Food Microbiology Laboratory Manager

Eurofins; Belfast; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job description

Company Description

Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company, providing a unique range of analytical testing services to clients across multiple industries, to make life and our environment safer, healthier and more sustainable. From the food you eat, to the water you drink, to the medicines you rely on, Eurofins laboratories work with the biggest companies in the world to ensure the products they supply are safe, their ingredients are authentic, and labelling is accurate.

Eurofins is dedicated to delivering testing services that contribute to the health and safety of society and the planet, and to its corporate responsibility to protect the environment and ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion across the entire network of Eurofins companies.

We’re proud to be an armed forces-friendly place to work and welcome applications from reservists, armed forces veterans (including the wounded, injured and sick), as well as cadet instructors, and military spouses and partners.

If you want to continue to help make our world a safer and healthier place, then apply for the role below and become a part of the extraordinary Eurofins network.

Job Description

Working within a busy food microbiology laboratory, the purpose of this role is to be a key member of the laboratory management team supporting the overall operation ensuring the laboratory operates to the required ISO 17025 standard in-line with the Eurofins QMS.

This is a full time permanent role working 37.5 hours per week - Monday to Friday 09:00 till 17:00.

• To manage the microbiology food testing team, including recruitment, rotas, leave, sickness, training and development, mentoring, motivation and disciplinary matters.
• To manage and maintain staff skills training matrix that is up to date at all times.
• Responsible for checking transfer of data relating to samples and results and issuing of test reports and confidentiality of information.
• To work closely with the Account Manager and Sample Reception Team to ensure a high-level of customer service.
• Manage the team to ensure that in conjunction with the quality team, that EQA, IQC and DPC systems are completed in-line schedule.
• Knowledge of Laboratory Quality Manual in order to ensure compliance at all times with the policies, procedures and associated documents which are referred to in the manual.
• Ensure complaints and investigations are completed to a high standard and in a timely manner.
• Work closely with the quality team to ensure full compliance of all parts of ISO 17025 alongside customer specific requirements.
• As required complete internal audits in-line with the audit schedule for the site.
• Represent the laboratory in external audits (regulatory/client audits etc.).
• Manage waste through the laboratory ensuring this is minimized.
• Manage projects in line with agreed time, budget and quality constraints, ensuring relevant stakeholders are kept informed of progress.
• Work closely with Stock Controller to ensure adequate stock levels are available and help source in emergencies.
• Support customer requirements and be a key-link to ensure customer requirements are translated within the laboratory.
• Ensure that all work carried out complies with documented procedures for all aspects of laboratory work, that all relevant information concerning samples is recorded, that samples are handled correctly, that worksheets are kept in an orderly manner.
• Taking due diligence with respect to the safety of staff and ensuring that adequate safety training and maintenance of working area’s are provided in accordance with Health and Safety at Work (COSHH) requirements.
• Help creating a culture of continuous improvement which empowers staff to take ownership of their working environment. Help develop and maintain a continuous improvement philosophy within business.

Qualifications

• Understanding of ISO 17025, UKAS, RSA, BEIC, key customer requirements, audit procedures and laboratory methods.
• Management experience working in a UKAS accredited laboratory.
• Strong knowledge of LIMS and instrument system integration to drive laboratory efficiencies.
• Proven experience in working to and exceeding targets.
• Experience of working with a broad range of internal and external customers.
• Competence in IT, including LIMS, spreadsheets and databases.
• Excellent communication skills face to face, over Teams calls and on email.
• Strong people management skills.
• Strong management skills for performance/absence management.
• Full commitment to meeting customers expectation.
• To have a basic understanding of costing and pricing strategies and assist the business unit manager when required.

Additional Information

At Eurofins we are growing, innovating and always learning. We celebrate the achievements of our employees through annual long service awards, recognise our colleagues special life events, and we are committed to charitable causes through global fundraising activities.

As a Eurofins employee you will benefit from:

• Enhanced Annual Leave Entitlement
• Annual Leave Sellback Scheme
• Additional Annual Leave at Employees set service dates
• Company Pension Plan
• Life Assurance Scheme (4 times annual salary)
• Healthcare Cash Plan (6+ months service)
• Enhanced Maternity, Adoption and Paternity Schemes
• Employee Assistance Programme – 24/7 confidential
• Health and Wellbeing Programmes
• Free parking
• Worldwide career opportunities
• We also have in place rewards recognising the great work our employees deliver, their dedicated service and celebrating special life events.

What Happens Next

Our people are the backbone of what we do, so it's incredibly important we find the right individuals to join us. As a potential new recruit you'll be invited to meet the team in the form of an assessment centre or a staged interview process dependent on the role and its requirements, this will give you the opportunity to see what working for Eurofins is really like and enable us to get to know your key skills and strengths.

Your data
As part of any recruitment process, the company collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. The company is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.

Closing Date

We reserve the right to close or extend this position depending on application numbers. Therefore we would urge candidates to submit an application as early as possible.
Due to the high volume of applications we receive please be aware that if you do not receive a response within 4 weeks of the vacancy expiry date unfortunately, on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful.

We embrace diversity! Eurofins network of companies believe in strength and innovation through diversity, being an Equal Opportunity Employer. We prohibit discrimination against employees or applications based on gender identity and/or expression, race, nationality, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and everything else that makes employees of Eurofins companies unique.

Sustainability matters to us! We are well on our way to achieving our objective of carbon neutrality by 2025, through a combination of emission reduction and compensation initiatives. We encourage our laboratory leaders to make sustainable changes at their local level, and in addition to their initiatives we also count on our dedicated carbon reduction team to help us to achieve this goal!

Find out more in our career page: https://careers.eurofins.com/