Job Description
Lavazza Professional is the Business-to-business (B2B) arm of Lavazza Group; as a brand we have grown over the last 120 years from a small Italian artisanal company to an industrial giant. We remain family owned and our passion for quality coffee is coupled with a spirit of entrepreneurship, defined by innovation and a sense of responsibility.
At Lavazza Professional, our goal is to fuel workplace productivity and wellness. We bring high performance vending technologies to offices and factory floors across the UK, partnering with some of the nation’s best loved drinks brands.
As a company, we are proud to announce our “Roadmap to Zero”, our aim is to completely neutralise the Group’s carbon footprint by the end of 2030. With an investment of about €50million in the 2020-2023 period, you can be proud to join a company dedicated to sustainability, innovation, and employee development.
Why apply for this role -
Great team, Great Line Manager, Development opportunities, company benefits, Hybrid working available (if appropriate), Amazing office environment, competitive financial package, Yearly profit and performance related bonus.
What is the role ?
This role is an essential “gate keeper” for the product development processes of Lavazza Pro. The job holder’s purpose is to validate development of products to launch; safety, quality and adherence to technical specifications. The job holder is expected to deliver relevant and customer-centric designs of experiment leading to robust tests and provide data for any activities that are in the innovation or sustain pillar; maintenance of business activities, cost savings exercises and any other product change that is required by the business. The criticality of this role is to issue and share accurate and traceable results so that the product performance is achieved within a desired timeframe.
Project manage and lead all aspects of product quality testing throughout the innovation cycle. This includes: protocol creation during development phase, escalating issues in a timely manner and providing independent confirmation the product performs as specified or required.
• Influence product design at the early stage of the Product Development process by being the ‘voice’ of the consumer to ensure product meets the quality promise at front end of design.
• Interpretation and presentation of test results and findings, making recommendations where required.
• Manage laboratory work scheduling, activities and resources, including working with contractor provider for additional resource, timesheets and overtime, as required.
• Develop robust testing protocols and design of experiments by evaluating risks against consumers’ key quality attributes. Ensure that the test protocol simulates market and environmental conditions to actively reflect how the product will perform post launch.
• Lead root cause analysis on quality issues with key stakeholders.
• Make recommendations to project teams on technical solutions to improve product quality, manage change to validate these solutions and ensure safety of new Lavazza Pro products.
• Provide data analysis of test data to influence business decisions and drive factual recommendations.
• Deliver peer reviews and milestone reports to R&D Project Managers or key stakeholders.
• Be accountable for Lab KPIs.
• Govern laboratory activities that are conducted at Supplier, External Partner and External Laboratories.
• Challenge the status quo to improve lab tools and processes, as an ambassador for continuous improvement with the laboratory and departmental environment. Act as a technology scout and acquire relevant technology to drive efficiency and effectiveness goals.
• Ensure the laboratory upholds all elements of ISO 17025 and participate in yearly internal audits to verify compliance to the laboratory standard.
• Be responsible where the opportunities arise to develop/modify, commission and validate new methods or new lab equipment introduction.
• Be an active member of the Product Quality team, helping to co-create and facilitate the broader team meetings and engagement activities.
The skills we need you to have are -
A degree level qualification in an engineering/science subject or proven experience of working autonomously in a laboratory environment for at least 5 years.
In0depth advanced analytical skills
Statistical expertise
The ability to prioritise team workload to meet conflicting priorities
Able to leverage interpersonal skills to form strong relationships / build networks
Proactively recommend and/or take actions to solve technical issues or improve ways of working
Statistical software knowledge and application
Design of experiment experience would be an asset
Computer literacy (Microsoft Office and statistical software advantageous)
The ability to build great peer relationships
The skill to manage stakeholder expectations
You must be customer focussed.
Please only apply if you are based within the UK as this role requires an onsite interview to meet the team, see our environment and for us to show you why we believe we are one of the best companies to work for. You must have relevant and proven work experience as this is not a graduate role.
If you are the successful candidate during the selection process, an offer of employment will be subject to satisfactory pre-employment screening.
Please refer to the Background Screening Policy for further information which can be sent upon request.