Welcome to Next Phase Recruitment! Please see below our current jobs that match your search criteria. For a broader job search please visit the home page or call us on 01403 216216 to discuss career options in other areas of Life Science and Technology.

Welcome to Next Phase Recruitment! Please use the above link to see our current jobs that match your search criteria. For a broader job search please visit the home page or call us on 01403 216216 to discuss career options in other areas of Life Science and Technology.

QA Scientist

Quality Assurance (QA) is a vital function within all Pharmaceutical and Medical Device companies.  Job titles within the QA area can vary a great deal across different companies, with titles including QA Coordinator, QA Associate, QA Officer, QA Specialist, QA Officer and QA Scientist, then progressing to QA Manager, QA Lead etc. The QA terms, especially at junior-to-intermediate level, are often quite interchangeable.

The QA team is typically responsible for ensuring that the quality standards and systems followed in the manufacture of drugs is in compliance with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and meets the specific quality standards laid out in the company’s Quality Management System (QMS). A QMS will include quality standards for internal audits, deviations, change controls, corrective actions, quality review reports, clean room monitoring, batch record review, and external documentation reviews.   

A pharmaceutical QA professional’s responsibilities will include analysing the production process of pharmaceuticals, identifying areas where errors prevail, root cause analysis, observing every activity,  monitoring the drugs being manufactured or packed for visible defects, testing the drugs (or at least interpreting the data from lab-based QC analysis), noting down observations gathered from the quality control process, and accepting or rejecting batches of drugs on the basis of samples (Batch Release). Quality Assurance teams will often be divided into different QA groups, with some more focused on batch record review while others are more involved in non-conformance investigations and SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) updates.

Skills and Experience required to become a Quality Assurance Scientist

  • Science degree
  • Experience gained in a GMP / ISO environment
  • QA processes and systems
  • Diplomacy
  • Batch record processing
  • Ability to multi-task

Salary Levels

Quality Assurance salaries can vary enormously depending on what specific duties the QA person will be undertaking. If the QA role is a relatively entry-level or administrative one, focused on batch review or entry and processing of Quality Assurance documents / data, salaries could be in the £18k - £24k range. QAsSalaries can then increase steadily once you start to specialise in a particular area, especially if this means getting involved in hosting / conducting internal or external audits, continuous improvement initiatives, team leadership, or training. Quality Assurance offers a varied and interesting career path and you could earn up to £40k in a non-management role and significantly more than this once you are in a management-level position.

 

 

 

 

Brighton

Brighton is a large, cosmopolitan city in East Sussex on the South Cost of England 50 miles south of London and 15 miles from Worthing.  Transports links with regular trains from Brighton to London Victoria, the A23 leading to the M25 and London Gatwick airport only 28 miles away.  The city has been a very popular seaside resort since the Georgian era when the Price Regent constructed the exotic Royal Pavilion.  The Victorian Palace pleasure pier offers traditional candy floss, fish & chips and deckchairs in contrast to the ultra-modern British Airways i360, the highest moving observation platform in the world.  Brighton is also famous for its huge selection of quirky shops, galleries, restaurants, pubs and bars as well as its pulsating nightlife.  From a business point of view, Brighton has several large conference and exhibition venues and has recently been dubbed Silicon Beach due to the huge number of digital media companies that are based in the city.

Famous people born in Brighton: Steve Ovett (Olympic athlete),  Holly Willoughby (TV presenter)