Quality & Finishing Lead

Job Description: Quality & Finishing Lead

Function: Production

Reports to: Head of Production

About S&S

S&S is a vertically integrated textile solutions provider based in Ruiru, Kenya. We design, produce, and distribute a vast array of textile consumer solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa under our brands, butterfly®, textyle® and Asili.

Our purpose is to Empower Africa’s Potential and Authenticity. We are a team of purpose-driven individuals committed to providing exceptional, proactive solutions that make our customers feel valued and fulfilled. We strive to add value in all we do, with the customer always at the heart of our actions.

The Opportunity

This is an exciting opportunity to join S&S, a vertically integrated textile solutions provider based in Ruiru, Kenya, as our Quality & Finishing Lead. In this leadership role, you will build and implement a company-wide Quality Assurance system that protects customer trust by upholding our Brand promise, strengthens quality operational discipline, and enables consistent business growth through stable, reliable, and scalable manufacturing standards. Reporting to the Head of Production, you will move the business from reactive quality control to proactive quality assurance—embedding quality across production processes, finished products, and continuous improvement initiatives. If you are a detail-driven, quality-first professional with strong leadership capabilities and a passion for excellence, and you are committed to empowering Africa's potential, this role offers you the chance to build a quality culture that drives business performance and customer confidence.

Core Responsibilities

• Build & Drive a Company-Wide Quality System: Move the business from reactive quality control to proactive quality assurance. Establish end-to-end quality governance structures, build and standardize quality procedures across Production and Finishing processes, and ensure quality accountability is embedded within operations.
• Protect Customer Confidence & Product Credibility: Ensure the company consistently delivers products that customers trust. Translate customer feedback into quality operational improvements and identify risks that could erode customer trust or brand reputation.
• Prevent Quality Losses & Cost of Poor Quality: Convert quality into a business performance driver. Identify recurring quality loss drivers, build prevention mechanisms, continuously improve process capability and stability, and use quality data to drive operational decisions.
• Build Quality Leadership, Capability & Accountability: Create consistency in quality execution. Build and maintain Quality Team capability, drive accountability on SOP adherence, strengthen in-process controls and audit discipline, and partner closely with Production and Engineering Leadership.
• Enable Scalable Growth & Sustainability: Ensure manufacturing growth does not dilute product quality or customer confidence. Continuously elevate standards and practices, use market quality trends to prioritize improvements, and develop the Quality Team for future readiness.

Key Deliverables

• Consistent Quality & Finishing Standards: Consistent delivery of the quality, finesse, and customer experience standards associated with the Company's brands.
• Prevention of Quality Losses: Prevention of quality-related losses through improved quality operational reliability and permanent resolution of recurring issues.
• Strong Quality Culture: A strong quality culture characterized by clear accountability, disciplined execution, and continuous improvement.
• Future-Ready Systems & Capability: Future-ready quality systems, standards, and team capability that support business growth and evolving customer expectations.

Key Decision-Making & Accountability

• Quality Standards: Defining and maintaining the quality standards required to protect customer trust and brand credibility.
• Risk Assessment: Determining quality and customer experience risks that require escalation, intervention, or corrective action.
• Process & System Changes: Recommending quality operational process and system changes required to strengthen standards, consistency, and reliability.
• Growth Implications: Assessing quality readiness and standards implications relating to growth, expansion, new processes, and strategic initiatives.

KPIs / Success Measures

• Product Quality Performance: Complaints, claims, customer feedback trends, customer satisfaction indicators.
• Quality-Facing Loss Prevention: Rework, rejection, waste, returns, cost of poor quality.
• Quality Capability & Continuous Improvement Effectiveness: Improvement implementation, capability development, sustainability of corrective actions.

Key Skills & Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Textile Technology, Manufacturing, Quality Management, or a related discipline.
• Must-Have Experience: 4+ years in manufacturing quality, process improvement, finishing operations, or related operational leadership roles.
• Demonstrated success in reducing recurring quality issues and improving product consistency. Experience developing and implementing quality systems, standards, and controls.
• Experience leading teams and building capability within a manufacturing environment.
• Preferred Experience: Experience within vertically integrated textile manufacturing, apparel factories, or similar manufacturing environments where consistency, finishing, finesse, and customer experience are critical.
• Exposure to quality management systems and continuous improvement methodologies. Conversant with knitwear quality requirements.

Key Competencies

• Strong attention to detail;
• quality-first mindset;
• continuous improvement mentality;
• ability to build systems and controls;
• appreciation for product finishing and finesse;
• strong follow-through and discipline;
• data-to-decision capability;
• customer and market awareness;
• strong professional courage and accountability;
• team development.

Our Expectations

At S&S, we look for individuals who don't just do a job, but who live our values. You will be expected to:

• Understand and passionately execute the Company's strategy.
• Be commercially focused and driven by customer growth.
• Be a collaborative problem-solver and a supportive team player.
• Ultimately, be self-driven and accountable for realizing the company's goals.