Come find your purpose at Future Fields
Head of Quality
Description
Ready to lead a quality team that's famous for its solutions, not its rulebook? We're looking for a strategic and hands-on Head of Quality to evolve our QMS into a world class program. You'll be the architect of a culture where quality is a strategic advantage, building the trust with clients that will fuel our growth into new markets.
Changing the world - one fruit fly at a time.
We’ve developed a novel insect-based expression platform that allows us to make the world’s most sustainable recombinant proteins.
We’re unleashing the next biorevolution.
At Future Fields, we are continually learning and evolving. We know we don’t have all the answers, but we try to ask all the questions. We believe in “failing forward” and leveraging our mistakes to help us grow. We never want our team to feel constrained by the status quo and we don’t judge ideas based on where they come from. We actively work to foster a culture of collaboration, innovation and psychological safety through transparency, structure, and open communication. We know it sounds cliche, but every employee really is a valued and equal member of the Future Fields team.
Come find your purpose with Future Fields.
We are a rapidly growing venture backed startup (with support from awesome investors including Bee Partners, Y Combinator, BDC Climate Tech, R7 Partners, Toyota Ventures and Amplify Capital). We’ve even had a shoutout from Ironman himself! Joining our team now means you’ll have the opportunity to shape our culture and products, to lead others, and to influence the direction of our company. Perhaps most importantly - you’ll be joining a team that is genuinely energized by this work and the meaningful potential of biotech to change the world.
About the role
Reporting directly to the COO, the Head of Quality will be the architect of a quality culture that serves as a core strategic advantage for our company. In this leadership role, you will lead the continued growth of our quality program, evolving our established systems to enable commercial success at scale. You will build upon our existing QMS, maturing it to support our new manufacturing facility and expansion into diverse markets like food innovation, crop sciences, and life sciences. You will be responsible for unifying our established QA and QC functions under a single strategic vision, mentoring the teams to foster a culture of partnership and continuous improvement. This is a dynamic role that will begin with a hands-on approach, shifting over time to more strategic leadership. Your work will be the foundation that ensures we meet our commitments to key clients, turning successful projects into the long-term manufacturing contracts that fuel our growth.
- Evolving and scaling our established QMS, ensuring it empowers the team and is optimized for our next phase of growth.
- Championing a "Quality as an Enabler" culture where quality is understood as a shared responsibility and a direct contributor to our business advantage.
- Providing quality expertise across teams to ensure our standards and capabilities align with client needs and future market opportunities.
- Developing the long-term strategic roadmap for the quality function, including designing the future team structure and mentoring future team members as the company scales.
- Serving as a key collaborative partner and mentor to the Manufacturing and Regulatory/ QA leads.
- Mentoring and further developing our QC team by fostering a culture of pragmatic collaboration and continuous improvement with Manufacturing.
- Acting as the ultimate guardian of client trust by ensuring our products consistently meet the highest standards required by key accounts.
- Driving the achievement and maintenance of our company-wide quality metrics, translating quality theory into tangible operational results.
- Supporting the successful operation of our manufacturing facility, with a focus on ensuring robust quality processes for its clean room environments.
- Owning the quality aspects of tech transfer to ensure new processes are robust, scalable, and compliant.
- Working across functions to seamlessly integrate quality principles and practices into daily production workflows.
A pragmatic and highly adaptable leader with a proven track record of scaling quality systems in dynamic environments. The ideal candidate is a hands-on "builder" who balances today's needs with a long-term vision. We are looking for an individual with broad experience across quality in relevant sectors (e.g., life sciences, ag-tech, biotech) who excels at learning on the fly. Most importantly, you must be a culturally-attuned, high-EQ leader who can persuade, influence, and communicate with clarity, making you a trusted partner to the entire team.
Do you believe that quality is a strategic asset, not just a box to check? You own the outcome - viewing your role as ensuring the final success of our products, not just enforcing rules. You lead with curiosity, asking "why" to build better, simpler systems and fostering a culture where everyone feels safe to contribute. You thrive in ambiguity and are energized by the need to continuously adapt, knowing that the quality foundation you build today must be flexible enough for markets we haven't even entered yet. As a natural collaborator and communicator, you default to open, building trust and ensuring the entire organization understands how their work connects to our quality goals. You are a pragmatic builder, ready to roll up your sleeves and create a quality function that will be a key driver of our future success.
- A degree in a relevant scientific or engineering field.
- 8+ years of experience in quality-focused roles with increasing responsibility.
- Demonstrated experience maturing and scaling a QMS in a growing company.
