Quality and Continuous Improvement Manager

Overview

North builds stronger networks and creates smarter places. Our intelligent technology solutions and robust network infrastructures transform the way people, places, and organisations work. And we focus our expertise on working in three specialist sectors: public services, enterprise & data centres, and defence & justice.

Our people are industrious and inventive. We collaborate closely with our clients to understand their unique needs and challenges and take pride in delivering impactful solutions that make their environments better connected, simpler to manage, safer to be in, and more efficient to run.

The work we do at North is pioneering and fun. We build meaningfully, we think bigger, and we always advance. Our diverse range of customers and services make every day different. We always look at things from the customer’s point of view. Our values are know your craft, know your colleagues, know your customers and know how to connect. At North, we know and value the power of connecting people, skills and technologies in new and exciting ways.

ROLE

SUMMARY:

The Quality and Continuous Improvement (Q&CI) Manager will play a pivotal role in defining, planning and executing the quality and technical safety strategy across North’s sectors and group functions. This role involves collaborating with sector leadership teams, project teams, contractors, and customers to create best in class processes and instructions, identify and resolve quality issues, develop robust business continuity plans, and maintain business critical accreditations and certifications.

The Q&CI Manager will champion a culture of quality and continuous improvement, coaching and collaborating with colleagues to identify opportunities for process standardisation and risk mitigation.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Management Systems and Performance

Be the architect and custodian of the integrated management system, ensuring the system remains efficient and effective and compliant to the requirements of ISO 9001 / 14001 / 22301 / 27001 / 45001.

Create, manage and update policies, manuals, procedures, work instructions, and forms in collaboration with Process Owners.

Administer North’s Operational Assurance System (Safety Culture), creating and maintaining inspection templates

Design and distribute compliance and performance reporting for stakeholders; maintain audit trails and evidence packs for certifications and accreditations.

Ensure documentation is managed in accordance with North’s document control procedures.

Audit and Compliance

Develop a risk based internal audit schedule covering all relevant standards.

Conduct regular process inspections and audits, identifying non-conformities and best practice.

Design, update and distribute compliance reporting to all relevant stakeholders.

IPSA accreditation support

Coordinate IPSA activities and submissions, working with Board Level Contact (BLC),
Security Controller (SyC),
Security Officer (SyO), through the ISAC review
and evidence stages.

Maintain IPSA manuals, templates, and application content; organise evidence collection and role nominations in line with governance.

Provide status reporting into MPRs and ELT packs; proactively unblock dependencies across functions.

Change Management

Assess the impact of proposed change to safety, process, people, technology and data.

Ensure change is effectively communicated.

Carry out inspections and audits to ensure change is being sustained.

Engineering & Project Quality

Write, maintain and execute Project Quality Plans (PQP) when contractually required.

Work with Project Managers and Operational Leaders to identify and reduce Cost of Non-Quality (CONQ).

Develop standardised non-conformity and problem-solving processes across projects.

Supplier Quality

Collaborate with Procurement to develop a risk-based Supplier Quality Plan, including a schedule of inspections and audits.

Investigate supplier technical safety, reliability and quality issues.

Coach and develop supply chain partners on North’s requirements and standards.

Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery (BCDR)

Identify, review and maintain business continuity and disruption risk and impact assessments.

Create and…