer standards, and internal requirements.
- Lead external audits, inspections, and customer reviews, including close-out of actions.
- Oversee investigation and resolution of non-conformances, complaints, and incidents, including root cause analysis.
- Report quality performance, KPIs, and risks to senior leadership.
- Monitor regulatory changes and assess potential business impact.
- Partner with Operations to manage production quality, hygiene, and food-safety risks.
- Provide risk-based input into operational decisions (e.g. trials, changeovers, scale-ups).
- Analyse quality data, identify trends, and drive continuous improvement.
- Lead validation of product and process changes.
- Lead, develop, and performance-manage the Quality team.
- Build capability, clarify roles, and support succession planning.
- Contribute to broader operational excellence programmes.
- Partner cross-functionally with Procurement, Operations, Innovation, and Commercial teams.
- Ensure supplier, raw material, and customer quality requirements are met.
- Manage relationships with laboratories, auditors, regulators, and third-party partners.
- Accountable for the Quality function and associated budget
- Key stakeholders: internal teams and external partners (customers, suppliers, regulators)
Qualifications & Experience
- Degree in Food Science or related discipline (essential)
- Advanced food safety qualifications (desirable)
- 8+ years’ experience in quality leadership within manufacturing
- Strong knowledge of BRCGS, FSSC 22000, and/or ISO standards
- Experience in product compliance and continuous improvement
For a confidential discussion and more information on the role, please contact Kevin Griffin
Kevin Griffin
kevin.griffin@collinsmcnicholas.ie
(021) 2427108
