Product Assurance Lead

Product Assurance Lead | Rolling Stock / Rail Industry Location | Lowry Park, Manchester  (role suited to candidates motivated by challenge, impact, and long-term career growth) About the Opportunity A newly created Product Assurance Lead position is now available within a major rolling stock organisation. This is a rare chance to shape and govern product quality across multiple fleets, depots, and engineering projects. If you thrive on building structure where none exists and enjoy influencing technical and operational teams, this role offers a meaningful platform to make your mark. Role Purpose The Product Assurance Lead will centralise and oversee product quality processes across all projects, ensuring technical standards and quality requirements are consistently applied, validated, and continuously improved. Key Responsibilities Defect management and product safety investigations Governance of quality assurance processes beyond ISO 9001 Continuous improvement through audits, trend analysis, and training Acting as the central point for quality governance across depots and projects Key Deliverables Implement a centralised product quality governance framework Establish defect management and incident investigation processes Conduct cross-fleet defect trend analysis Develop and embed product safety and quality management systems Deliver quality-focused training programmes Support audits and continuous improvement initiatives Skills & Experience Strong engineering background (mandatory) ISO 9001 auditing/quality systems experience (desirable) Analytical capability for data collation and trend analysis Ability to influence and engage technical and operational stakeholders Excellent communication and interpersonal skills Flexibility to work predominantly on‑site Closing date: Tuesday 20th January About Ford & Stanley group Ford & Stanley Talent Services Group are in the business of people and performance. Our mission is to create one million better workdays through facilitating great recruitment, leadership and occupational mental fitness. We support our clients in their most challenging business areas - recruiting, developing and retaining the best talent from shop floor to boardroom. Ford & Stanley TalentWise - Business specialising in blue collar trade & technical services – permanent and temporary. Ford & Stanley Recruitment - Business specialising in white collar spanning all company functions with specialist verticals within Digital, Rail Engineering, Civils & Infrastructure, General Manufacturing, Supply Chain & Logistics both permanent and contract. Ford & Stanley Executive Search – Business specialising in Executive Search & Executive Interim Solutions in the UK, North America, Middle East and Europe. Ford & Stanley Genius Performance - Performance is always accelerated when good people are coached, inspired, trained and focused in the right way. Ford & Stanley Talent Services Group Ltd is a Disability Confident employer that is committed to a policy of equal opportunities for all opportunity seekers. We shall adhere to such a policy at all times and will review on an ongoing basis all aspects of recruitment to avoid unlawful or undesirable discrimination. We will treat everyone equally irrespective of sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, age, disability, colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief or political beliefs, and we place an obligation upon all staff to respect and act in accordance with the policy. Services advertised by Ford & Stanley are those of an employment consultancy business