Quality Manager

Job Title- Quality Manager- COE

Function: Operations

Reporting to: Head of Quality / Quality COE Lead

Location CHQ Thane

Huhtamaki India Limited

BELLONA, at The Walk - Hiranandani Estate, GB Road,

Thane ( West ) - Maharashtra

About Huhtamaki India Limited:

Huhtamaki India Ltd. is a leading provider of primary consumer packaging & decorative labelling solutions in India, and part of Huhtamaki Oyj, a Finnish-based global food packaging major. Packing memorable experiences together with our customers and partners since 1935, today we are a total solutions company with a Pan-India presence, backed by 10 manufacturing sites and 5 customer support centres with employee strength of more than 2800.

Catering to both, domestic as well as global demand, our tube laminates are designed for segments such as food, oral care, skin care, pharma and other non-food items. As specialists of flexible packaging, our purpose is to help great products reach more people, more easily.

Huhtamaki is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants for employment will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristics.

Huhtamaki Global - https://www.huhtamaki.com/

Huhtamaki India - https://www.huhtamaki.com/en-in/flexible-packaging/

Roles and Responsibility:

This is an individual contributor role based at CHQ Thane, created to support the Quality Centre of Excellence function led by the Head of Quality. The role will act as the first escalation contact point for day-to-day quality matters across India operations and will support governance, standardisation, audit readiness, customer interface, regulatory compliance and continual improvement initiatives across 5 Flexible Packaging units, 2 Cylinder units and 3 PS Labels units.

The role will provide strong operational support to the COE by coordinating with site quality teams, manufacturing, R&D/NPD, supply chain, commercial teams, customers and certification bodies to ensure timely resolution of escalations, effective implementation of quality systems and robust follow-up of improvement actions.

• Act as the first point of escalation for day-to-day quality issues raised by India sites and cross-functional teams, ensuring timely coordination, follow-up and closure.
• Support the Quality COE Lead / Head of Quality in driving quality governance, standardisation and continual improvement across India operations covering 5 Flexible Packaging units, 2 Cylinder units and 3 PS Labels units.
• Facilitate implementation and compliance of Quality Management System requirements across sites, including ISO, BRCGS, FSC, customer-specific standards, SMETA / Sedex and applicable regulatory requirements.
• Coordinate customer audits, certification audits and regulatory audit readiness at sites, including pre-audit preparation, action tracking and closure verification.
• Support customer interactions for escalations, complaints, audits, quality reviews and improvement discussions, in coordination with site and commercial teams.
• Strengthen root cause analysis, corrective and preventive actions and complaint reduction practices by reviewing major complaints, facilitating structured RCA and monitoring CAPA effectiveness.
• Support implementation of change control management across sites for product, process, material, supplier, artwork, specification and regulatory changes.
• Coordinate with R&D/NPD, plant quality and operations teams for new product development quality support, specification validation, shade card governance and first-time-right execution.
• Drive and support Zero Defect Campaign, First Time Right initiatives and defect reduction projects by tracking actions, identifying trends and supporting site-level implementation.
• Standardise SOPs, quality processes, checklists and best practices across plants in alignment with COE priorities.
• Track and analyse quality KPIs including complaints, rejection rates, audit scores, FTR performance, defect trends, CAPA ageing and recurrence patterns.
• Prepare monthly management review dashboards and leadership presentation slides with clear data insights, trends, risks and recommended actions.
• Support regulatory compliance initiatives related to food contact packaging, customer requirements, material compliance and site-level implementation of regulatory actions.
• Coordinate supplier quality and vendor audit follow-ups where required, especially for escalated material quality issues impacting sites or customers.
• Provide training, coaching and guidance to site quality teams on standards, RCA/CAPA, audit readiness, change control, FTR and best practices.
• Support digitisation, automation and ERP quality module improvements in the quality domain as an added responsibility / advantage area.
• Travel to India sites and customer locations as required for escalations, audits, reviews, improvement projects and implementation support.
• Conduct periodic reviews with sites and COE leadership to monitor progress of escalations, audit actions, CAPA closure, improvement projects and compliance deliverables.

Education Qualification:

Degree in Printing / Packaging / Engineering / Polymer Science or related discipline preferred; Data Analysis, Lean and Six Sigma Black Belt is an added advantage.

Experience:

Overall 15 + years with at least 10 years in flexible packaging / converting industry, including at least 5 years in managerial capacity leading quality teams.

Values: Huhtamaki Values: Care, Dare, Deliver.

Stakeholder Management

Internal

• Quality COE Lead / Head of Quality
• Site Quality Heads and Plant Teams
• Manufacturing, R&D/NPD, Supply Chain, Commercial, IT, HR, Legal and Audit Teams

External

Customers and customer audit teams

• Certification bodies, auditors and regulatory authorities
• Suppliers and vendors for escalated quality / compliance matters