Trade Quality Specialist at The Coca-Cola Company

Functional Capabilities

• End-to-End Quality Management
• Trade Quality Surveillance
• Market Incident Management
• Consumer & Customer Complaint Handling Oversight
• Commercial and Supply Chain Collaboration
• QSE Risk Identification & Mitigation
• Regulatory & Brand Standard Compliance
• Data Analysis, Insights & Reporting
• Stakeholder Engagement & Governance
• Quality Communication & Issue Escalation

Key Duties & Responsibilities    
Key Outcomes

National Trade Quality Leadership

• Lead the execution and improvement of  CCBSA’s Trade Quality Strategy across South Africa.
• Collaborate with plant quality teams, logistics, and commercial functions to ensure product quality is protected across distribution and trade environments.
• Monitor post-dispatch product performance, including storage, handling, shelf conditions, and returns.

Market Surveillance & Product Compliance

• Oversee periodic market surveys, quality audits, and trade visits to assess in-market product conditions.
• Analyze trade quality data and trends to identify systemic issues, risks, and areas for improvement.
• Ensure corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) are implemented by relevant teams.

Consumer and Customer Complaint Governance

• Provide oversight to the Consumer Care and Trade Complaint management process.
• Support resolution of escalated consumer issues and ensure timely response and closure.
• Lead root cause analysis and follow-up actions for critical and high-risk complaints.

Commercial & Regulatory Interface

• Serve as the primary quality liaison with commercial teams, customer representatives, and external partners.
• Provide input to product launch readiness assessments, packaging changes, and promotional activities to ensure product integrity.
• Ensure compliance with local regulatory and Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) standards for trade and consumer product quality.

Incident & Crisis Management

• Lead trade quality incident investigations and participate in national incident and crisis response teams.
• Coordinate response plans, communication strategies, and risk mitigation measures for product quality concerns in the trade.

Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement

• Manage and mentor the Trade Quality Specialist and Consumer Care functions.
• Lead cross-functional reviews and present trade quality performance to senior management and bottling partners.
• Influence a culture of quality excellence across commercial, logistics, and plant teams.

KBI

• Consumer Complaint Response & Closure Time
• Repeat Complaint Ratio
• % Product Compliance in Market Audits
• In-Market Product Quality Incident Rate
• Corrective Action Closure Effectiveness
• Shelf-Life and Storage Compliance Score
• Trade Quality Non-Conformance Trend

Skills, Experience & Education    
Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Microbiology, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Advanced certifications in Quality Management (e.g., ISO 9001 Lead Auditor, FSSC 22000, Six Sigma) are an added advantage.

Experience

• 8-10 years in Quality Assurance, Quality Control, or Trade Quality roles within FMCG (preferably beverage production and bottling).
• At least 5 years in a supervisory or leadership position.
• Hands-on experience in market quality surveillance and managing customer complaints.

Skills

• In-depth knowledge of food and beverage quality systems, ISO, HACCP, and local regulatory requirements
• Strong analytical, risk assessment, and problem-solving skills
• Data visualization and reporting 
• Effective stakeholder communication, negotiation, and cross-functional collaboration
• Crisis management and root cause analysis capability
• Familiarity with CRM, and quality management systems

Deadline:3rd February,2026