Lead - Quality
Essar · Bengaluru
Role Overview
The Quality Lead will be responsible for managing end-to-end quality assurance and food safety operations across fresh fruits & vegetables supply chain and Distribution Center (DC) operations. The role focuses on ensuring product quality, freshness standards, regulatory compliance, and operational excellence across procurement, storage, handling, processing, packaging, and dispatch activities. The position plays a critical role in maintaining quality consistency, minimizing customer complaints and operational losses, and driving continuous improvement across quality processes. This role requires strong expertise in fresh produce quality assessment, food safety standards, audit management, team handling, and cross-functional coordination in a fast-paced operational environment.
Key Responsibilities
Manage end-to-end quality assurance processes across inbound procurement, grading, sorting, storage, processing, packaging, and dispatch operations
Ensure adherence to food safety standards, hygiene protocols, SOPs, and regulatory compliance requirements including FSSAI guidelines
Conduct quality inspections for fruits & vegetables including sensory evaluation, grading checks, freshness assessment, and physical quality verification
Monitor freshness standards, shelf-life parameters, storage conditions, and handling practices across all fresh produce categories
Drive quality consistency and minimize customer complaints, QC rejections, wastage, shrinkage, and operational quality gaps
Lead internal audits, quality reviews, hygiene inspections, and compliance assessments across operations
Investigate quality issues and customer complaints through root cause analysis (RCA) and implement corrective and preventive actions (CAPA)
Maintain quality documentation including inspection reports, rejection logs, audit records, compliance trackers, and operational dashboards
Supervise and train quality executives and operational teams on food safety standards, quality SOPs, hygiene protocols, and handling practices
Coordinate with Procurement, Operations, Category, Supply Chain, and Warehouse teams to ensure seamless quality execution across the supply chain
Drive continuous improvement initiatives to strengthen freshness standards, process efficiency, and operational quality controls
Requirements
Bachelor’s degree in Food Technology, Food Science, Agriculture, or related field
Minimum 5 years of relevant experience in Quality Assurance / Quality Control within fresh fruits & vegetables, food processing, FMCG, D2C, or fresh produce supply chain environments
Strong expertise in fresh produce quality assessment, grading standards, shelf-life management, and perishables handling
Hands-on experience in food safety systems including HACCP, GMP, FSSAI, and hygiene compliance standards
Experience handling audits, root cause analysis (RCA), and corrective & preventive action (CAPA) implementation
Strong understanding of warehouse, distribution center, and supply chain quality operations
Strong leadership, communication, problem-solving, and stakeholder management skills
Ability to work effectively in fast-paced and operationally intensive environments