Senior Quality Manager

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About Us

King's Forensics is an academic grouping within the Department of Analytical, Forensic & Environmental Sciences (AFES), with unique resource from two laboratories accredited to UKAS Quality Standard (ISO 17025). The Drug Control Centre provides a service for UKAD (United Kingdom Anti-Doping); the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and individual professional sports bodies. The King's Forensics Mass Spectrometry Services laboratory provides a cannabinoids/CBD testing service to Clinical Trials teams both within King's and beyond and testing for clinical and forensics units across the country.

About The Role

The post holder works closely with the Head of the Drug Control Centre (Director of King's Forensics) to manage quality assurance and ensure it is professional, well-executed and timely, complying with university policies, and UKAS (to ISO:IEC 17025/2017 quality standard) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) International Standard for Laboratories ISL, 2021).

The post holder will lead quality assurance for the Drug Control Centre, which is part of King's Forensics within the Department of Analytical, Environmental & Forensic Sciences and based in the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science. The post holder reports to the Head of the Drug Control Centre who has overall responsibility for the Centre's work, including quality assurance and compliance. The post holder is responsible for:

• Maintaining their knowledge and thorough understanding of ISO/IEC 17025 requirements and experience in implementing and maintaining the quality standard within the Drug Control Centre and KF-MSS.
• Advising the Head of Drug Control Centre (Director of King's Forensics), the Deputy Director (Drug Control Centre) on the quality requirements for maintaining accreditation to ISO17025 standards and WADA International Standard for Laboratories (ISL) and implications for changes to quality standards.
• Day-to-day oversight of ISO 17025 compliance, completing audits and process improvement, and maintaining validation records and risk log on behalf of Head of DCC.
• Investigating and reporting on the root causes of complex or systemic deviations from standard procedures, complaints or quality system failures using advanced analytical skills to identify appropriate corrective/ preventive actions for effective and sustainable improvement to the service across the Drug Control Centre and King's Forensics Mass Spectrometry Services (KF-MSS).
• Working with the Head of the DCC to implement a strategic approach to quality assurance that ensures an effective internal audit programme using a risk-based approach enabling all specifications
• within ISO17025 and WADA ISL are covered.
• Leadership of the Quality Assurance team in the Drug Control Centre and King's Forensics - Mass Spectrometry Services (KF-MSS): demonstrating oversight and ability to pay meticulous attention to detail so that compliance with ISO 17025 requirements is maintained.
• Working with laboratory-based staff, accreditation bodies, and other stakeholders to identify areas for improvement including effectiveness checking, assessment and evaluation of different quality processes, e.g., the effectiveness of the training.

This is a full time post, and you will be offered an indefinite contract .

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Relevant undergraduate degree or postgraduate qualification in one of the natural or life sciences, or equivalent experience
2. Comprehensive experience of working within a laboratory quality framework, with standard operating procedures and document control procedures relevant to the post
3. Experience of Quality Assurance structures and systems as they relate to method validation
4. Qualifications and documented training in ISO 17025
5. Experience in running an internal audit programme using a risk analysis approach
6. Evidence of analytical and problem-solving capability in carrying out investigations including root cause analysis or quality system failures and identify appropriate corrective and preventive actions
7. Evidence of strong communication skills, when conveying complex and highly specialist information to analytical staff
8. Knowledge and understanding of document control and record keeping including monitoring key performance indicators, List of Substances, validation records and risk log

Desirable criteria

1. Practical experience of root cause analysis
2. Trained internal auditor ISO 17025
3. Working with a WADA accredited laboratory and knowledge of WADA International Standard for Laboratories (ISL 2021)

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

At King's, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King's guidance.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our 'How we Recruit' pages.