Head of Quality Control
Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients? You can live and breathe in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep.
Sound too good to be true? Well it isn’t, this is what you get when you work for Northumbria Healthcare and, this is…the Northumbria Way!
What the Northumbria Way means for you:
- Extensive staff health and well-being programme including access to our specialist Wellbeing Hub
- Support and connection through a variety of Staff Network groups
- A range of flexible working opportunities
- Generous annual leave and pension scheme
- Access to lease car and home electronics scheme (qualifying criteria applies)
- Opportunities to improve your professional development through our vast training programmes
- On-site nursery places via salary sacrifice
- Access to savings scheme via salary sacrifice with Northumberland Community Bank
Our teams deliver care from hospitals, a range of community venues and people’s homes. Our hospitals include a specialist emergency care hospital (the first of its kind in England), three general hospitals and community hospitals. In the community we deliver a wide range of community and public health services.
We lead in innovation and quality, having opened the Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing and Innovation Hub during the Covid-19 pandemic and have recently launched our Community Promise – a pledge to make a real impact not just in healthcare but on the wider factors that affect people’s lives, such as education, employment and the economy.
If Northumbria Healthcare sounds like somewhere you could belong we would love to hear from you. Visit our website to catch up on our latest news.
Whilst Northumbria Healthcare are a highly innovative organisation, the use of Third Party Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a risk to the integrity of our Recruitment & Selection processes. If you use AI, and it poses a risk to the integrity your individual recruitment process, we may withdraw your application at any stage of the process.
Job overview
Head of Quality Control (QC) – Medicines Manufacturing Centre (MMC)
An exceptional opportunity has arisen to play a key leadership role in the Medicines Manufacturing Centre (MMC)—a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to producing sterile injectable medicinal products for the NHS. Based in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland, MMC will operate under MHRA Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards, ensuring a secure supply chain for Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) products within the NHS for the next 10 years.
As Head of QC, you will lead both chemistry and microbiology activities within dedicated laboratories, ensuring the highest standards of compliance, safety, and quality. You will be responsible for building and leading the Quality Control team, overseeing the qualification of state-of-the-art analytical equipment, and implementing best-in-class QC procedures.
Why This Role Matters
At MMC, patients and quality are at the heart of everything we do. Our mission is to support NHS nurses and wards by delivering Ready-to-Administer (RtA) medicines, freeing up valuable time for direct patient care. By ensuring a stable and efficient supply chain of critical medicines, you will play a pivotal role in improving patient outcomes—working behind the scenes to make a real difference.
Main duties of the job
What You’ll Be Doing
Shaping the future of NHS medicines manufacturing by influencing facility design and quality processes
Ensuring the highest quality standards in chemistry and microbiology testing for sterile injectable medicines
Recruiting and leading the QC team, fostering a culture of quality, safety, and innovation
Overseeing procurement and qualification of all QC equipment and systems
Developing and implementing a robust PQS (Pharmaceutical Quality System) to ensure compliance with GMP standards
Working for our organisation
Working at MMC
The MMC is in its final design stages, with facility construction planned through to September 2025. Initially, staff will be employed by Northumbria Healthcare Foundation NHS Trust, with employment transferring to the Medicines Manufacturing Centre Legal Liability Partnership (LLP) upon its formation under TUPE regulations.
This is a once-in-a-career opportunity to help build a pioneering medicine manufacturing facility from the ground up. If you are passionate about pharmaceutical quality, innovation, and making a real impact on patient care, we want to hear from you.
Apply today and be part of something transformational.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities- To provide leadership on all Quality Control (QC) related aspects within the MMC. This includes both Chemistry and Microbiology
- Implement QC policies which complies with Good Manufacturing Practice
- To lead in the creation of URS, tendering documentation and validation documentation for all chemistry and microbiology equipment
- To support the management of contractors and to lead on the commissioning and qualification of facilities and manufacturing equipment
- To lead on the implementation of a strategy to ensure a robust and fit for purpose QC workforce
- To perform QC Specialist functions as required including representation at national and regional level
- Manages the laboratory staff during day to day operations and longer term planning
Produces protocols and approves reports for stability studies, investigational work and validations
Leads on the implementation of stability studies, ongoing stability testing program investigational work and validations
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria- Degree in a scientific discipline e.g. Chemistry, Microbiology or Pharmacy
- Eligibility to register with a Professional Body for example: General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), Royal Society for Chemistry (RSC) Royal Society for Biology (RSB) Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS)
- Evidence of continuing education/professional CPD
- Post graduate qualification in Analytical Chemistry / Pharmaceutical Analysis
- Post graduate qualification in Quality Assurance
- Professional registration
- Management qualification
Experience
Essential criteria- Specialist QC Professional requires detailed current knowledge of: o MHRA Guide to Good Manufacturing Practice, and the British and European pharmacopeial requirements for raw materials, intermediates, and finished products.
- Significant post qualification experience in the analytical techniques used in pharmaceutical quality control
- Experience in QC testing requirements of sterile medicines – both chemistry and microbiological specifications, in alignment with pharmacopeial requirements and formulation requirements
- Experience in management of QC data integrity requirements and improvements
- Experience of using Quality Management Systems, including, leading out-of-specification investigation, root cause analysis tools, change controls, document management
Applicants who are members of the Armed Forces, and those who have a disability that requires support in the work place (two ticks pledge) and who meet the essential criteria will be interviewed under the Trust's interview guarantee scheme.
We recognise the positive value of diversity and inclusion and are committed to a workforce that is diverse, equal and inclusive. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME people are currently under-represented in our workforce as well as other under-represented groups such as LGBT+ and disabled candidates.We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, we have a Gold award from the Defense Recognition Scheme, and we are delighted to support Apprenticeships, Age Posi+ive and are a mindful employer.
If you require any reasonable adjustments to attend interview please make the recruitment team aware as soon as possible by calling our HR Recruitment Team on 0191 203 1415 option 2.
Applicants who meet the Fit and Proper Person Requirements (FPPR) will require additional pre-employment checks in line with CQC and NHS England statutory guidance.
Make sure to read the ‘applicant guidance notes’ before submitting your application and make sure you know everything there is to know before joining our fantastic trust!
Please note that it is a requirement of this Trust that all successful applicants pay for their own DBS certification if a DBS check is required for the post. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first monthly pay.