Posted Wednesday 4 March 2026 at 00:00 | Expires Monday 23 March 2026 at 23:59
Who is New England Seafood International?
New England Seafood International (NESI) was established in 1991 and is an importer and processor of premium fresh and frozen sustainable fish and seafood. NESI employs circa 850 people across three sites in the UK and imports a wide range of wild and farmed fish and shellfish from all around the world. We are part of the Sealaska Corporation, an Alaska Native corporation formed in 1971 and which is owned by 26,000 Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian shareholders, who are all bloodline descendants of the first settlers to the Americas.
Our vision is to “show people how to enjoy fish every day” and we pride ourselves on our supply chain integrity, sustainable sourcing and high-quality product. Our values run through our business and are Respect, Customer Care, By Learning We Grow, Team Spirit and Integrity.
Title Quality Manager
Department Technical
Reports to Technical Manager
Working Pattern Monday - Friday
Salary Up to £45,000 DOE
At NESI our core purpose is enhancing lives through fish, and we believe people are the most important asset to any business, that is why we choice to put all our people first by investing in developing our leaders to ensure they can support their teams in growing individuals, to reach their true potential.
We are seeking an exceptional Quality Manager to join our Paignton team as we embark on a period of growth.
Job Purpose
The purpose of this role is to fully challenge the company’s food safety, quality & legality of product in all areas of production, as part of the company’s due diligence and HACCP controls. Instigating continuous improvements & corrective actions. Provide mentoring and/or coaching in all areas of the factory to deputise for the Technical Manager as and when required. This is a hands on, boots on the ground role.
The Technical Team
Our sites measure success via our SPQDC, the team are responsible for:
Safety – Ensuring every employee complies with food safety every day. Team members are responsible for reporting any hazards on site to be resolved understanding the importance of safe working.
People – Completion of on-the-job training for all team members so that all employees can fully complete their roles and be a part of a successful team. Enforcing Company policies and procedures across the team to ensure consistency and fairness. Treating all employees with respect when collaborating with different departments.
Quality – Providing great quality products to meet our customer and consumer needs. Testing products and working cross-functionally with the Technical Team to comply with food safety.
Delivery – Deliver high standard service to customers by ensuring everything we make is safe to eat and compliant with the relevant laws and standards.
Cost – Managing technical budgets to agreed standard.
Team Org Structure
This role reports to the Technical Manager and manages a Quality Supervisor and 2 x Quality Assurance Technicians.
Role & Responsibilities
* Working with the site management team to drive and enforce food safety culture initiatives. Ensure weekly trend analysis is on target and performing to demonstrate clear cultural change.
* Ensure health and safety practices are being adhered to. Escalate any Health and Safety issues to the necessary point of contact
* Be an active member of the HACCP team. Ensure validation and verification activities take place as planned for CCP’s, QCPs and OPRs
* Management and key contact for all department QA’s including holiday scheduling and performance review
* Lead the development and continuous review of QA team members. Setting personal performance objectives that help drive delivery of the technical strategy
* Maintain departmental KPI’s and address factory performance through positive challenge at Site management meetings. Escalate poor performance to the Technical Manager
* Participate in completing internal audits against the internal audit schedule. Own the internal auditing process. Report on all findings.
* Verify and confirm the end-to-end traceability process including the factory start up checks daily. Address and close out non-conformances as these occur. Escalate to the Technical Manager where a serious breach has occurred
* Manage, maintain, and review the completion of the GMP system. Address and close out non-conformances as these occur. Escalate to the Technical Manager where a serious breach has occurred
* Working with the site management team confirm and implement sampling plans that are required to validate the sites technical process for change management including the commissioning and validation of new equipment, a process or a procedure
* Confirm that all products exiting the factory daily meet the customers’ final product specification (including brand, own label, and food service)
* Where required, implement a positive release system for products exiting the factory
* Influence site management by challenging processes, procedures and practices
* Gather the information required to allow a thorough investigation and root cause analysis to be carried out following the identification of food safety, legality and/or quality issues i.e. product contamination, hygiene issue, process control, audit non-conformances and breach of critical control points and operational prerequisite
* Ensure the correct documents are issued, implemented and completed within the site and kept up to date with any amendments being issued in a timely manner. Recognise where policies, procedures and SOPs are failing and lead the discussion for necessary updates.
* Ensure schedules i.e. environmental swabbing and testing, calibration, raw material testing (crab, packaging and ingredients) are carried out as per stated frequency. Implement corrective action(s), as required.
* Support site management teams when hosting external audits or visits
* Support Technical Manager with continuous improvement projects such as amendments to traceability paperwork, better ways of working, task analysis
* Understand any changes in legal requirements, codes of practice, and industry standards; the impact on the site and QMS. Implement relevant changes through working parties.
* Communicating the sites microbiological and environmental results through trend analysis. Confirm and highlight to the senior leadership team where failures have occurred and the action that is to be taken to ensure the results are compliant.
* To be flexible regarding all aspects of your job role and give your full support to all new systems / ideas that are implemented within the company
* As subject matter experts, own and delegate (as required) the internal deliverance of food safety training i.e., metal detection, HACCP, Internal auditing.
* Management of external contracts such as pest control, laundry and consumables.
Experienced Required/Desired
* HND in Food safety
* Good under pressure
* Be able to motivate & encourage people
* Be able to work off their own initiative.
* Be able to instigate changes within systems or procedures.
* Ability to prioritise
* Understanding of in-house systems and procedures
* Confident and approachable
* Able to work to deadlines
* Speed, accuracy, and attention to detail
* Be able to make decisions in conjunction with company protocols.
* Be able to appreciate the reasoning behind company decisions.
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