Zone Quality Director

Dreaming big is in our DNA. It’s who we are as a company. It’s our culture. It’s our heritage. And more than ever, it’s our future. A future where we’re always looking forward. Always serving up new ways to meet life’s moments. A future where we keep dreaming bigger. We look for people with passion, talent, and curiosity, and provide them with the teammates, resources and opportunities to unleash their full potential. The power we create together – when we combine your strengths with ours – is unstoppable. Are you ready to join a team that dreams as big as you do?

Purpose:

The Zone Quality Director is responsible for leading the end-to-end Quality agenda across the Africa Zone, encompassing both Internal Quality and External Quality. The role ensures the delivery of world-class quality standards throughout the entire value chain, from raw materials and brewing operations through packaging, logistics, distribution, customers, and consumers. This position drives the development and implementation of the Zone Quality strategy, governance frameworks, standards, systems, and capabilities to safeguard product quality, brand reputation, consumer trust, and regulatory compliance. The incumbent partners closely with Supply Chain, Procurement, Logistics, Manufacturing, Commercial, Regulatory Affairs, and external partners to ensure consistent execution of quality excellence across all markets. The role serves as the primary leader for quality management within the Zone and is accountable for establishing a strong quality culture that delivers superior consumer experiences while supporting business growth and operational excellence.

Key Roles and Responsibilities:

Strategic Quality Leadership

• Develop and execute the Africa Zone Quality Strategy aligned with global quality standards and business objectives.
• Establish long-term quality vision, policies, governance structures, and performance targets.
• Lead the integration of Internal and External Quality programs into one end-to-end quality management framework.
• Champion a culture of continuous improvement and quality ownership across all functions.
• Provide strategic guidance to country and brewery leadership teams on quality risks and opportunities.

Internal Quality Management

• Ensure implementation and compliance with global quality management systems across all breweries and production facilities.
• Drive excellence in brewing, packaging, utilities, and process quality controls.
• Lead standardization of quality assurance procedures and manufacturing quality governance.
• Monitor key quality indicators and identify improvement opportunities to enhance product quality and operational performance.
• Ensure robust root cause analysis and corrective action plans for quality incidents.
• Drive quality maturity through capability building, audits, benchmarking, and best-practice sharing.

External Quality Management

• Lead quality governance across the entire external value chain including suppliers, co-manufacturers, distributors, warehouses, and customers.
• Develop and maintain supplier quality management programs and performance standards.
• Ensure quality preservation throughout transportation, warehousing, and market execution activities.
• Establish market quality monitoring programs to identify and resolve consumer-facing quality issues.
• Drive customer and consumer complaint management processes and systemic corrective actions.
• Partner with Commercial and Customer teams to improve product quality at point of sale and consumption.

Supplier Quality Assurance (SQA) Leadership

• Define and execute the Zone SQA strategy, governance framework, and risk management agenda.
• Ensure robust supplier qualification, certification, auditing, and performance management processes across the supply network.
• Lead supplier quality risk assessment, compliance monitoring, and corrective action programs to protect product quality and consumer safety.
• Partner with Procurement, Supply Chain, and Operations leaders to drive supplier capability development and continuous improvement.
• Oversee supplier-related quality incidents, investigations, and crisis management activities, ensuring timely and effective resolution.
• Drive quality excellence through supplier scorecards, performance reviews, and strategic improvement initiatives.
• Ensure quality requirements are embedded in sourcing decisions, supplier contracts, and innovation projects.
• Serve as the senior authority on supplier quality, safeguarding business continuity, brand reputation, and regulatory compliance across the Africa Zone.

Consumer and Customer Quality Excellence

• Ensure delivery of products that consistently meet consumer expectations and brand specifications.

• Lead consumer complaint investigations and trend analysis.

• Drive initiatives to improve customer satisfaction and marketplace quality performance.

• Support market teams in managing quality-related reputation risks and incidents.

• Establish mechanisms for capturing consumer insights to strengthen quality performance.

Regulatory and Compliance Leadership

• Ensure compliance with all applicable food safety, product quality, environmental, and regulatory requirements across the Zone.
• Maintain alignment with local, regional, and international quality standards.
• Lead readiness and management of regulatory inspections and third-party audits.
• Ensure timely implementation of regulatory, legal, and corporate quality requirements.

Risk Management and Quality Governance

• Lead Zone quality risk identification, assessment, mitigation, and escalation processes.
• Chair quality review forums and governance meetings.
• Develop proactive quality risk management strategies to minimize operational and reputational exposure.
• Ensure appropriate crisis response and management processes are in place for quality-related incidents.

Capability Development

• Build a high-performing team of quality professionals across the Zone.
• Establish capability-building programs for Quality, Brewing, Packaging, Supply Chain, and Commercial teams.
• Coach and mentor country quality leaders and brewery quality managers.
• Foster technical expertise and succession planning across the quality function.

Continuous Improvement and Innovation

• Lead quality improvement projects utilizing Lean, Six Sigma, VPO, and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Drive digitalization and modernization of quality management systems.
• Identify emerging technologies and best practices to strengthen quality performance.
• Support innovation and new product development initiatives from a quality perspective.

Financial Accountability

• Managing the Zone Quality budget and related capital investments.
• Driving cost reduction through waste elimination, defect reduction, and process optimization.
• Ensuring effective utilization of quality-related resources and laboratory infrastructure.
• Supporting business profitability through proactive quality risk mitigation and loss prevention.
• Evaluating and approving quality-related investments and improvement initiatives.

Leadership Responsibilities

• Lead and influence quality teams across multiple countries and business units.
• Build a culture centered on quality excellence and consumer obsession.
• Drive alignment between operational and commercial stakeholders.
• Promote accountability and ownership for quality performance throughout the organization.
• Lead cross-functional teams during quality investigations and strategic improvement programs.

Skills & Competencies:

Technical

• Quality Management Systems
• Food Safety & Regulatory Compliance
• Statistical Process Control
• Root Cause Analysis
• Supplier Quality Management
• Consumer Quality Management
• Audit & Governance Systems
• Continuous Improvement Methodologies
• Risk Management
• Change Management
• Data Analytics and Quality Reporting

Minimum Requirements:

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's Degree in Food Science, Brewing Science, Microbiology, Chemical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Quality Management, or related discipline.
• Master's Degree (MBA or Technical Master's) advantagous.
• 12+ years of progressive leadership experience in Quality, Brewing, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, or Consumer Goods environments.
• Extensive experience leading quality operations across multiple countries.
• Strong understanding of food and beverage manufacturing processes.
• Experience in supplier quality, external quality, and consumer quality management.
• Proven track record in quality transformation and capability building.
• Experience leading large, geographically dispersed teams.

Additional Information:

SAB/ABInBev is an equal opportunity employer and all appointments will be made in line with SAB/ABInBev employment equity plan and talent requirements.

The advert has minimum requirements listed. Management reserves the right to use additional/ relevant information as criteria for short-listing.