Plant Quality Systems Manager — Food & Metal Packaging

About the Role

You start your day on the production floor, walking the line with operators, verifying that inspection methods and work instructions are current, and that GMPs and Food Safety practices are being followed without compromise. By mid-morning, you’re reviewing overnight quality data, dispositioning finished goods against specifications, and launching a quick root-cause huddle on a nonconformance. After lunch, you’re on a call with our Commercial, Product Development, and Corporate Engineering partners to plan a new product trial, then following up with a supplier about a coating claim. Before you leave, you post KPI updates for the floor team and coach a supervisor on process quality techniques. That’s a typical day for our Plant Quality Systems Manager.

What You Will Lead

• Own the plant’s quality management system: inspection and testing methods, work instructions, procedures, product specifications, GMPs, Food Safety compliance, and best practices.
• Drive continual improvement across the plant and with suppliers, ensuring adherence to established quality systems and protecting product integrity.
• Analyze production and quality results to disposition finished product relative to specifications.
• Serve as the primary technical and quality liaison for external customers—building strong relationships, solving issues, and providing support.
• Lead root cause analysis and corrective actions for customer complaints and internal quality nonconformance’s; audit and verify the effectiveness of corrective actions.
• Coordinate closely with Commercial, Product Development, and Corporate Engineering on new business and product trials.
• Resolve coating and mill supplier defective material claims accurately and on time.
• Ensure plant adherence to SMA principles and procedures.
• Manage the HFI system, including balance, disposition, re-work, and inventory levels.
• Confirm that plant quality procedures are completed correctly and on schedule.
• Communicate quality objectives (KPIs) to floor personnel and implement processes that promote compliance.
• Educate department leads and supervisors in process quality improvement methods and GMPs.
• Develop special plant projects in partnership with Corporate Quality Assurance and maintain continuous interaction with all Ardagh Metal Packaging plants.
• Partner with Human Resources to address and resolve personnel matters; directly supervise plant team members (scope varies by location).
• Perform other duties as assigned.

What You Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical or related field.
• 8+ years of manufacturing experience, including 4+ years in quality.
• Proven leadership and management aptitude; able to work effectively with all levels of the organization.
• Advanced analytical, computer, and communication skills; energetic, driven, and comfortable solving complex problems beyond standard processes.

Preferred

• Six Sigma knowledge (Green Belt or Black Belt).
• Experience applying improvement methods in can manufacturing.

Site-Specific

• Background managing self-directed workforces.

Proficiencies

• Quality Inspection Experience
• Food and Beverage Manufacturing
• Food Safety and Quality Assurance (FSQA)
• Quality Control Experience

Work Environment

Expect a hands-on role in a high-velocity manufacturing setting, collaborating daily across Operations, Engineering, Commercial, and Corporate Quality, with frequent communication across Ardagh Metal Packaging plants.

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand, walk, and use hands to finger, handle, feel, talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to reach with hands and arms and stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl. The employee must frequently lift and or move up to 20 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close and distance vision as well as color recognition.