Senior Operations Manager - Quality

About the Company

Careem is building the Everything App for the greater Middle East, making it easier than ever to move around, order food and groceries, manage payments, and more. Careem is led by a powerful purpose to simplify and improve the lives of people and build an awesome organisation that inspires. Since 2012, Careem has created earnings for over 2.5 million Captains, simplified the lives of over 70 million customers, and built a platform for the region’s best talent to thrive and for entrepreneurs to scale their businesses. Careem operates in over 70 cities across 10 countries, from Morocco to Pakistan.

About The Role

Careem Quik is redefining the grocery experience across the region by offering ultra-fast delivery of everyday essentials. We are now seeking a highly capable and quality-obsessed Senior Manager - Quality to bring our ultra-fresh value proposition to life. This role is critical to ensuring we source, handle, and deliver the best fresh Fruits & Vegetables (F&V) in the market with a zero-defect ambition.

You will act as the guardian of freshness, translating quality expectations into operational execution across our grocery dark stores, supply chain, and last-mile delivery network.

Key Responsibilities

• Freshness & Quality Leadership
• Own and implement the end-to-end strategy for delivering consistently high-quality F&V to Careem Quik customers.
• Define freshness standards, product quality guidelines, and visual/physical parameters for F&V.
• Benchmark against global best practices in fresh produce and tailor solutions to the local context.
• Supplier and Product Quality Control
• Lead supplier audits and establish strict inbound quality checks at point of receiving.
• Collaborate with procurement and commercial teams to continuously improve supplier quality performance.
• Identify product-level issues and drive corrective/preventive actions with suppliers.
• Zero Defect Operations
• Design and enforce a robust Quality Assurance (QA) framework at our warehouses and dark stores.
• Implement defect tracking systems, root cause analysis tools, and feedback loops to address product and process failures.
• Develop a proactive quality culture with store staff, riders, and pickers through regular training, SOPs, and scorecards.
• Customer Experience & Product Refunds
• Track and analyze customer complaints and refund reasons related to freshness or product defects.
• Create initiatives to reduce claims and build trust in our F&V value proposition.
• Work closely with Customer Care and Product teams to close the loop and prevent recurrence.
• Data & Continuous Improvement
• Use data-driven insights to track quality KPIs (e.g., defect rate, return reasons, freshness ratings).
• Regularly review SKU-level performance and identify opportunities to replace, enhance, or delist underperforming items.
• Lead pilots and experiments that raise the bar on freshness and satisfaction.
  
  

Qualifications & Experience

• 7+ years of experience in quality management in FMCG, grocery retail, or food distribution, with a focus on fresh and ultra-fresh produce
• Strong understanding of supply chain and operations in perishable product handling
• Proven track record of designing and scaling QA programs in high-growth or startup environments
• Analytical mindset with a strong ability to interpret data and derive actionable insights
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
• Passion for operational excellence and continuous improvement