Quality Team Lead

Job title: Quality Team Lead

Location: Fox and Geese Site, Dublin 22

Contract: Permanent

About Irish Distillers

Irish Distillers is Ireland’s leading supplier of spirits and wines and producer of some of the world’s most well-known and successful Irish whiskeys. Led by Jameson, our brands are driving the success of Irish whiskey globally. Jameson is the world’s fastest-growing Irish whiskey, achieving +10% net sales growth globally in FY23. Our brands are exported to 130+ markets around the world.

Irish Distillers was formed in 1966, when a merger took place between John Power & Son, John Jameson & Son, and Cork Distilleries Company. In 1988 Irish Distillers joined Pernod Ricard, gaining access to unprecedented levels of investment and an extensive global distribution network.

In 2022, we announced our ambition to significantly reduce carbon emissions across our distilling operations at Midleton Distillery in addition to our plans to invest in a new distillery on a site adjacent to our existing operations in Midleton.

We employ over 800 people across our operations in Cork and Dublin.

About Pernod Ricard

Pernod Ricard is a worldwide leader in the spirits and wine industry, blending traditional craftsmanship, state-of-the-art brand-building, and global distribution technologies. Our prestigious portfolio of premium to luxury brands includes Absolut vodka, Ricard pastis, Ballantine’s, Chivas Regal, Royal Salute, and The Glenlivet Scotch whiskies, Jameson Irish whiskey, Martell cognac, Havana Club rum, Beefeater gin, Malibu liqueur and Mumm and Perrier-Jouët champagnes. Our mission is to ensure the long-term development of our brands with full respect for people and the environment, while empowering our employees around the world to be ambassadors of our purposeful, inclusive, and responsible culture of authentic conviviality. Pernod Ricard’s consolidated sales amounted to €12,137 million in fiscal year FY23.

Purpose of the Role

The primary role of the Quality Team Leader is to lead the team of QA Technicians to ensure quality, safety & integrity in the production and warehousing of product.

Working primarily at tier 2 level to lead and motivate the QA team to take accountability to develop and deploy Quality Management Systems that deliver world class performance, conduct specialised quality analysis, resolve quality non-conformances through root cause analysis and investigation.

Safety:

• Deliver Target Zero for the QA team.
• Comply with and ensure compliance of their team with all health & safety standards and regulatory requirements.
• Build a culture of Safety and not merely compliance.
• Ensure competency of team members to perform all duties safely complying with legislation and site standards and procedures.
• Manage QA team risk assessments.
• Lead the change process for their area of responsibility.
• Responsible for ensuring all accident and Incident investigations in the team are carried out in a timely and professional manner.
• Audit all safety and audit documentation.
• Respond to accidents/incidents in a timely and professional manner. Complete all necessary documentation and reports.

Quality, Food Safety and Environment

• Ensure highest standards are documented and communicated across site.
• Drive adherence to standards across the site.
• Continuously drive people to identify and address issues in line with the continuous improvement programmes and ISO standards.
• Promote compliance to ISO 9000, 14001 and FFSC 22000 requirements.
• Understand and comply with Internal & Group policies and procedures.

People

• Deliver through people
• Develop good working relationships with key stakeholders and customers, ensuring SLA’s and ways of working are agreed and documented.
• Manage resources, allocate duties and deploy team members to meet operational and strategic requirements.
• Ensure competency of all direct reports and identifying and closing any skills/proficiency gaps.
• Set clear measurable objectives for direct reports at start of each financial year and manage to deliver.
• Coach and mentor direct reports
• Embrace and deliver a competitive & collaborative high-performance team mindset.
• Act promptly to address any performance or discipline issues.

Continuous Improvement

·Continuously strive for excellence·Champion an agile continuous improvement mindset

• Monitor performance, identify trends and ensure that waste reduction and process improvement goals are identified, understood, and executed by the team.
• Continuously strive for and deliver process improvements.
• Manage and participate in improvement projects.
• Drive adherence to 5s standards across the shift
• Responsible for implementing all appropriate lean XO tools.
• Understand & act with promptly to close out any fundamental process gaps.

Daily Operations

• Ensure team KPI’s are aligned with site KPI’s and drive delivery.
• Ensures team understands the KPI’s and their role in delivery.
• Monitor performance and report on same.
• Lead the cross functional Tier 2 ensuring engagement of all stakeholders.
• Support the development of comprehensive work instructions for all equipment and ensure all operators are trained on same.
• Manage budget to deliver value for money and cost savings where required.
• Maintain a visible presence in operations.
• Promote risk-based thinking across operations.
• Ensure supplier non-conformances are correctly managed and communicated to relevant shareholders.
• Manage team roster.
• Collaborate with planning team to ensure site KPI targets are achieved.

Qualifications and Experience

• Experience leading a team and strong understanding of how to develop a high performing team.
• Third level degree in Quality Management, Engineering or Science desirable.
• Lean or lean six sigma green belt an advantage.
• Experience in the use of data analysis to drive performance and problem solve preferred.
• Experience with the use of applications (MS Office, etc.) and business systems (e.g. SAP).
• Ability to act as a trusted coach, manage performance and enable the development of assigned team.
• Financial awareness, understanding of business drivers, budgeting processes.
• Excellent process improvement and problem-solving skills.
• Computer literate.
• Strong numerical and verbal reasoning.

Person Specification

• A developed continuous improvement mindset.
• Be self-aware and driven to deliver beyond expectations.
• Ability to positively impact and influence with or without direct line authority.
• Strength of character to challenge poor team behaviours.
• Have an “Agile” mindset and respond to change in a positive and flexible manner.
• Proactive, structured, and logical problem-solving skills.
• Team player with strong communication skills

Work Pattern

The successful applicant will be required to work full time on rotating shift 6am – 2pm & 2pm – 10pm.

What we offer
We understand our people are our special ingredient. We treat our employees with respect and offer an environment that is engaging, supportive and collaborative. We understand that employees require different supports at different stages of their working lives and our benefits, perks and programmes look to support your employee journey. We want to make you feel recognised and valued for your contribution to our shared success.

Some offerings include:

• Profit share; - An annual profit share scheme to reward your contribution to the company’s success.
• Product allowance; an annual allowance to spend on our portfolio of products and merchandise, for you to enjoy responsibly.
• People Development: We enable continuous development for our people at every stage of their careers through our people development, online learning, and leadership training programmes. 
• Family leave: fully paid maternity, parent and paternity leave, allowing you spend precious time with your new family member. 
• Parental Support: Our ‘Reconnect’ programme includes access to a workplace parenting coach, a phased return to work and a supportive environment for new parents
• Health & Wellbeing; Our Wellbeing Programme “THRIVE” supports employees across the three main pillars: Life, Body and Mind
• Charity Days: up to 2 days paid leave every year to volunteer at a charity of their choice

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Like a well-blended whiskey, we believe that diverse perspectives make us better and we welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, orientations, and differences to create together the spirit that makes us great.

To learn more about our careers, go to our careers page www.irishdistillers.ie/careers

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Job Posting End Date:

2024-09-30