Quality Control Technician in Sittingbourne

My client works with large retail clients, sourcing branded and unbranded products from manufacturers across China, India, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Quality Control ensures that every item adheres to the UK’s legal, safety, environmental, and quality standards covering both its country of manufacture and ensuring the compliance standards are met to be sold within the UK.

Working at the product hub of a busy and expanding company, my client has an exciting opportunity to join their Quality Control Team. This administrative position forms a vital part of the Quality Control function by ensuring the requirements of the QC process are met.

The successful candidate will be an organized person who is able to work in a fast-moving environment, liaising across several teams. Good IT skills and the ability to work across numerous in-house systems, a high level of attention to detail and being a team player are all essential requirements.

Role Purpose

To support the effective delivery of the company’s quality control and compliance activities by coordinating pre-shipment inspections (PSI), reviewing inspection results, managing quality issues and corrective actions, and maintaining accurate quality information. The role works closely with factories, inspectors, internal teams and international offices to resolve issues, protect product quality and help prevent recurrence. The role also includes the New Product Introduction (NPI) process, ensuring that quality requirements and lessons learned are considered throughout product development and launch by the product development and buying teams.

Key responsibilities

• Quality control, inspection and release
• Review and analyse PSI reports, ensuring findings are understood, recorded and actioned via the Qarma system.
• Coordinate the end-to-end PSI process, including booking inspections with factories, monitoring inspection dates and updating relevant dates and results in NAV.
• Quality issues, corrective action and continuous improvement
• Prepare and issue quality reports for issues identified during production, inspection, goods-in processes or through customer feedback.
• Communicate quality findings and required actions to factories and relevant offices, setting clear expectations for correction and prevention of recurrence.
• Raise, coordinate and monitor Corrective Action Plans (CAPs), checking that submissions are complete, actions are implemented and evidence demonstrates a satisfactory resolution.
• Liaise with factories, PSI inspectors, warehouses, NPI colleagues and offices around the world to discuss quality matters and agree actions.
• Arrange and participate in video calls where required to explain issues, agree corrective actions and support timely resolution.
• Provide regular progress updates to the Head of Quality Control and Compliance and contribute to assigned projects and other reasonable duties.
• Work with product development and buying teams, factories, inspectors and other internal departments to build quality into new products before launch.
• Initial product and requirement review - Review available product specifications, drawings, artwork, labelling, packaging and customer or regulatory quality requirements. Identify missing information, potential quality concerns and points requiring clarification; record and communicate these to the product development and buying teams and the relevant factory.
• Quality risk and review planning - Use known product risks, previous quality reports, customer feedback and lessons from similar products to highlight likely failure points. Liaise with the Product and Compliance Co-Ordinator the checks, evidence, testing or inspection focus needed for the product, along with the relevant category owners.
• Validation and approval readiness - Check that identified quality issues have been addressed and that the required sample reviews, test results, specifications and supporting records are available. Highlight any outstanding risks or deviations to the product developments, buying teams and the Head of Quality Control and Compliance before progression to production.
• Pre-production and production readiness - Support pre-production reviews by confirming that the factory has the latest approved product information, quality requirements, labelling and packaging details, and agreed inspection criteria. Identify any unresolved issues that could affect production quality or shipment and escalate them before production proceeds.
• First production and launch monitoring - Support the quality review of initial production and early inspection results. Compare findings with the approved requirements and sample standard, raise quality reports where necessary, and ensure corrective actions are assigned and followed through.
• Close-out and lessons learned - Maintain a record of NPI quality issues, actions, decisions and outstanding risks. Feed recurring or significant issues into quality reporting and future product reviews so that lessons are applied to subsequent orders and product launches.

Fully office based in Sittingbourne. Working hours: 8.00-5.00 (Mon-Thur), 8.00-4.00 Friday (45 min lunch).