QA TEAM LEADER
About The Role
Based in Gisborne, this is a full-time Night Shift position, working 10:00pm to 6:30am.
As QA Team Leader, you’ll play a key role in ensuring food safety and quality standards are consistently achieved across production. You’ll lead and support a QA Technician while ensuring effective QA coverage across both production and hygiene operations.
This role is responsible for overseeing product verification, monitoring critical control points (CCPs), and managing non-conforming product, including containment and escalation. You’ll also ensure cleaning verification, hygiene checks, and microbiological sampling programmes are completed to standard.
Working closely with production and cross-functional teams, you’ll help maintain process control, resolve issues, and escalate risks where needed. Accurate documentation and strong traceability practices are critical to success in this role.
.
About You
You are a confident and capable team leader who can build capability, maintain high standards, and make sound decisions in a fast-paced environment. You have strong attention to detail and take a proactive approach to managing food safety and quality risks.
You bring clear communication skills and the confidence to escalate issues and influence outcomes across teams. You’re organised, resilient under pressure, and able to balance competing priorities effectively.
Ideally, you’ll have experience in food production or a QA environment, along with an understanding of food safety requirements and HACCP principles. Previous leadership experience and familiarity with QA or production systems will be advantageous.
About LeaderBrand
At LeaderBrand, we’re passionate about evolving fresh food for a healthier world. As a proud family-owned business, our goal is to be New Zealand’s most innovative and consistent fresh food producer. We farm across three key growing regions, process and pack in state-of-the-art post-harvest facilities, and are supported by a nationwide sales team delivering fresh produce to every corner of Aotearoa. Our 400+ people are central to our success. We’re always on the lookout for new talent with energy, passion, and a drive to learn – people excited to help shape the future of fresh food.
Gisborne is the heart of our business and the place where LeaderBrand was founded more than 50 years ago. Over that time, LeaderBrand has become integral to the story of our community, with the next generations of those who started with us returning to shape the future alongside us. We also have farms in Pukekohe and Chertsey.
We have a strong vision for the future of our business, our people, and our industry. We’re constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Our continuous improvement mindset grounds us as one of New Zealand’s leading horticultural businesses. We seek, harness, and develop the best people, technology, land, and machinery to shape the future of food.
