What is Quality Control and Quality Assurance?

We work on Quality Assurance, Quality Control, Manufacturing and Supply Chain jobs for global pharmaceutical companies, supply chain organisations and consultancies across the UK and Europe. Covering positions including QA Managers, Quality Specialists and Supply Chain Analysts, our specialist recruitment consultants can help place you into your next happy job!

Find out more about a career in Quality Assurance and Quality Control below, take a look at our jobs or speak with our specialist senior consultant Stewart Pearson for an informal chat: +44 (0)1625 541 040 or stewart@carrotpharma.co.uk

What is Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance and Quality Control?

It’s the responsibility of people working within Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) roles to ensure all products meet the required standards and regulations and that these are safe for use and consumption.

Within the pharmaceutical, healthcare and medical devices industries, this occurs during the clinical, manufacturing and distribution stages of the product life-cycle. This role is highly important, as it involves ensuring potentially life-saving or life-altering medicines or devices are manufactured consistently to a safe standard. This can be achieved in a number of ways.

What does a career within QA look like?

Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance professionals can work within either a generic or specialist position and are employed either in-house or via an external agency. Typically, people will move into a QA position having started out in either engineering or health and safety. If starting out in a graduate position within the pharmaceutical industry, you’ll probably be required to have a degree within a life science.

 There’s a whole breadth of career progression opportunities within Quality Assurance, but a typical career path might look like:

Quality Assurance Analyst, Testers or Inspectors > Quality Assurance Managers > Product Management

Find out more about how to progress your pharmaceutical Quality Assurance career here. 

What are the typical roles within Quality Assurance and Quality Control?

• QA / QC Officer, Executive or Associate
• QA / QC Management, Director or Head of Department
• Responsible or Qualified Person

How do you get into a role within Quality Assurance and Quality Control?

Both Quality jobs and Supply Chain jobs are closely linked and sometimes overlap depending on the product being manufactured and the nature of the business.

For the pharmaceutical, consumer health, medical devices, and clinical markets, scientific qualifications are highly desirable and create a good starting place for a career in these sectors.

An experience and understanding of current regulations and legislations is imperative to a role within Quality Assurance or Quality Control and will help to define your skillset. For example - GCP, GMP, GDP, GLP or ISO standards (9001, 13584).

To progress within the Quality sector, it’s all about building a good network and reputation and learning the practices, business and industry inside out.