Quality Lead

About ZELP

ZELP is an agricultural technology company committed to creating a sustainable future for agriculture - one that meets the needs of present and future generations, promoting human and environmental health, animal welfare, and social and economic equity.

Our first focus is to develop and scale technology that measures and mitigates methane emissions in the livestock industry. Today, 1.3 billion people rely on the industry for their livelihoods and food security. However, it is the single biggest human-driven source of methane emissions globally, emitting more than both the oil & gas industry and the coal industry.

The deployment of our technologies on a global scale has the potential to drive half the global methane reduction needed by 2030, and to transform the beef and dairy industries.

ZELP was an inaugural winner of the Terra Carta Design Lab, and has received funding and support from the European Commission, Innovate UK, The Global Methane Hub and the Gates Foundation.

Role Summary

Join us as our Quality Lead, building the systems and culture that ensure every product we ship meets the highest standards of performance and reliability. You’ll take ownership of quality across design, manufacturing, and supplier operations—defining processes, implementing tools, and leading our journey toward ISO 9001 certification and beyond. 

This is a hands-on, foundational role for someone who loves creating structure in fast-moving environments and believes that quality is built in, not inspected out.

This role is not suitable for someone with experience focussed in Process or Software QA; our products include complex hardware and you must have experience with something comparable.

Main Responsibilities

• Establish and lead quality systems, documentation, and processes required as we ramp-up manufacturing of our first products, and work towards ISO9001 and other applicable certifications.
• Develop and maintain control plans, inspection procedures, and traceability systems across manufacturing and suppliers.
• Work with design and industrialisation teams to embed quality into product and process design (DfX, PFMEA, etc.).
• Define, implement and monitor quality metrics—yield, defect rate, customer returns etc—and drive continuous improvement through root-cause analysis
• Source and implement any required tools, equipment or test rigs for inspection and in-line testing
• Lead internal and supplier audits; manage corrective and preventive actions
• Working closely with the Industrialisation Lead, select and implement any IT tools required to effectively manage the manufacturing and quality systems
• Build and coach a quality-focused culture across the team through training, standards, and feedback loop
• Partner with the supply chain team to ensure suppliers meet agreed quality and delivery standards

Requirements

Required

• > 5 years experience in a similar role 
• Proven ability to implement quality management systems and develop documentation from the ground up
• Experience in working with design teams to embed quality into parts and process from the early stages of development
• Skilled in quality tools and methods: FMEA, 8D, SPC, root cause analysis, six sigma etc
• Strong foundation in inspection and quality measurement
• Comfortable working in a dynamic, small-team environment where systems are still being built
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills—able to influence across design, production, and supply chain
• Hands-on, pragmatic, and motivated by getting things right first time
• Educated to degree level in Engineering, or having equivalent professional experience and training
  

Nice to have / advantages

• Comparable device experience; medical products, consumer electronics
• Experience of implementing new IT tools/systems e.g. MES, ERP

• Experience in a high-growth start-up
• High volume manufacturing experience
• Experience of design and/or sourcing of bespoke test rigs or inspection tools and equipment
• Experience in supplier development