Quality Assurance Officer
New England Seafood · West Ewell, Epsom
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Why this role matters
How close this job is to real sourcing and menu decisions.
This QA role sits inside the daily flow of fish and shellfish coming into a major seafood processor's site. You'd be running intake checks that confirm approved supplier status, auditing raw material handling, and maintaining the Approved Supplier Matrix that determines which suppliers keep shipping product in. That's not the desk where sourcing standards get written, but it's the desk where non-conformance against those standards gets caught, escalated and either fixed or ignored. Two to three years doing this well builds the technical credibility, supplier-matrix fluency and cross-functional influence that make a later move into a sourcing or supplier-standards role, where sustainability and welfare criteria for seafood are actually set, a realistic step rather than a leap. Done well, this is where a processor's buying standards either hold firm or quietly slip, with consequences for supply chain resilience, sustainable sourcing and the seafood that ends up on shelves.
Where this role can take you
What this job teaches you, and the jobs it can lead to.
What you'd build
- CCP and GMP audit experience
- Root Cause Analysis for non-conformances
- Approved supplier matrix management
- Food safety and hygiene compliance
- Cross-functional influence without authority
Where it can lead
- Technical Team Leader
- Quality Assurance Manager
- Supplier Quality Manager
Roles like these hold more direct sign-off over which seafood suppliers meet approved standards and what audit findings actually change on the ground.
About the role
New England Seafood International (NESI), an importer and processor of fresh and frozen fish and seafood, is recruiting a Quality Assurance Officer to report to the Technical Team Leader at its Chessington site, working a 4-on-4-off day shift (7:00am-19:00pm) for up to £30,000 depending on experience. The role ensures products are safe, legal and meet quality standards by monitoring compliance, conducting audits, supporting investigations and working with site teams. Responsibilities span quality and compliance (investigating serious customer complaints as part of a multifunctional team, communicating findings to Q3, supporting internal and external audits, participating in customer visits, verifying delivery of technical and food safety standards, addressing non-conforming product); auditing and GMP (conducting CCP audits against a defined schedule, escalating and closing non-conformances using Root Cause Analysis, carrying out GMP audits, conducting raw material audits, completing hygiene inspections including in-process and post-cleaning swabs across shifts, reviewing and signing off hygiene documentation); incoming goods and production checks (intake checks on raw materials for approved supplier status and specification compliance, line start-up checks, rejected product analysis including metal detector checks, taste panel sample collection); testing, monitoring and calibration (maintaining calibration risk assessments, daily/monthly/annual calibration checks, delivering environmental, microbiological and chemical monitoring programmes, supporting investigations into out-of-specification results); training and development (training production operatives on raw material handling, CCP and OPRP requirements, and delivering training after process updates); documentation and systems (generating and maintaining product life matrix sheets, maintaining the Approved Supplier Matrix and attending monthly Supply Chain review meetings, supporting QAS reviews, participating in NPD trials and pre-production activities); and collaboration and influence (working with Operations, Engineering and Technical teams, influencing cross-functional teams without direct line management). Required experience and capabilities include experience within an FMCG environment, working knowledge of technical management systems, ability to influence, sound organisational skills, ability to work cross-functionally, ability to analyse data and support formulation of action plans, and ability to drive technical compliance through a coaching and development style. Benefits include 20 days holiday rising to 25 with service, a pension of 5% employee/3% employer contribution, life insurance at 3x annual salary, enhanced maternity and paternity pay, a discount and benefits platform, Cycle to Work scheme, Employee Assistance Programme, Sports & Social fund and staff sales. No travel is required.
This is an extract. Read the full advert on the employer's site.
Key terms to include in your CV and cover letter
What this employer is asking for, in their words. Applications are often screened by software looking for exact phrases, so if these describe your experience, use their wording.
- Quality Assurance
- CCP audits
- GMP audits
- Root Cause Analysis
- Approved Supplier Matrix
- hygiene inspections
- environmental monitoring
- microbiological monitoring
- chemical monitoring
- calibration risk assessments
- OPRP
- NPD trials
- FMCG experience
- supplier audits
- food safety compliance
- cross-functional influence
How to position yourself
The language that works with hiring managers for this kind of job.
Frame your interest around supply-chain integrity and food safety risk — NESI's own language on sustainable sourcing and supply chain integrity gives you an opening to talk about how rigorous incoming-goods and supplier audits protect both product safety and brand reputation. Build fluency in root cause analysis, CCP/OPRP compliance and approved-supplier management, and if you're aiming toward a sourcing-facing role longer term, start asking how the Approved Supplier Matrix connects to the sustainability credentials suppliers hold.
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