Job Description – QC Manager

Position: QC Manager
Department: Quality Control / Quality Assurance
Reports To: Plant Head / General Manager
Industry: Agro Products / Food / Feed / Fertilizer
Experience: 7–12 Years
Qualification: M.Sc./B.Sc./B.Tech./M.Tech. in Chemistry, Food Technology, Agriculture, Microbiology, Biotechnology, or related field

Job Purpose

To manage the complete Quality Control and Analytical Laboratory function of the plant and ensure that raw materials, in-process materials, finished products, and packaging materials comply with defined specifications, customer requirements, food/feed safety standards, and applicable statutory requirements.

The role will cover spices, grains, seeds, fruits & vegetables, animal feed, and fertilizers, with responsibility for advanced analytical testing using HPLC, GC, and other laboratory instruments.

Key ResponsibilitiesQuality Control

- Manage all QC activities from raw-material receipt to finished-product release.
- Establish and maintain product specifications, sampling plans, testing procedures, and QC standards.
- Inspect and approve/reject incoming raw materials and finished products.
- Monitor process quality and identify deviations at an early stage.
- Ensure proper batch-wise testing, documentation, and product release.
- Monitor quality trends and take preventive action for recurring issues.

Analytical Laboratory

- Manage day-to-day laboratory operations and testing schedules.
- Ensure effective operation and maintenance of HPLC, GC, GC-FID/GC-MS where applicable, UV-Vis, moisture analyzer, pH meter, analytical balance, oven, furnace, incubator, and other laboratory equipment.
- Review chromatograms, calculations, analytical results, and test reports.
- Ensure proper calibration, preventive maintenance, qualification, and servicing of laboratory instruments.
- Maintain standards, reference materials, chemicals, solvents, columns, gases, and laboratory consumables.

HPLC & GC

- Supervise and perform HPLC/GC analysis as required.
- Develop, verify, validate, and optimize analytical methods.
- Handle sample preparation, extraction, calibration curves,



system suitability, recovery, precision, accuracy, LOD and LOQ studies as applicable.
- Troubleshoot HPLC/GC analytical problems and coordinate with instrument service providers.
- Ensure complete instrument and analytical-data traceability.

Product Testing

Ensure appropriate testing of:

Spices, Grains & Seeds

- Moisture, ash, foreign matter, purity and physical parameters
- Pesticide residues
- Aflatoxins/mycotoxins
- Heavy metals
- Microbiological parameters
- Adulteration and other customer-specific parameters

Fruits & Vegetables

- Pesticide residues
- Moisture, pH, acidity/TSS as applicable
- Microbiological parameters
- Heavy metals and other contaminants

Animal Feed

- Moisture, protein, fat, fibre and ash
- Calcium, phosphorus and other nutritional parameters
- Mycotoxins
- Microbiological parameters
- Other feed-safety parameters as applicable

Fertilizers

- Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium
- Moisture and pH
- Sulphur and micronutrients
- Heavy metals and other applicable chemical parameters

OOS / OOT / CAPA

- Lead investigation of Out-of-Specification (OOS) and Out-of-Trend (OOT) results.
- Conduct root-cause analysis using 5 Why, Fishbone and other appropriate tools.
- Implement and monitor CAPA.
- Investigate raw-material, process, laboratory, and finished-product non-conformities.
- Ensure effective closure of quality deviations.

Quality Systems & Compliance

- Implement and maintain applicable GMP, GHP, HACCP, ISO 22000/FSSC 22000, ISO 9001 and customer-specific requirements.
- Ensure laboratory SOPs, specifications, test methods, records, and quality documents are current and controlled.
- Maintain laboratory data integrity and traceability.
- Coordinate internal, customer, certification,



and regulatory audits.
- Ensure timely closure of audit observations.

Supplier & Customer Quality

- Monitor raw-material supplier quality.
- Support supplier evaluation and quality improvement.
- Investigate customer complaints and prepare technical reports.
- Analyze complaint trends and implement corrective/preventive actions.
- Coordinate with Procurement, Production, Warehouse, R&D; and other departments on quality issues.

Team Management

- Lead QC chemists, microbiologists, analysts, inspectors and laboratory technicians.
- Allocate testing responsibilities and manage laboratory workload.
- Train employees on analytical methods, HPLC/GC, SOPs, safety, GMP and quality systems.
- Evaluate team performance and develop technical competencies.

Key KPIs

- Raw-material rejection rate
- Finished-product rejection rate
- Customer complaints
- OOS/OOT rate
- Laboratory turnaround time
- HPLC/GC uptime and calibration compliance
- Testing accuracy and repeat-analysis rate
- CAPA closure
- Audit compliance
- Supplier quality performance
- Reduction in quality-related losses

Required Skills

- Strong knowledge of analytical chemistry and QC systems
- Hands-on knowledge of HPLC and GC
- Pesticide-residue and mycotoxin analysis
- Agricultural-product quality testing
- Feed and fertilizer analysis
- Method validation/verification
- OOS/OOT investigation
- CAPA and root-cause analysis
- Laboratory calibration and maintenance
- Quality documentation and data integrity
- Team leadership and people management
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

Preferred Candidate Profile

- 7–12 years of relevant QC/QA experience.
- At least 3 years in a QC Manager/Assistant Manager/Senior QC role.
- Experience in spices, grains, seeds, fruits & vegetables, animal feed, fertilizer, agro-processing, food processing, or analytical laboratories.
- Robust practical experience with HPLC and GC.
- Experience with customer, certification, and regulatory audits will be an advantage.

Pay: ₹50,000.00 - ₹71,074.47 per month

Work Location: In person

📌 QC Manager (India)
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📍 India