Quality Manager for South African Reforestation Carbon Credit Project

About Us  

Imperative is a global carbon project development company that aims to be in the top decile for quality in the carbon projects market. We have a build-own-operate model and specialise in the design, development and operation of carbon credit projects that help combat climate change while promoting biodiversity conservation, economic growth and social development in the countries in which we operate. With a strong commitment to environmental and social responsibility, we are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Planning Manager to join our dynamic team.  

Our Values

• Integrity: We act honourably and are guided by a strong moral compass. If things go wrong, we put our hand up, admit it, and adapt.
• Momentum: Speed matters. We have a bias to action. We think quickly, plan tirelessly, mitigate risks, and above all, take action.
• Purpose: We are driven by our desire to make the world better with every interaction, process, and project.
• Accountability: We do what we say and deliver. We seek to be the best at what we do.
• Collaboration: We celebrate diversity of thought, values, and backgrounds, harnessing the strength of our people and partners to achieve more together through teamwork and creativity.
• Tenacity: We are highly ambitious, driven, and hardworking. We persist until we deliver impact.

Position Purpose

We are seeking a highly skilled and meticulous Quality Manager to join our leadership team in South Africa. This is a pivotal, cross-cutting role that owns the entire quality function — both quality assurance and quality control — together with data integrity and continuous improvement across every department, function and discipline of the Integrated Project Team (IPT). To preserve its independence as an assurance function, the role reports directly to the Project Director and carries the delegated authority to audit, raise non-conformances and require corrective action across the project (see Authority and Mandate below). 

The role spans the full quality function. Quality assurance (QA) is proactive and process-focused: it builds the systems, standards, controls and audits that prevent defects and errors from occurring in the first place, and provides independent confidence to leadership, partners and verifiers that the project is being executed to standard. Quality control (QC) is the detection of defects at the point of work — primarily by the Quality Controllers in the field. The Quality Manager owns and integrates both: the assurance system that defines, governs and verifies the control activity, closing the loop between the two so that issues are not only caught but designed out.  

You will design and run the systems that ensure data flowing from the veld — through planting, nursery, harvesting, fencing, conservation, land enrolment and into our carbon measurement and reporting — is accurate, complete, traceable and audit-ready. You will close the loop between the Quality Controllers (QCs) in the field and the controls, data and carbon teams, turning raw field observations into decision-grade insight for leadership. 

The ultra-high-quality project consists of 100,000 hectares of the native Spekboom species. The project will transform large areas of the rural South African landscape and will generate significant carbon offsets in the race to solve the world’s climate emergency. Because the value of every credit we issue rests on the integrity of our data and the quality of our execution, this role sits at the heart of the project. If you want to build the quality backbone of one of the world’s great carbon credit projects, then this role is for you. 

Reporting & Organisational Position

The Quality Manager reports directly to the Project Director. The role is deliberately positioned as an independent, project-wide quality function with a mandate that spans all departments.  

Authority and Mandate

To be effective, the Quality Manager is granted clear, delegated authority by the Project Director to discharge the quality function across the project. This authority includes the right to: 

• Audit and access: Conduct quality, data, process, site and supplier/contractor audits at any time, with full and unrestricted access to project sites, records, systems, data and personnel necessary to do so. 

• Set and enforce standards: Define, approve and mandate the quality standards, specifications, protocols, procedures and data-quality rules that all departments and contractors must comply with. 

• Raise non-conformances: Issue non-conformance reports and corrective/preventive action (CAPA) requests, and require the responsible department, manager or contractor to act on and close them out within agreed timeframes. 

• Verify and sign off: Verify corrective actions, and provide or withhold quality sign-off on deliverables, data sets and milestones submitted for internal approval or external verification. 

• Escalate: Escalate unresolved or repeated non-conformances, or any refusal to cooperate, directly to the Project Director and project leadership. 

This authority is exercised independently and objectively. It does not transfer accountability for day-to-day delivery away from line managers, who remain responsible for the quality of their own functions; rather, it empowers the Quality Manager to assure, verify and enforce quality across them. 

