Quality Manager

About Us

Ancient + Brave is a female founded, mission-driven wellness brand with an award-winning range of collagen, supplements and functional blends. Rooted in ancient wisdom and validated by science, our simple daily rituals support our community in nurturing whole body health.

Ancient + Brave has been recognised in The Sunday Times 100 fastest-growing private companies for three consecutive years - most recently placing 7th - and ranked 4th in the Oresa Retail Growth Index in 2025. It's a reflection of the quality of what we build, the community we serve, and the discipline with which we operate.

Social and environmental responsibility has always been at the heart of the business and woven into how we operate. We're a certified B Corp, a member of 1% for the Planet, and through the Made By Brave Foundation we direct 1%+ of all revenue to environmental and social causes.

As an equal-opportunity employer we are committed to an inclusive and diverse workplace culture, where we are brave, connected and intentional - and lead with integrity. Please find out more by reading our JEDI statement which can be found here.

We operate from beautiful head offices overlooking the river Ouse in Lewes, East Sussex.

The Role

The Quality Manager will run the day-to-day quality operations that sit at the heart of Ancient + Brave’s Quality Management System (QMS), covering product, packaging, manufacturing, and distribution. This role delivers the hands-on quality control (QC), verification, and supplier assurance activities that keep our products safe, compliant and consistently excellent - from incoming ingredient checks through to finished goods release.

Working closely with the Technical Director, the wider Operations team, third-party manufacturers (3PMs) and suppliers, the Quality Manager will maintain the quality processes, records and controls that protect the brand, ensure consumer safety, and support our certification pathway and international growth.

What You'll Do

Quality Control & Verification

• Carry out incoming ingredient and packaging checks, including specification compliance, Certificate of Analysis (CoA) verification and test-result review, maintaining accurate verification records.
• Apply finished goods release criteria defined by brand standards, including label and artwork (pack copy) verification, shelf-life, coding and storage checks at goods-in.
• Run the routine testing and monitoring plans within the QMS, performing trend analysis (e.g. micro and heavy-metal results) and escalating out-of-trend results or failures with recommended actions.
• Contribute to horizon scanning, feeding findings into ingredient and product risk assessments.

Complaints, Incidents & CAPA

• Manage the day-to-day handling and investigation of consumer and retail quality complaints, ensuring timely resolution, accurate records and root-cause analysis.
• Deliver Corrective And Preventive Actions (CAPA) arising from complaints, incidents and audits, tracking actions to closure across internal teams, 3PMs and suppliers.
• Support incident management and escalation in line with company procedures, including batch traceability checks and the annual mock recall exercise against the traceability standard.
• Track and report quality KPIs, maintaining centralised quality data (complaints, deviations, test results, audit outcomes, supplier scores) for leadership visibility.

Supplier & Co-Manufacturer Assurance

• Administer the supplier and co-manufacturer approval and re-approval process, including issue and review of SAQs covering both QMS and ESG requirements.
• Support the risk-based audit programme of 3PMs and key suppliers - audit preparation, participation, and tracking non-conformances to closure.
• Contribute to supplier and co-manufacturer scorecards, linking test results, complaints and delivery performance into regular supplier performance reviews.
• Support qualification of new suppliers and co-manufacturers against Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)-recognised standards, in line with our sourcing and manufacturing strategy.

Specifications, Documentation & Traceability

• Maintain brand-format specifications - ingredient, packaging, manufacturing / packing instructions and finished product - with clear version control and change history.
• Keep controlled quality documents and registers current, including the approved supplier and approved co-manufacturer lists and the supplier / co-manufacturer audit plan.
• Work with the Production Planning team to maintain systematic, audit-ready documentation for end-to-end batch traceability.
• Support audit-readiness and ongoing certification across SALSA, Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Organic and related schemes.

