Tupande Soko Avocado Oil Quality Assurance Senior Coordinator

Role Overview

This role is responsible for embedding a culture of quality and safety across a high-volume food processing operation, focusing on fruit ripening and related testing. Day to day, you will guide a team of QA Officers and lab technicians to perform routine inspections, approve raw materials and finished goods, and drive corrective actions when deviations occur. Your work directly protects the company’s reputation, minimises waste, and ensures every product leaving the facility meets regulatory and customer expectations.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and execute a forward-looking quality assurance strategy, setting performance targets for product consistency, reducing non-conformities, and reporting key metrics to senior leadership.
• Directly supervise and develop the QA team, including scheduling, on-the-job training, performance reviews, and ensuring they have the tools and knowledge to succeed.
• Lead internal and external audits for food safety, environmental, and occupational health standards, coordinating follow-up actions and maintaining audit readiness at all times.
• Oversee laboratory operations covering dry matter, oil quality, ripening stages, and wastewater analysis; ensure all equipment is calibrated and test results are validated before release.
• Monitor critical control points from raw material receipt through ripening, processing, and storage, approving or rejecting materials based on predefined quality criteria.
• Manage facility hygiene programmes, including verifying cleaning schedules, approving chemical concentrations, and supervising sanitation supply inventory.
• Maintain accurate documentation of test results, deviation logs, and audit reports, and compile weekly/monthly quality summaries for management review.
• Champion a food safety culture by enforcing proper waste segregation, wastewater compliance, and root-cause analysis for any non-conformities.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or diploma in Food Science, Chemistry, Food Engineering, Microbiology, or a closely related field.
• At least 3–5 years of progressive quality assurance experience within food manufacturing or agro-processing, with a minimum of 2 years in a supervisory or management role overseeing QA officers and lab staff.
• Proven working knowledge of FSMS, HACCP, GMP, SHEQ, and relevant environmental regulations.
• High attention to detail, ensuring every task aligns with processing specifications and quality standards.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, able to investigate issues, gather facts, and implement logical, sustainable solutions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, capable of explaining process improvements to cross-functional teams to achieve uniform quality.
• A collaborative mindset, actively supporting other departments to meet their deliverables while upholding quality requirements.
• Effective time management, enabling you to complete all responsibilities to the required output and quality level within shift schedules.

What We Offer / Why Join

We invest in your professional growth through regular weekly check-ins with your manager, structured mentorship, and ongoing training tailored to your development areas. You will receive candid performance feedback and participate in biannual career reviews focused on your aspirations and long-term goals. This is an opportunity to shape quality systems in a growing organisation and build a meaningful career with a team that values continuous learning.