Framework Quality & Assurance Manager

Costain have won extensive work across the water sector to support the AMP 8 investment cycle. We have been appointed by Northumbrian Water to the Living Water Enterprise to help shape and deliver its strategic infrastructure upgrade programme with contracts valued up to c.£670m to Costain over 15 years. The Framework Quality & Assurance Manager role will lead the delivery of a professional Quality Management service to the projects within the Northumbrian Water Framework, managing resource, programme and budgetary constraints, which satisfies legislative, regulatory, customer and company requirements. You will be responsible for ensuring that the specific Quality requirements are identified, developed, implemented and maintained during the project life cycle, including the management of all day‑to‑day aspects of the project QA/QC resource.

Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain the Framework Quality Management System and continually monitor the assurance for compliance against the organisations Quality Management Systems (The Costain Way).
• Represent the Framework and positively input in sector and/or organisational Quality related meetings, regularly sharing knowledge from external sources and centrally within the organisation.
• Support Senior Project Management in achievement of Quality Objectives and establish, monitor and report against project Quality KPIs.
• Support Senior Project Management in assessing risk to Costain and highlighting where Quality Risk Reviews are required.
• Ensure quality risks are identified through Quality Risks Reviews, recorded and steps are taken to mitigate or eliminate symptoms leading to potential failures that could lead to non-conformance.
• Establish the Quality requirements for the subcontractors and supply chain and subsequent pre‑qualification assessment and approval for the preferred suppliers list.
• Be the main Quality Management interface with the client, subcontractors and supply chain.
• Support the project delivery teams in Quality Surveillance/Right 1st Time approach across Costain self‑delivery, subcontractors and supply chain.
• Support Senior Leadership by being a positive point of contact for any internal or external governance audits.
• Maintain the project audit schedule and verification oversight requirements to verify contractual compliance is achieved, including leading/undertaking internal and external audits of the framework, projects, subcontractors and supply chain.
• Manage the non‑conformance process, including facilitating any root cause analysis and lessons learned.
• Contribute information where necessary into the Defect Logging System (DLS).
• Managing the QA/QC resource, regarding budget, availability and location against project life cycle.
• Ensure that all project Quality Records are verified in accordance with relevant technical specifications and that project specific procedures and systems are in place for monitoring and measuring Quality Records concurrency with project life cycle and Right 1st Time (R1T) delivery.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience of Quality Management, including leading a quality team (QA and QC), preferably in an associated industry.
• Proven experience of whole project lifecycle within Engineering, Procurement and Construction.
• Proven experience of managing quality delivery to support major projects.
• Experience of implementing Right 1st Time.
• Practical experience of developing, implementing and improving Quality Management Systems.
• Hands‑on experience with project and commercial management tools.
• Excellent knowledge of Quality & Assurance Management Systems.
• Strong working knowledge of document management systems.
• Comprehensive understanding in industry standards including ISO 9001.
• Proficient in the analysis of processes and data.
• IT literate. Proficient in Microsoft Office, Quality management and assurance systems and common data environments.
• Strong communication and conflict‑management skills, utilising both written and spoken formats.
• Effective at working with project teams, clients, corporate functions and supply chain partners.
• Proficient in the use of continuous improvement tools and techniques.
• Demonstrates excellent customer service behaviours.
• Effectively lead audits or a team of auditors, collate and communicate the outputs of audits and follow through with actions.
• Being approachable to coach and advise.
• Chartered Member of the Chartered Quality Institute and hold CQP status (or an equivalent recognised Quality body) or an appropriate equivalent engineering institution.
• Diploma or Bachelor degree in Quality Management, Project Management or related engineering discipline.
• Lead Auditor qualification by recognised industry body.
• Formal training in root cause analysis techniques.

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that discloses they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high‑volume, seasonal and high‑peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non‑disabled people.