Product Quality Auditor

Overview

Permanent

From£40,000 - £48,000 + Pension + PMI +Share Save+ 6.6 weeks holiday+ Hybrid Working (2/3 days per week in the office)

Southampton, Store Support Office

We believe anyone can improve their home to make life better. From our Southampton Store Support office (SSO) we equip our stores, our people, and our whole business with everything it takes to help our millions of customers create a home they’ll love. Join us as a Product Quality Auditor and you’ll be a big part of this.

Role

Purpose:

Handling Vendor and B&Q exclusive brand assurance workflows for products sold in UK and ROI. As a key member of B&Q’s Product Quality Service Programme you will ensure Vendors meet B&Q’s quality policy requirements supplying products that comply with legal standards, safety requirements and policy needs. You will be responsible for product approvals, supplier audits, and quality monitoring, working closely with Commercial teams to support introduction of new products and suppliers through the audit and product lifecycle plan.

Reporting into an experienced Quality Audit manager you work closely with them and the audit , quality governance and surveillance teams to identify, demand and deliver world class outputs from our suppliers. As part of the audit team, you will be deployed across the range of products to support workload balancing across the team, working together to achieve objectives. This provides you the opportunity to develop subject specialisms though BAU and project works.

The role is a key actor in B&Q’s due diligence process, and you will support continuous improvement initiatives.

• Deliver workflows ensuring Vendors comply with all regulatory, safety, and product quality standards.
• Support quality audit managers on new vendor/ product approval and review of existing vendors /products as required for Vendor & B&Q Exclusive brands. Includes Technical Audit and collaboration with B&Q Sustainability Team to deliver parallel Ethical and Wood & Paper audits.
• Liaising with vendors & buyers to collect and check assurance evidence for use in the Required Technical File (RTF) in line with quality policy.
• Develop Subject Matter Expertise (SME) for Commercial Team and vendors to ensure compliance of product and packaging /artwork.
• Support commercial teams in understanding specification of product and regulatory requirements. This will include working with current product reference specifications, creating new or updating of these documents. Build product lifecycle /development knowledge.
• Facilitate authoring of new product artwork and customer user manuals with support from audit managers, packaging and commercial teams.
• Conduct quality issue management & response activity with support of the Governance & Surveillance sub teams.
• Establish good working relationships with all internal stakeholders and vendors.
• Attend and participate in relevant B&Q Commercial meetings on a regular basis.
• Utilise and maintain the QA laboratory workspace with support of colleagues.
• Participate in the Quality Team continuous improvement journey through Team meetings, process development in your field, joining relevant external committees and undertaking relevant training.

Key Business Relationships:

• Collaborate with stakeholders in B&Q QA, Commercial & Planning departments, Responsible Business, Retail, Supply Chain, and Kingfisher Group Quality & Sustainability teams in aligning on quality priorities on a routine and project basis.
• Support improved supplier performance and accountability through the audit programme, ensuring vendors consistently deliver compliant & safe products.
• Positively advocate for the B&Q quality policy and work closely with commercial partners to guide & select suppliers that…