- Experience providing quality oversight for the commissioning, qualification, or operation of new manufacturing facilities, particularly those with clean rooms.
- Broad quality experience across multiple relevant industries, such as life sciences or biotechnology.
- A proven ability to lead through influence and act as a persuasive, collaborative partner in a cross-functional environment.
- Exceptional communication skills with a high degree of emotional intelligence (EQ).
- Familiarity with common quality standards (e.g., ISO 9001, GMP).
- Direct experience with tech transfer and process validation.
- Experience in a startup environment.
- Familiarity with working in or for GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) environments.
Your future (with Future Fields)
This roadmap outlines the impact you'll make as you grow with us. We'll use this as a guide for your first year, knowing that in a fast-paced environment, we'll adapt and evolve these goals together.
Within 1 month, you will:
- Embed with the Manufacturing, Regulatory and CDMO teams to gain a deep understanding of our current processes, key challenges, and client requirements.
- Complete an initial review of our existing quality-related practices to identify the highest-priority areas for maturation.
Within 3 months, you will:
- Develop and present a pragmatic, phased roadmap for maturing our QMS, with specific milestones.
- Begin the hands-on rollout of key functions to further bolster our QMS, in close collaboration with Manufacturing and Regulatory/QA Leads.
Within 6 months, you will:
- Have key metrics like batch success rate being actively tracked and reported, and be leading cross-functional reviews of quality data to drive continuous improvement.
Within 1 year, you will:
- Have deepened Quality's partnership across the organization, ensuring it is universally viewed as a key enabler of our collective success.
- Have established a quality system that is robust enough for today and flexible enough for tomorrow, capable of adapting to the unforeseen standards of emerging markets.
- Present a comprehensive strategic plan for the evolution of the quality function, including a proposed team structure and hiring plan for future QC/QA roles to support our long-term goals.
About our team
Our story and approach to science is anything but conventional. Matt (co-founder/CEO) was a touring punk rock musician who dropped out of University before returning to complete his PhD in cell biology. Jalene (co-founder/COO) is a social researcher by training, previously working on issues from the right to affordable housing to harm reduction. The spark of an idea for our technology came while waiting in line for tiny, Canadian donuts. Our broader team of scientists, engineers, circus performers, restaurateurs, dancers, music aficionados, kid parents, pet parents, cyclists, and artists hail from every corner of the world - from small town Alberta to Poland, India, Vietnam and Pakistan. We credit our diverse team and experiences as the key to our success - and we encourage candidates of all identities and backgrounds to apply.
FAQs
Where is Future Fields located?
Our headquarters and production facility are located in downtown Edmonton, Alberta, in a renovated historic warehouse. From the exposed brick to our summer patio - it’s not your average lab space. It is central, close to transit and bike lanes, and walking distance to some of the city’s best coffee shops, restaurants and Edmonton’s incredible river valley.
I don’t live in Edmonton. Why would I want to relocate there?
Because it’s great! For starters, Edmonton is one of Canada’s sunniest cities with 2299 hours of bright sunshine per year. It’s consistently ranked one of Canada’s most affordable cities to live in and was recently described as Canada’s most exciting culinary city. There’s a festival almost every weekend, North America’s largest mall and the longest stretch of urban parkland on the continent (over 160km of trails!). There’s something for everyone in Edmonton, and it will be even better with you in it.
Any other perks?
Many! Some include: comprehensive health, dental and vision benefits; flexible paid time off policy; and the office is always stocked with snacks and all the coffee you can drink.
Will I like working for a startup?
Great question. Startup life is definitely not for everyone. We move quickly. Projects and priorities shift fast. There is a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty at times and we’re not immune to the growing pains of a rapidly scaling startup. The risk is high, but so is the reward. We promise you will never get bored. You will have fun and learn a lot. You will grow personally and professionally in ways you never imagined (alongside our company). You will be part of something much bigger than yourself and contribute directly to the mission of a team who cares deeply about changing the world for the better. Oh, and equity!
Sound like something you are interested in? Here are the next steps:
Apply online using our job portal.
If it seems like a good fit, next steps will look somewhat like this:
- We will contact you for a casual 15-minute video call.
- We will set up an interview to dive into your technical skills and motivation.
- We’ll arrange another interview to figure out how you fit with our team and culture, and better understand your career trajectory.
- We will set up a coffee chat with you and a team member. This is your chance to dig in and find out what it’s really like to work for Future Fields. This is for you!
- We will speak with two of your references to confirm our assumption that you are, in fact, our next great hire.
- We offer you a job!
We welcome applications from all qualified individuals. For international candidates, support for Canadian work authorization may be provided.