We’re seeking a Supplier Quality Technologist to join our UK Quality Team, to work with our excellent supplier partners and contract manufacturers to maintain and improve the quality of Tails.com’s physical products and deliver more value for pets, people and planet.

Changing the world of pet food for good
We’re Tails.com, a dog food subscription company with a big difference. We create truly tailored food for each and every dog we serve. We start by asking people a few simple questions about their dog. Then we use that information to create their dog’s unique Tails.com recipe – so their dog gets exactly the nutrition they need, in the taste they love, delivered to their door every month. It’s clever stuff.

We’ve got bold plans. Having created an entirely new category in pet food, we’re now scaling fast in the UK and Europe – backed by Purina, one of the world’s largest pet food companies. You’ll join a bunch of smart people working towards the same goals – and a bunch of smart-ish dogs, all working on their own thing.

Together, we’ll change the world of pet food for good.

Operations at Tails.com
Operations’ mission is to fulfil our proposition to our customers every day, now and forever, positively impacting pets, people and the planet. Our proposition challenges the “one size fits all” norms of the traditional dog food market, with every bag leaving our fulfilment centres in the UK and the Netherlands uniquely custom made for an individual pet to serve the specific nutritional needs of that dog.

The Quality Team is a core part of Operations, as the quality and safety for our customers and pets is at the heart of what we do and it is of the highest priority to all of us. We benchmark ourselves against the highest industry standards for pet food quality and food safety and are responsible for looking after all aspects of food safety, legality, nutritional suitability, as well as meeting our customers' evolving needs. We continuously review our processes to ensure they’re as good as they can be to stay one step ahead of the game.

Sound like a team you want to join? Here’s how you’ll make a difference:

The role
The Supplier Quality Technologist works with our trusted long-term supplier partners and contract manufacturers to maintain and improve the quality of Tails.com’s physical products and deliver more value for pets, people and planet. It is a full time permanent role at Tails.com, hybrid - 2 days per week on average in Richmond/Heathrow on site, based in the UK - with travel to supplier sites and other Tails.com sites as required.

You will be responsible for:

Supplier relationship management

• Promote tails.com quality & food safety vision at our supplier sites
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders to deliver expected performance and new initiatives
• Onboard new suppliers, including auditing and due diligence
• Support delivery of new products, working cross functionally with tails.com and supplier teams to define product parameters and ongoing quality assurance
• Recommend solutions to maintain and improve performance and value

Supplier performance management

• Complete supplier scorecards and attend quarterly supplier performance reviews
• Monitor and report on supplier product quality and performance understanding any commercial issues and impacts
• Follow up on non-conformances, verify root cause analysis and corrective actions are efficiently implemented by suppliers to reduce recurrence, improve product quality, and enhance food safety standards
• Work with suppliers to create corrective action plans to address process failures and increase value
• Analyse supplier quality data to identify process improvements

Product Quality management

• Manage new product approval and risk assessment
• Monitor and report on product quality and performance, understanding any commercial issues and impacts
• Manage food and non-food product specifications, including agreeing with supplier product release parameters, and training quality team on new products/product changes
• Support new product launches to ensure suppliers are capable of delivering to the required quality standards

The skills you’ll bring:

• A passion for quality, with previous experience in food safety, hygiene, food processes, HACCP, supplier audit, risk management and managing quality delivered through external stakeholders
• HACCP Level 3 training and Lead Auditor or internal auditing training
• A track record in delivering change in cross-functional teams, effectively collaborating with key stakeholders and external partners / suppliers
• Excellent analytical skills, using root cause analysis, trending and other techniques to identify opportunities for improvement
• Confident presentation skills, with the ability to communicate the right level of detail for the audience, to get buy-in to drive change. Fluent written and verbal communication in English
• Commercial understanding, be able to formulate and present business cases for proposed improvements in order that Tails.com and supplier partners can effectively prioritise and increase value

Skills it would be a bonus to have:

• Qualifications in project management
• Experience within a high change, fast paced factory or fulfilment environment
• Knowledge or previous training in nutrition, food technology, or process technology

What's in it for you?

• Competitive salary, reviewed annually
• Annual bonus, based on company performance
• Flexible core hours, giving you true work life balance
• Hybrid role to ensure this role works for you
• 25 days of holiday (excluding bank holidays) which increases over time to a max of 27 days
• 9/10 day working week to enhance your wellbeing without a reduction in pay and leave allowance
• Optional 5 days unpaid leave and 1 paid volunteer day each year
• When you need a change of scenery, you can work from abroad 2 weeks every 6 months
• Health insurance for you, paid by Tails.com
• Extended maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoption pay. 6 months at 70% pay
• Flexible paid care leave to support immediate dependants, people close to you and pets
• In house L&D team, with access to year round courses to help drive your development
• 50% discount on all Tails.com products
• Discounted gym membership

What’s next?
If this sounds like it matches your experience and what you’d love to do, we can’t wait to hear from you! If you’re unsure whether you fit our criteria exactly, please get in touch anyway. And because we believe that diverse teams perform better, we’d especially love to hear from you if you’re from an under-represented demographic.

Here’s a taster of how our recruitment process works:

1. Once you have applied your CV will be reviewed by the Hiring Manager.
2. If selected, you will then have a call with the Hiring Manager to understand more about your skills and experience (30 mins).
3. If successful, you will be invited to present a task back to a panel of interviewers (60 mins) and to visit one of our fulfilment centres (60 mins).
4. The final stage is a video call with our Chief Technology and Operations Officer (30 mins).

Our Commitment
We’re proud to be an active equal opportunity employer. We want to give everyone a fair chance to join us in changing the world of pet food for good. We do this by conducting a structured recruitment process for all candidates, as well as actively promoting our roles to communities that are under-represented at Tails.com.

During your interview process you’ll meet some of our team with varying levels of responsibility and experience. We want to give every candidate a fair interview process and if you need any reasonable adjustments made, please let us know.