What we’re after: - Quality Manager
Reporting Line: - Head of Quality
Location: - This is a hybrid role, with a mix between working 1 day a week (or more if you prefer) in our beautiful central London office (Goodge Street), working from home, with regular travel to our warehouses & factories in UK & EU (likely 2-3 times per quarter).
Equality and Inclusiveness at Lily’s Kitchen: -
At Lily’s Kitchen, we want to build and maintain a values-driven culture of trust and inclusion, one that empowers people safely and comfortably to express every characteristic of their personal identity and experience. We’re committed to supporting and encouraging a diverse and inclusive workforce. That means that whatever your ethnic origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, or status as an individual with a disability, you’ll get all the opportunities, respect and support you’d expect from a passionate business that cares about its people (as well as its pets).
We strongly encourage people of colour, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and non-binary people, veterans, parents, individuals with disabilities and/or other people from underrepresented groups to apply. Lily’s Kitchen is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes everyone to our team. If you need reasonable accommodation at any point in the application or interview process, please let us know.
In your application, please feel free to note which pronouns you use.
Your Lily’s Kitchen Promise – Pets, People & Planet: -
Every single member of the Lily’s Kitchen team pledges to uphold our B Corp and broader sustainability strategy personally, within their respective departments, and across the entire company. This commitment is demonstrated through actively advancing areas of responsibility within their teams, adhering to sustainability targets set by the company and departments, actively participating in sustainability discussions and decision-making processes, and fostering a team culture that is deeply passionate about the overall wellbeing of people, the planet and of course, pets.
Aligned with our commitment to being a force for good and championing ESG initiatives, financial compensation and reward is driven by annual objectives and performance, including the successful achievement of a social and environmental objective.
Your place at the Lily’s Kitchen Table: -
As a certified B Corporation, we are looking for an individual to join the Lily’s Kitchen team, to drive our mission to be the best pet food on the planet. Helping to ensure our quality remains tip top, working with our suppliers we partner with, and ensuring we are putting measures in place in our treatment of the environment. A champion for demonstrating that business can be both commercially successful and a force for good in the world. This is a big role and involves working across many areas of the Lily’s Kitchen business - customer care, NPD, Supply Chain, and our manufacturers.
The exact role definition will be dependent on the desire, capability, and experience of the right person, however the key focus for this role is to create added value and impact through continuing to improve our quality status. This person will be responsible for overseeing our warehouse QC team, supporting customer care, and having full responsibility for some key manufacturers.
We are looking for an individual who puts quality standards at the forefront of all decisions, activities, and actions they make. Someone who understands the importance of maintaining the finest quality standards to deliver only the best to our customers on a consistent basis. A person who takes pride in ensuring that quality is never compromised and works with the Lily’s Kitchen team to deliver that goal.
Our purpose is to feed more pets proper, natural food and we are committed to ensuring our quality keeps up with the commercial growth expected.
How will I make a difference?
You will: -
* Carry out regular traceability exercises with the support of the warehouse QCs
* Pull data from our customer contacts database to action quality investigations
* Support the customer care team with complaints
* Providing Weekly & Monthly reports to our partners, agreeing actions and follow up
* Creating monthly reports detailing KPIs for Leadership Team
* Have a responsible support role for any crisis situations
* Problem solves any areas identified from monthly reports and complaints logs
* Audit supplier sites and regularly visit supplier sites
* Follow up on audit non compliances and support in improvements with suppliers
* Lead regular meetings with supplier quality teams
* Attend Customer Care meetings to analyse customer feedback and troubleshoot
* Provide training on Quality to Customer Care and other team members
* Support Technical QM with preparing third party sampling
* Support Product Developers with the development of new recipe QAS
* Regularly visit and support our QC warehouse functions in UK and EU
* People team responsibilities for warehouse QC in UK & EU
* Deputise for the department lead in their absence
Essential
* A great eye for detail
* Strong sensory skills for quality checks
* Ability to complete reports and understand standards set with a consistent response
* The enthusiasm to learn all about our range and what makes it premium
* Great organisation skills
* Manual handling of heavy goods
* Be prepared to regularly travel to various site locations in UK & EU, often lone travel
* Confidence to challenge standards and process
* Forward Thinker
* Trouble Shooter
* Good knowledge on HACCP and Auditing Practices
* Internal or Lead Auditor qualified
Not essential but good to haves (Training can be provided to the right candidate)
* Experience with working in the food industry, even better if experienced in pet food!
