Quality Control Lab Manager

Quality Control Lab Manager

Job Description

You’re not the person who will settle for just any role. Neither are we. Because we’re out to create Better Care for a Better World, and that takes a certain kind of person and teams who care about making a difference. Here, you’ll bring your professional expertise, talent, and drive to building and managing our portfolio of iconic, ground-breaking brands. In this role, you’ll help us deliver better care for billions of people around the world. It starts with YOU .

The Quality Control Lab Manager is a people leadership and technical quality role within the Maumelle Quality organization, reporting to the Site Quality Manager. This position leads Wet Wipes Quality Control laboratory operations, microbiological testing programs, quality systems, and team development. The role ensures compliance with FDA Cosmetic regulations, ISO 17025, cGMP requirements, customer expectations, and Kimberly-Clark quality standards. Responsibilities include providing technical leadership, overseeing laboratory systems and data integrity, supporting manufacturing quality, driving method validation and continuous improvement initiatives, and partnering cross-functionally to resolve quality issues. This role is critical to ensuring product quality, consumer safety, regulatory compliance, and operational excellence.

Scope

This position serves as a Quality leadership role within the Kimberly-Clark Maumelle Quality Organization and is responsible for leading the Quality Control Microbiology Laboratory and associated quality systems. The incumbent directly manages a team of approximately 6 to 12 employees, including Laboratory Technicians and Microbiologists, and is accountable for talent development, performance management, resource planning, and achievement of laboratory objectives.

The role has overall responsibility for the laboratory's microbiological testing programs, test method validation and qualification activities, data integrity, and compliance with applicable regulatory and corporate requirements. The Quality Control Microbiology team ensures that finished products, raw materials, manufacturing environments, and associated processes meet established microbiological quality standards through the application of sound scientific principles, statistical analysis, and risk-based decision making.

In this role, you will:

• Demonstrate safety as a value by performing all job functions safely, while also complying with corporate policies and departmental procedures, in an effort to reduce risk and eliminate loss.

• Manage self in accordance with the K-C Ways of Working.

• Ensure activities, materials, and finished products are in compliance with both company quality assurance standards and applicable government regulations, such as GMPs and ISO requirements.

• Maintain and demonstrate a high degree of knowledge and skill in product forms, quality systems, processes, and regulations.

• Conduct all communications and transactions with the utmost integrity. Communicate fully with superiors, teammates, and others who have a need to know.

• Assure that reporting is clear, concise, thorough and timely.

• Execute continuous improvement activities for established processes and initiate development of new processes.

• Build and maintain personal capability in QMS, GMPs, and applicable regulation to support objectives.

• Define, develop and incorporate testing procedures and methods to ensure achievement of sector’s quality goals and objectives.

• Support Validation efforts in the facility, providing both technical expertise as well as testing methods/results.

• Establish and maintain good customer rapport, while driving solutions to meet business needs. Develop and maintain a strong spirit of partnership.

• Ensure that established manufacturing inspection, sampling and statistical process control procedures are followed as applicable.

Position-Specific Accountabilities

• Provide leadership & expertise in running the Maumelle microbiology laboratory by coordinating microbiological testing and release of finished products, raw materials, manufacturing processes and personnel.

• Direct daily testing schedules, lot releases, sample analysis, and workflow priorities

• Ensure testing in the microbiological laboratory complies with K-C STM, cGMP, FDA, ISO, and/or USP guidelines

• Oversee test method transfers, validations, proficiency testing, and lab equipment trouble shooting.

• Effectively achieve results that meet business and individual objectives by providing clear direction and developing the capabilities of the Quality Control team (microbiologists and technicians).

• Conduct periodic audits of Production, Quality systems, operating areas, sanitization procedures and microbiological laboratory to assure conformance to SOPs.

• Serve as a local site administrator for the laboratory LIMS software.

• Safely manage the microbiology laboratory to meet business objectives.

• Drive QC / microbiological change at the Maumelle facility to achieve targeted “Key Performance Indicator” results in the Quality space.

• Assure there is a consistent and continuous focus on managing product quality improvement by initiating/supporting Quality Management programs.

• Provide expertise in developing / transferring test methods and means for maintaining sanitary manufacturing equipment and effective microbiological testing.  Coach team members and customers regarding preventive quality management for continuous improvement in both existing and emerging manufacturing sites.

• Lead teams to evaluate microbiological and physical testing trend data for opportunities to improve and support resulting improvement efforts.

• Ensure completion of routine product quality audits and reporting of results.

• Provide assistance in defining and solving problems/opportunities to achieve unit objectives.

• Communicate fully with superior, subordinates and others who have the need to know.  Ensure communication is prompt, complete, candid and clear.

• Train less experienced personnel on established methods and facilitate the transfer of technical knowledge, while demonstrating and understanding those with a diverse background or experience.

• Develop, recommend, implement and validate product quality testing procedures.

• Contribute to an environment in which all team members are respected regardless of their individual differences and are motivated to improve both their individual and team contributions to achieve desired business results.

About Us

Huggies®. Kleenex®. Cottonelle®. Scott®. Kotex®. Poise®. Depend®. Kimberly-Clark Professional®. You already know our legendary brands—and so does the rest of the world. In fact, millions of people use Kimberly-Clark products every day. We know these amazing Kimberly-Clark products wouldn’t exist without talented professionals, like you.

At Kimberly-Clark, you’ll be part of the best team committed to driving innovation, growth and impact. We’re founded on more than 150 years of market leadership, and we’re always looking for new and better ways to perform – so there’s your open door of opportunity. It’s all here for you at Kimberly-Clark.

Led by Purpose. Driven by You.

About You

You perform at the highest level possible, and you appreciate a performance culture fueled by authentic caring.  You want to be part of a company actively dedicated to sustainability, inclusion, wellbeing, and career development.

You love what you do, especially when the work you do makes a difference. At Kimberly-Clark, we’re constantly exploring new ideas on how, when, and where we can best achieve results. When you join our team, you’ll experience Flex That Works: flexible (hybrid) work arrangements that empower you to have purposeful time in the office and partner with your leader to make flexibility work for both you and the business.

In one of our professional roles, you’ll focus on winni