Key Responsibilities 

As the Quality Manager, you will be responsible for the full quality function — assurance and control — across a range of cross-functional quality and data initiatives, including: 

• Quality Management System (QMS) & Continuous Improvement: Establish and maintain a project-wide QMS — policies, standard operating procedures, protocols and quality KPIs — and lead structured continuous improvement, using root-cause analysis and lessons learned to raise execution quality over time. 

• Quality Assurance Framework & Independent Assurance: Establish, own and run the project-wide quality assurance framework — the policies, process controls, standards and assurance plan that prevent defects and errors before they occur. Provide independent, objective assurance to leadership, partners and external verifiers that work across all departments is being executed to the required standard. 

• Quality Control Oversight & Verification: Define, govern and verify the quality control activity performed at the point of work — principally by the field Quality Controllers — including inspection criteria, sampling, checklists and non-conformance procedures. Assure that control activity is being carried out correctly and is effective, and feed findings back into the assurance system. 

• Data Quality & Integrity Management: Establish and own a project-wide data integrity framework related to the quality function. Define data standards, validation rules, ownership and a single source of truth, and control how data is captured, stored, corrected and used. 

• Audits, Non-Conformance & Corrective Action: Plan and conduct independent quality and data audits across all functions, including process, site and supplier/contractor audits. Issue non-conformance reports, agree corrective and preventive actions, and verify that they are closed out and remain effective. 

• Document Quality Control: Contribute to the enhancements and maintenance of document control standards — templates, version and revision control, naming, storage and review/approval workflows. 

• Data Analytics: Provide analytical capacity — including young professional analysts — to interrogate project data, surface anomalies and errors, and support MRV, carbon-quality and operational decisions with evidence. 

• Standards & Protocol Governance: Own the master library of task descriptions, specifications and protocols that the field Quality Controllers enforce on site, keeping them current, consistent and aligned with operational and ecological requirements. 

• Training & Competency of Field Quality Controllers: Develop and deliver the training, onboarding and ongoing upskilling of the Quality Controllers in the field, ensuring they apply task specifications, data-capture standards and non-conformance procedures consistently. Assess competency, identify capability gaps and standardise how quality is controlled across all sites and disciplines. 

• Carbon & MRV Data Assurance: Ensure data integrity standards meet the requirements of the applicable carbon standard, registry and external validators/verifiers, maintaining a defensible audit trail and a state of audit readiness at all times. 
• Compliance: Ensure quality, data and documentation practices comply with relevant standards, laws, regulations and project commitments. 

Important Skills and Attributes 

Key skills and attributes required for the role are; 

• Quality Assurance & Control Expertise: A strong command of both quality assurance and quality control, and of quality management systems and assurance methodologies (e.g. ISO 9001, Lean / Six Sigma), with the ability to design assurance frameworks, run audits and lead continuous improvement programmes. 

• Data Governance & Integrity: Demonstrated command of data quality, data governance and master data management across complex, multi-source operations. 

• Analytical Acumen: The ability to analyse data and performance metrics, identify anomalies and root causes, and translate findings into action and decision-grade reporting. 

• Data Visualisation & Systems: Proficiency with data visualisation and reporting tools (e.g. Power BI) and a working understanding of databases, data capture platforms and automation. 

• Attention to Detail: Exceptional rigour and precision, with an instinct for spotting errors, gaps and inconsistencies others miss. 

• Exceptional Communication: Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, critical for document quality, audit reporting and influencing across departments. 

• Problem-Solving & Influence: A proven ability to resolve complex, cross-functional issues and influence stakeholders without direct authority. 

• Leadership & Training: The ability to lead, mentor and train teams — from field Quality Controllers to young professional analysts — and build quality and data capability across the project. 

Qualifications 

• A relevant degree from an internationally recognised university is required — for example in data science, information management, engineering, quality management, environmental science or a related field. 
• A postgraduate qualification or a recognised quality / continuous improvement certification (e.g. ISO 9001 Lead Auditor, Lean Six Sigma) is highly regarded. 

Desired Experience 

• The position requires a minimum of 8–12 years of experience in quality assurance, governance or continuous improvement, including time in a senior or lead capacity. 
• Demonstrated experience establishing a quality management system or data governance framework, and running audits, across a large, multi-disciplinary operational environment is essential. 

Position Location 

Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha), South Africa. 

Language

Fluency in spoken and written English is a requirement.