Senior Quality Officer

The Internal Audit Unit is part of the Forensic Services Group of the QPS. The Unit forms part of the Quality Management Section and provides support across Forensic Services Group to maintain the quality management system. The Unit works closely with Forensic Managers to monitor compliance with policies and procedures and implement corrective action when non-compliance occurs. The team provides assurance to all agencies involved in the administration of justice that standards are being met in line with the requirements of the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) and the ISO17025 international standard.

The Senior Quality Officer will undertake assessments of compliance with NATA requirements, internal policies and procedures including the appropriateness of corrective action undertaken when non-compliance occurs.

The core capability requirements for this role are:

• Undertake quality assessments within the Forensic Services Group to identify non-compliances, non-conforming work, emerging issues and risks, and provide advice to the Inspector, Quality Management Section on the development of actions to address risks and areas for improvement.

• Propose, plan, design and execute a range of compliance and performance audits throughout the Forensic Services Group, following recognised audit standards.

• Negotiate successful audit outcomes and prepare quality, persuasive reports of audit findings and recommendations for consideration of the Manager, Quality Management Section.

• Liaise and negotiate with internal and external agencies including audit entities regarding audit findings and other matters.

• Provide and apply professional researched advice in both oral and written form on audit and other relevant policies, practices, standards and guidelines relating to service delivery.

• Lead or participate as a team member in audit reviews or projects as directed by the Manager, Quality Management Section.

• Apply relevant review standards to ensure quality, relevance and timeliness of advice.

• Application of knowledge of a number of the following areas or the ability to rapidly acquire the knowledge of the remainder:

o The requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories.

o Document and Record control

o Risk management

o Systems that ensure the validity of results

o Verification and validation of test methods.

Role Requirements

Qualification:

• A relevant tertiary qualification in science is highly desirable.

Technical/ Operational/ Educational experience

• Knowledge, experience in quality assurance, leading audits and/or administration of NATA accreditation requirements would be highly desirable.

Other

• The incumbent may be required to undertake occasional intrastate and interstate travel as required.

Applications to remain current for 12 months.