Quality Auditor


Company:	John Smedley Limited
Salary:	from £26,080.08 a year
Hours:	Full-time
Location:	Matlock, DE4 5AG
Working pattern:	On-site
Job type:	Permanent
Posting date:	16 Sept 2026
Closing date:	16 Oct 2026

Apply for this job

Summary

Quality Auditor

Full Time | Permanent

Monday – Thursday | 7:00am – 4:00pm

Friday | 7:00am – 12 Noon

32 Days Holiday

Lea Mills, Matlock

Quality is about more than checking the finished product. It’s about understanding how we get there.

We’re looking for a Quality Auditor to join our team at John Smedley’s historic Lea Mills in Matlock.

Never worked as a Quality Auditor before? Don’t let the job title put you off.

This is a hands-on role at the heart of our manufacturing operation. You’ll spend your time out on the production floor, working alongside our teams to make sure our garments meet specification, our processes are being followed correctly and, when something isn’t quite right, helping us understand why.

You’ll check, question, investigate, coach and improve – helping us maintain the exceptional standards behind our world-renowned knitwear.

If you have a great eye for detail, enjoy solving problems and are confident working with people, you could have exactly the skills we’re looking for.

What does a Quality Auditor actually do?

Put simply, you’ll help us make sure we’re doing things right – and consistently doing them right.

Part of your role will involve physically measuring and checking garments against their specifications. If something falls outside the required tolerance, you’ll have the confidence to stop it progressing and work with the team to understand what has happened.

But the role goes much further than inspecting garments.

You’ll also spend time observing how we work across production, auditing our processes against Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), spotting potential risks or gaps and helping teams find ways to prevent problems from happening again.

That means being visible, approachable and comfortable talking to people at all levels. We want our Quality Auditors to act as a “critical friend” – someone who can challenge when something isn’t right, but who also works alongside colleagues to help find the solution.

What You’ll Be Doing

As part of our Quality team, you’ll:

• Measure and inspect garments against specification and agreed tolerances.

• Identify and stop products that don’t meet the required standard.

• Audit processes and working practices across our production departments.

• Identify quality issues, gaps and potential risks before they become bigger problems.

• Work with teams to understand why issues have occurred and help prevent them happening again.

• Coach and support colleagues to build understanding and ownership of quality standards.

• Constructively challenge working practices when required and encourage best practice.

• Record and communicate your findings clearly and accurately.

• Support continuous improvement across our manufacturing operation.

• Play a part in maintaining consistency and compliance as we work towards ISO 9001 accreditation.

Who Could Be a Good Fit?

You may already have experience in quality assurance, quality control or auditing – but that isn’t the only background we’re interested in.

You might currently work in manufacturing, production, textiles, garments or operations and be looking for an opportunity to develop your career in quality.

Perhaps you’re a team leader, supervisor or experienced operative who naturally spots when something isn’t right, enjoys improving how things are done and is comfortable helping others follow the right processes.

What matters to us is that you:

• Have an excellent eye for detail and take pride in getting things right.

• Are methodical, organised and comfortable following specifications and processes.

• Enjoy problem-solving and getting to the root of an issue.

• Have the confidence to speak up when something doesn’t meet the required standard.

• Can challenge people constructively and respectfully.

• Are approachable and enjoy helping, coaching and supporting others.

• Can record and communicate information clearly.

• Are comfortable using Microsoft Office and learning new systems.

• Enjoy being hands-on and working directly with people in a production environment.

Experience within a quality, production or garment auditing environment would be beneficial, but we’re equally interested in people with transferable skills and the right approach who are keen to develop their knowledge of quality.

Why John Smedley?

For over 240 years, John Smedley has been manufacturing some of the world’s finest knitwear, with craftsmanship, quality and attention to detail at the heart of what we do.

This is an opportunity to become part of the team responsible for protecting those standards while also helping us continuously improve the way we work.

You’ll be joining a role where you can see what you’re influencing first-hand. You won’t simply identify problems – you’ll work with people across the business to understand them, address them and help make our processes stronger.

You’ll also receive:

• 32 days’ holiday

• Access to wellbeing programmes and our in-house Culture Club activities

• Discounts across hundreds of retail, travel and leisure services

• Discounts on John Smedley products

• The opportunity to develop your knowledge and experience across quality and manufacturing

Think you could be our next Quality Auditor?

You don’t need to have had “Quality Auditor” as your previous job title to apply.

If you’re someone who notices the details others miss, asks “why has that happened?”, enjoys working with people and takes pride in making sure things are done properly, we’d like to hear from you.

Apply today and help us continue to protect – and improve – the quality behind John Smedley.

Apply for this job

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

About Disability Confident

Disability Confident is a government scheme. It encourages employers to recruit and retain disabled people and those with long term health conditions.