Quality Assurance & Responsible Business Coordinator

Quality Assurance and Responsible Business Coordinator

Location and Working Pattern

Harpenden, Hertfordshire, with a minimum of three office-based days per week and travel to UK and European manufacturing partners and client sites as required.

Broad Purpose

The Quality Assurance and Responsible Business Coordinator will provide hands-on administration, coordination and day-to-day operation of Hunter Luxury's quality, health and safety, environmental and responsible-business systems.

The role will maintain controlled documents, training and competence records, track supplier performance and credentials, and coordinate monitoring, evidence and reporting for FSC Chain of Custody, B Corp, EcoVadis and other customer, certification and assurance requirements.

This is primarily a systems-oriented role but ensuring internal and external issues have been investigated and resolved is a core responsibility. The Coordinator will manage issue records, containment and evidence, support root-cause analysis, coordinate NCR and CAPA actions, and coordinate effectiveness checks. Production quality control remains owned by Operations. However, for selected UK and European manufacturing partners and, where necessary, client sites, the Coordinator will conduct or support AQL sampling and 100% product inspections.

For manufacturing partners, the Operations Lead owns factory investigations, root-cause analysis, implementation of corrective and preventive actions, and verification of their effectiveness. The Coordinator supports this process, manages the NCR records, gathers and reviews supporting evidence, tracks actions and coordinates customer updates, escalating gaps or concerns to the ESG Lead.

Key Responsibilities

The principal responsibilities are set out below:

Quality Coordination - Primary Focus

• Control the issue workflow. Maintain one central record of customer complaints, non-conformances, concessions and internal quality issues, including classification, ownership, due dates, evidence and closure status.

• Coordinate containment. Establish affected projects, suppliers, purchase orders, batches, quantities and customer exposure, ensuring immediate controls and communications are recorded.

• Support the Operations lead in the investigation of quality issues. Review samples, photographs, inspection records, process information and traceability; work with technical owners to distinguish occurrence causes from escape causes.

• Ensure the business applies proportionate root-cause methods. Support the operations lead in using tools such as 5 Whys, cause-and-effect analysis, process mapping to investigate product quality issues, whilst also applying these methods for internal system issue investigations.

• Strengthen NCR and CAPA responses. Draft, coordinate and challenge corrective and preventive actions so they address verified causes, have clear owners and dates, and are supported by objective evidence.

• Coordinate effectiveness checks. Obtain and review evidence from the responsible owner that actions have worked before coordinating closure; escalate gaps, overdue actions or recurring issue

• Support inspection and release activity. Assist with UK inspection, rework and independent AQL activity when required, working with Product and Operations and the Operations Lead.

• Turn issues into learning. Trend defect types, recurrence, closure time, supplier performance, cost of poor quality and customer impact; feed learning into specifications, SOPs, supplier controls and development activity.

Environmental and Responsible Sourcing Coordination

• Maintain environmental and responsible-business registers, action plans, evidence and performance data.

• Coordinate data and records relating to waste, responsible sourcing, supplier assurance, modern slavery, FSC, SEDEX and SMETA, and other relevant programmes.

• Prepare controlled, auditable evidence for B Corp, EcoVadis, client questionnaires and other assurance requests without creating duplicate evidence systems.

• Support practical environmental controls and objectives, helping colleagues understand the evidence and actions required from them.

• Monitor recurring commitments and due dates, identify gaps early and escalate where an owner, decision or specialist input is required.

Health and Safety Coordination

• Maintain Hunter Luxury's health and safety action plan, legal and review calendar, key records and management information under the direction of the ESG Lead.

• Coordinate proportionate workplace risk assessments and action tracking, including office safety, DSE, manual handling, lone working, fire arrangements, travel and other relevant activities.

• Maintain training, induction and competence records; identify overdue or missing requirements and follow up with the appropriate manager.

• Support incident and near-miss reporting, investigation and learning, escalating significant matters immediately.

• Undertake planned workplace checks and coordinate corrective actions, using competent external advice where the subject or risk exceeds internal capability.

• Promote practical, proportionate safety awareness rather than treating health and safety as a paperwork-only exercise.

Systems Audit and Document Control

• Maintain controlled policies, procedures, forms, registers and records, including ownership, approval, version control, review dates and retention requirements.

• Support proportionate management systems aligned with relevant principles from ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001.

• Plan and support internal audits, spot checks, evidence reviews and management-review inputs; track findings and actions to verified closure.

Client Supplier and Cross Functional Coordination

• Build effective working relationships across Product Development, Project Management, Supply Chain, Commercial and the China team.

• Coordinate factual information from relevant owners and prepare clear, balanced quality or assurance updates.

• Participate in client and supplier discussions when appropriately trained and competent.

Essential Capabilities

• Experience in quality, SHEQ, compliance, operations or business assurance within a manufacturing, packaging, product or supply-chain environment.

• Practical involvement in investigating quality issues or operational non-conformances and coordinating corrective actions through to closure.

• Strong organisational discipline, with the ability to maintain accurate records, manage competing deadlines and follow up actions persistently.

• Ability to analyse information, challenge assumptions and reach evidence-based conclusions while recognising when specialist input is required.

• A practical, collaborative style, with the confidence to question weak evidence, raise risks and hold owners to agreed actions.

• Clear written and verbal communication, with the ability to prepare balanced updates for internal, client and supplier audiences.

Desirable Experience

• Experience working with outsourced or international manufacturing, particularly suppliers in China.

• Working knowledge of AQL inspection, non-conformance reports, root-cause analysis, CAPA, supplier auditing or cost-of-poor-quality reporting.

• Knowledge of ISO 9001 requirements or internal-auditor training; exposure to ISO 14001, ISO 45001 or integrated management systems.

• Experience preparing evidence for client assurance, B Corp, EcoVadis, FSC, SEDEX and SMETA, or other responsible-sourcing programmes.

Equality and Inclusion

• Hunter Luxury is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and applies these principles throughout recruitment and employment.