Quality Officer

Quality Officer

6 Month Fixed Term Contract

Belview, Co Kilkenny 

This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in the start-up of Kilkenny Cheese Limited. Kilkenny Cheese is a joint venture between Tirlán and Dutch family business Royal A-ware, a 130-year-old company with strong positions in EU and global markets. The facility is to be located at a greenfield site adjacent to Tirlán’s specialised nutrition facility at Belview, Co Kilkenny.

Kilkenny Cheese is a joint venture between Tirlán and Dutch family business Royal A-ware, a 130-year-old company with strong positions in EU and global markets. The facility is located at a greenfield site adjacent to Tirlán’s specialized nutrition facility at Belview, Co. Kilkenny.

Rooted in our rich heritage of family farming and embedded in our communities, Tirlán has evolved to bring the passion of our farmers and their high-quality ingredients to the international marketplace. Using modern-day technology and applying the best processes to our milk pool of three billion litres, we now export innovative products and tailored ingredients solutions to be enjoyed in more than 100 countries.

Royal A-ware is a traditional Dutch family business with a passion for food and with a strong entrepreneurial attitude. Demand-led, we offer our clients tailored products and services. In recent years investments have been made in the development and management of own supply chains resulting in independence, efficiency, and flexibility. We are specialized in producing, ripening, cutting, and packaging cheese, and also produce and package cream and fresh dairy products.

Role Summary

Based in Belview in South Kilkenny the role reports to the Quality Manager and is responsible for leading out quality management activities across the site. This role is responsible for reducing the occurrence of defects against quality standard across the site. The role will involve collaboration with all stakeholders to continuously improve performance to quality standard and to drive all Quality-relevant Corrective and Preventative actions to timely and effective completion

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

•  
• Arranging customer and country audits including completing questionnaires
• Setting up procedures and systems
• Leading Quality Management activities across Plant Operations
• Audit quality practices and processes within the site focusing on the prevention of deviations
• Assisting to develop the site CAPA process including assignment of effective RCA’s (root cause actions) for all process deviations to the appropriate owners and driving these action owners to deliver robust CAPA to agreed timelines. Deviations include:-
  • Plant events
  • Out of specification QC in-process and finished product results
  • Customer complaints
  • Audit actions both internal and external
• Drive the daily evaluation of quality targets and standards and work with function heads to ensure systems are in place to deliver zero defects to the Kilkenny Cheese standard.
• Assisting in the daily review of QC data to establish trends and eliminate OOS issues before they arise. Key responsibility to ensure the quality and production teams are fully aligned on all in process and finished product specifications.
• Ensure employees are trained to the correct standard to carry out their full range of duties in Quality Assurance, Quality control and Food Safety
• Oversee CCP’s & QCP’s verification
• Work closely with other departments in delivering quality processes with respect to customers, production and suppliers

Experience

• Degree in Science, Engineering or equivalent ideally.
• A minimum of 5 years in a large Dairy, Food or Pharmaceutical company with relevant experience in Quality Assurance, Food Safety & Process Improvement in an operational environment
• Aptitude for operational processes, working with cross- functional teams, Lean and continuous improvement
• Experience in Auditing and facilitating Corrective Action, preferably in a Dairy / Food production environment
• Demonstrate high technical ability and attention to detail to do the job at a high level of accomplishment
• Computer literate (Microsoft Office suite & a working knowledge of SAP)
• Strong communications with multi-functional  stakeholders
• Knowledge of Dairy products, processes and recipes an advantage
• Possesses motivational skills oriented towards encouraging people’s best performance possible

Person Profile

• Knowledge of Dairy or similar food processing industry
• Excellent interpersonal and influencing skills

Join our Talent Pool

Considering a new career in Tirlán but this isn’t the role for you?! Then why not register your experience & sign up for career opportunities at www.tirlan.com/careers.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
Tirlán embraces diversity, equal opportunity and inclusion. We are committed to building diverse teams where different perspectives drive innovation and growth. We strive to create an inclusive workplace where people can bring their true self to work and achieve their full potential.

At Tirlán, we celebrate diversity, because we know that our individual strengths make us stronger together. We welcome and encourage interest from a wide variety of candidates, and we will give your application consideration, without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, or disability status. 

At Tirlán our culture will celebrate individuality, knowing that together we are more.

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

Tirlán is a Values Based Organisation - www.tirlan.com