Collaboration, ESG & Continuous Improvement

• Embed quality and food safety requirements into New Product Development (NPD) and change management, including risk assessments for new products, ingredients, suppliers and processes.
• Support artwork and labelling teams to ensure accuracy and regulatory compliance of pack copy.
• Help deliver the quality and food safety training plan across relevant roles.
• Support the company’s B Corp accreditation through product traceability, responsible sourcing evidence, supplier certifications and documentation of improvement initiatives.
• Communicate quality performance, issues and resolutions clearly and promptly to stakeholders.

Who You Are

To be successful in this role, you will need the following skills / knowledge / experience:

• Solid experience in quality management or quality assurance within food, wellness, or consumer goods, ideally including third-party manufacturing environments.
• Good working knowledge of HACCP, food safety standards, and labelling requirements; a recognised food safety qualification is desirable.
• Hands-on experience of QC and verification processes: CoA review, goods-in checks, finished goods release, testing plans and trend analysis.
• Experience investigating complaints and supporting CAPA processes with internal teams and external partners.
• Exposure to certification audits (e.g. SALSA, BRC, ISO, Soil Association / Organic, MSC) and supplier assurance activities.
• Highly organised and detail-oriented, with excellent record-keeping and a systematic approach to documentation.
• A clear communicator, comfortable working cross-functionally and with suppliers and co-manufacturers.
• Analytical and proactive, with a continuous improvement mindset and the appetite to grow with the role as our QMS and certification pathway develop.

Further, to truly thrive at Ancient + Brave you will need to embody the spirit of our brand and align with our company culture. For us that is a series of shared beliefs:

WE BELIEVE IN BRAVERY — We are: Courageous, Bold, Experimental

WE BELIEVE IN INTEGRITY — We are: Honest, Accountable, Ethical

WE BELIEVE IN CONNECTION — We are: Collaborative, Inclusive, Open

WE BELIEVE IN INTENTION — We are: Purposeful, Proactive, Focused

Ways Of Working

We're a fast-paced scale-up and being together in person makes a real difference to how we collaborate and move the business forward. We've worked hard to make our riverside office an inviting and genuinely enjoyable place to be, and we're proud of the environment we've created for our team. Therefore, please only apply if you’re happy to commute to our HQ in Lewes, East Sussex on a full-time basis.

As part of being an equal-opportunity employer, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace culture. We embrace varied perspectives and encourage creativity that knows no bounds. While most of our roles are advertised as full-time, we are open to discussing part-time setup where appropriate.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you through the application or interview process, please don't hesitate to let us know.

We're not currently seeking recruitment support for this role.

Why Join Us

At Ancient + Brave you’ll find an engaging, collaborative and inclusive work environment where your talents will be nurtured, and your contributions valued.

Here's what joining us looks like:

• We pay a discretionary bonus based on a mix of company performance and individual contributions and review our salaries annually.
• Our Private Medical Insurance is designed to support your health and wellbeing, providing swift access to high-quality care whenever you need it most.
• Our Medicash plan offers access to specialist consultations, 24/7 Virtual GP and health screenings as well as dental, optical and complementary therapies and access to confidential support via its EAP programme.
• In addition to our regular annual holiday allowance of 25 days plus bank holidays, we also offer one Wellbeing day to use as needed.
• Our pension contributions are ESG invested (so no pharma, weapons or other ethically questionable investments).
• Our Mintago platform gives employees access to financial wellbeing advice and support as well as retail discounts and salary sacrifice schemes, which cover childcare, cycle to work, gym membership, groceries, electric vehicle and mobile/tech purchase.
• We offer continuous training & professional development opportunities and our team members get to enjoy complimentary nutrition and meditation sessions in the office.
• Our kitchen is fully stocked with the usual supplies as well as a limitless supply of A+B products (you also get 50% off on any product you wish to purchase).
• We hold two social events a year to come together and connect in a meaningful way.
• We provide all our team members with suitable laptop computers & headphones and our office is equipped with monitors, ergonomic chairs and sitting and standing desks.