Archived listing. The details below describe a past opening.
Company Description
Santevia is a Canadian-owned family business that designs, manufactures, and distributes mineralized, naturally alkaline water filtration products for home use and on-the-go. Its products are available across major retail channels in Canada, the USA, and the UK, as well as through multiple online platforms. Core products are manufactured at Santevia’s facility in Delta, BC, and are designed to be healthy, cost-effective, and eco-friendly, including the “Made in Canada” MINA Water Pitcher with a home recyclable filter. Founded from a personal health journey, Santevia is driven by values of innovation, persistence, wellness, and giving back. The company’s philanthropy program, Santevia Gives Back, supports access to clean drinking water and education initiatives for women and children in communities facing water poverty.
Role Description
The R&D Chemist and Quality Lead is a full-time, on-site position based in the Greater Vancouver Metropolitan Area. This role combines hands-on research and development with leadership of Santevia’s quality assurance and quality control activities. The R&D Chemist and Quality Lead will conduct laboratory studies, evaluate filtration media and materials, analyze water chemistry and product performance, investigate quality issues, and turn technical findings into practical product and process improvements.
The role will also identify opportunities to improve process consistency and develop, implement, and maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) across R&D, laboratory, testing, inspection, and quality activities. These procedures will support greater consistency, accountability, documentation, training, and compliance across the organization.
Key Performance Indicators:
- Required testing and evidence complete at every gate that depends on it.
- No product commercially released without a quality release.
- Nonconformances contained, corrected, and verified.
- Every product and performance claim supported by adequate evidence.
- SKU quality baselines established and reported.
Responsibilities
Research and Development:
- Lead formulation, materials, and technical development for new and improved products.
- Assess technical feasibility early enough to shape the product rather than interrupt it.
- Define the technical requirements and specifications a product must meet.
- Evaluate supplier technical submissions, samples, and certifications.
Testing and Claims Evidence:
- Define test methods, sampling, and scientific acceptance criteria.
- Plan and schedule the testing each gate requires, internally and with external laboratories.
- Determine whether evidence is adequate to support a product or performance claim.
- Maintain complete, retrievable records of methods, results, and determinations.
Quality Control:
- Set QC specifications and inspection requirements for incoming materials and finished goods.
- Review each incoming shipment against those standards, and work with Operations to ensure they are applied consistently.
- Classify nonconformances and define the corrective action and verification each requires.
- Establish and report SKU quality baselines and quality trends.
- Maintain the quality system, records, and operating documentation.
Quality Authority:
- Decide quality pass or fail on products, components, batches, claims, and launches. These are decisions, not recommendations.
- Decide quality release, separately and independently from commercial release readiness.
- Place a product, component, batch, claim, or launch on hold when mandatory evidence is incomplete or unacceptable, and initiate containment immediately.
- Define the evidence or corrective conditions required to lift a hold, so every hold has a stated route to resolution.
- Raise critical quality issues directly with the CEO and CFO-COO. This is a duty of the role, not only a right, and using it is never treated as going around the Product Lead.
- Maintain the technical conclusion throughout an escalation. A business decision does not convert a fail into a pass.
- Escalate resourcing constraints rather than reducing a requirement. If required testing cannot be completed by the gate that needs it, the standard does not move.
Other Duties:
- Assist the team with additional work as assigned, demonstrating a can-do attitude.
Required Skills:
- Apply chemistry and related science to consumer water treatment products.
- Design and interpret test methods, sampling plans, and acceptance criteria.
- Judge whether evidence meets the standard a product or performance claim requires, including third-party certification.
- Operate quality control systems, classify nonconformances, and define containment and corrective action.
- Evaluate suppliers, materials, and manufacturing processes technically.
- Communicate technical findings clearly to non-technical decision makers.
- Hold an independent judgment under commercial and schedule pressure.
Attributes:
- Rigour
- Independence
- Integrity
- Accountability
- Discipline
- Team Player
- Curiosity
Daily Tasks:
- Review test results and issue determinations on products in progress.
- Schedule and track testing against upcoming gates.
- Inspect incoming materials and finished goods against specification.
- Investigate quality issues, define containment, and verify corrective actions.
- Advise product owners on feasibility, evidence needs, and specification.
- Maintain quality records, baselines, and reporting.
Join us as we push the boundaries of innovation while maintaining unwavering dedication to quality! We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where talented professionals can thrive and contribute their expertise to create exceptional products that make a difference.