* Warehouse environment-based experience
* A keen interest in pet food products
* A basic knowledge of pet food labelling requirements
How will I contribute to the team?
You believe that quality is King! You want to make a difference and keep Lily’s Kitchen as a leader in the pet food category. At the same time, you want to work in a friendly, collaborative, and empathetic team who are delivering impactful initiatives and product innovation for their customers.
* 3-5 years of quality experience and a track record of supporting businesses on their quality agenda.
* The ideal candidate is action-oriented, has a keen eye for detail while remaining highly efficient, can seamlessly juggle multiple projects in parallel and works well under pressure
* You love working independently as well as also working with teammates to improve our quality
* You are excited by the opportunity of working for a fast-growing, ever-evolving, purpose-driven FMCG business
* You enjoy learning new things, keen to attend events and bring new and exciting ideas back to the business
* Track record of partnering and delivering initiatives in conjunction with cross functional teams (product, warehouse, factories, customer care)
* You are comfortable working with various pet food products using sensory skills with strong attention to detail and commercial acumen to provide brand confidence.
* Strong ability to multitask in a fast-moving entrepreneurial, international environment and the tenacity to make things happen
* Bring new ideas and improvements to support our internal and external partners
* Remain focused and able to make decisions in a timely manner
* Interpersonal skills, with the ability to develop relationships, collaborate and influence at all levels
* Hard working, tenacious attitude, ability to prioritise and the passion to meet goals and targets
* And it goes without saying, you should have a real passion for pets!
Our Perks
At Lily’s Kitchen we believe that everyone should enjoy their time at work. We reward the care our people put into their job, by caring for them in return. Our benefits are designed to make our people smile, save for the future, stay healthy and give back where they can and include:
* Dogs at work; what better way to put a smile on your face!
* Flexible Working: flexitime, working from home, part-time working, flexible support, faith based public holidays
* Save for the Future and Protect Loved ones: a pension plan that goes beyond, the option for salary exchange and an option of an ethical pension fund reflecting our team’s attitudes and needs.Plus, a life assurance scheme to look after those that depend on you.
* Staying healthy and well: Our team’s health and wellbeing is very important to us, and we offer private medical, private dental, employee assistance programme, mental first aiders and a cycle to work scheme (and an electric car salary sacrifice scheme).
* Supporting our community: with a volunteering allowance we can give back to causes we are passionate about. Plus supporting and having fun together as a team.
* And more …
Lily’s Kitchen Story
At Lily’s Kitchen we are pet food pioneers. We are changing the game with our mission to provide proper food for cats and dogs all over the world.
Lily’s Kitchen was founded in London in 2009, by Henrietta Morrison who set out to feed her beloved dog, Lily, food she could trust. Lily’s Kitchen is now the No1 Brand in premium natural pet food, still focusing on the mission to inspire pet parents to feed their four-legged friends natural, proper food for pets.
Lily’s Kitchen was a founding member of the UK B Corp movement and the first pet food brand in the world to achieve B Corp status. Determined to use business as a force for good, Lily’s Kitchen has recently partnered with Dogs Trust to support dogs in need and are proud to lend a paw to charitable causes.
We sell our nutritious natural recipes for cats and dogs in over 1,000 stockists, like Waitrose, Tesco, Ocado, organic food shops, vets, independent pet shops and garden centres all over the UK. We also sell internationally and are now sold in more than 30 countries worldwide.