Our client is a well established and rapidly growing Australian food manufacturing business supplying fresh products to major national supermarket retailers. With a strong reputation for quality, food safety and operational excellence, the business operates at significant scale and continues to invest in its people, systems and production capability.
The organisation is privately owned, values driven and built on a long standing heritage within the Australian fresh food sector. With growth accelerating and retailer demand increasing, the company is seeking an experienced Quality Assurance Manager to lead food safety, compliance and quality performance across the site.
This is a highly visible leadership role with direct exposure to senior leadership and genuine influence on how quality and food safety are embedded across the business.
About the Role
As Quality Assurance Manager you will take full ownership of the food safety and quality management systems for a large scale fresh food manufacturing facility.
Reporting directly to the senior leadership team, you will be responsible for maintaining best practice standards, managing retailer relationships and leading the QA function to ensure the business consistently exceeds regulatory and supermarket requirements.
Key responsibilities include
- Ownership and continuous improvement of HACCP, food safety and quality management systems aligned with FSANZ and major retailer standards
- Leading pathogen management and environmental monitoring programs including Listeria control and response protocols
- Acting as the primary QA contact for major supermarket customers and managing retailer compliance requirements
- Preparing for and leading all internal and external audits including supermarket supplier audits
- Managing customer complaints, non conformances and root cause investigations
- Leading and developing the QA team while embedding a strong food safety culture across operations
- Partnering with operations and commercial teams to balance quality requirements with operational performance
- Managing supplier quality standards and raw material specifications
- Ensuring product specifications, labelling and compliance documentation remain current and audit ready
- Providing clear reporting on quality metrics, incidents and improvement initiatives
About You
You are an experienced QA leader who thrives in fast paced food manufacturing environments and understands the expectations of major Australian retailers.
You bring strong technical capability in food safety along with the leadership skills required to influence teams and maintain rigorous standards across the business.
Key experience includes
- 5 plus years experience in a senior quality assurance or food safety role within food manufacturing
- Deep understanding of HACCP and food safety frameworks in Australia
- Strong experience managing supermarket retailer requirements such as Woolworths, Coles or ALDI
- Hands on experience managing pathogen monitoring and environmental testing programs
- Experience leading retailer and certification audits
- Tertiary qualification in Food Science, Food Technology, Microbiology or a related discipline
- HACCP certification and exposure to recognised standards such as SQF, BRC or HARPS
- Strong leadership capability with experience developing QA teams and influencing operational staff
Key Benefits
- Senior leadership role with genuine influence across the business
- Direct exposure to executive leadership and strategic decision making
- Stable and growing food manufacturing organisation
- Opportunity to lead and shape food safety culture across the site
- Competitive salary package based on experience
- Long term career opportunity within a respected Australian business
