Laboratory Team Leader

at  Danone

About the job
Unlock your potential with us! We are on the hunt for an enthusiastic Laboratory Team Leader to join our dynamic Quality team in Balclutha. In this role, you’ll champion quality and food safety at Danone Nutricia NZ by validating all in-house test methods and ensuring our lab meets ISO 17025 standards.
As a key player reporting to the Quality Food Safety Manager, you’ll spearhead continuous improvements and provide insightful recommendations on Quality and Food Safety. You’ll also inspire and lead a team of dedicated lab technicians, fostering a culture of excellence and innovation.

You will:

• Manage lab operations, ensure compliance with standards, and support cross-functional testing.
• Lead and participate in health, safety, quality, and continuous improvement projects.
• Lead internal and external audits, ensuring actions are closed.
• Coordinate sampling, purchasing, and cleaning. Train the team and ensure timely report distribution.
• Supervise testing, ensure safe handling of chemicals, and maintain equipment calibration.
• Plan team workload, report on KPIs, and provide data to management.
• Support the WISE Health & Safety program, ensure policy awareness, report incidents, and operate equipment safely.

About you
You are a people-oriented individual with exceptional relationship-building skills. Your prior experience managing a lab in a fast-paced manufacturing environment is highly advantageous. Additionally, you possess strong organizational abilities, attention to detail, and a proactive approach to problem-solving. Your ability to foster a collaborative team atmosphere and ensure efficient lab operations and continuous improvement will lead to your success in this role.

To be successful you will also have:

• A tertiary qualification in Chemistry/Microbiology/Food Science or similar field
• Prior experience in maintaining an ISO17025 accredited lab, with dairy testing and method verification experience is preferred.
• Understanding of chemistry/microbiology principles, infant formula testing, and GLP/GMP/GDP/GHP standards.
• Experience in Infant Formula/Dairy/Food or other FMCG manufacturing
• Experience in leading and motivating a small to medium sized team
• Prior experience in auditing will be preferred but not necessary
• Good IT skills and strong attention to detail

About us
Danone’s mission is to bring health through food to as many people as possible and we want to invite people to join the movement for a healthier world. We recognize the power people have to impact the world through their daily choices. Each time we eat and drink, we vote for the world we want to live in. We believe a healthy body needs healthy food. And healthy food needs a healthy planet, and this is what our new signature One Planet One Health embodies.
Danone Nutricia Specialised Nutrition produces specialty foods for infants and young children, and our mission “We make every day count for you and your baby” gives meaning to everything we do. We operate out of 3 sites in New Zealand in Auckland and Balclutha, where our teams undertake the manufacturing, distribution, and development of our infant milk and toddler supplements with market-leading brands.

Please refer the Job description for details