Governance Manager (12 Months FTC)

The Governance Manager (Maternity Cover) is responsible for providing leadership, governance, and strategic oversight of the site's Quality Management System (QMS), ensuring Nutricia Liverpool maintains a robust, compliant, and audit-ready quality framework that consistently meets regulatory, customer, and Danone Specialised Nutrition standards. This role safeguards product quality, legality, and consumer safety by providing clear direction, effective decision-making, and oversight across quality systems, compliance programmes, and governance processes, while leading a team of subject matter experts responsible for areas including product disposition, complaints management, internal auditing, food defence, food fraud prevention, material assessment, and product registrations. The role is critical in ensuring continuity of leadership during a period of transition, maintaining stability across governance activities while driving key site priorities and mitigating compliance risks. Success in this position means delivering a resilient QMS, strengthening the site's Culture of Quality, providing effective governance of change management and risk management processes, ensuring quality programmes are delivered effectively through the team, and maintaining a continual state of audit, inspection, and regulatory readiness. Key focus areas within department include: Audit readiness & regulatory compliance Ensure sustained readiness for major audits (e.g. FDA, FSSC, ISO, customer and regulatory inspections) Maintain effective oversight of audit preparation, hosting, and closure of non-conformances Proactively identify and mitigate compliance risks across the site with relevant departments QMS ownership & governance Lead and continuously improve the site QMS, ensuring it remains effective, compliant and embedded in daily operations. Ensure robust document control, governance processes and management review systems. Maintain oversight of internal audit Change Management Governance Provide governance and oversight of site change management processes. Ensure quality and food safety risks associated with changes are appropriately assessed and controlled. Drive continuous improvement of change management effectiveness and compliance Food Defence & Food Fraud Department to maintain effective oversight of the site's food defence and food fraud prevention programmes. Ensure risk assessments remain current, and mitigation plans are effective. Support site readiness for internal, external and regulatory review of programme effectiveness. Complaints & Consumer Quality Oversee complaint management processes to ensure timely investigation, root cause identification and corrective action implementation. Monitor complaint trends and ensure appropriate escalation of emerging risks. Drive continuous improvement initiatives based on consumer feedback and complaint data. Registration & Market Compliance Maintain oversight of product registration activities to support market access and regulatory compliance. Ensure registration requirements are understood and delivered in collaboration with relevant functions. Monitor changes in regulatory requirements that may impact market compliance. Raw Material Approval & Supplier Governance Ensure robust approval and ongoing compliance of raw materials through risk assessment and material governance processes. Maintain oversight of incoming material assessments and supplier quality requirements. Ensure only approved and compliant materials are accepted for use. Culture of Quality & Continuous Improvement Lead the development and deployment of the site's Culture of Quality programme. Embed quality ownership and accountability at all levels of the organisation. Drive continuous improvement and sustainable problem-solving across governance systems. Leadership & Team Capability Provide leadership and direction to the Governance team. Ensure effective delivery of governance processes including audits,