Meet Unathi Thango, Senior Advisor Quality Assurance

Unathi who is extremely passionate about quality assurance shares her career journey in the engineering industry.

Unathi is a Quality Assurance Manager for a company in Johannesburg. She was recently nominated among this year’s rising star finalists under the energy and environment category at the 6th Annual Standard Bank Rising Star Awards. Unathi shared a little about her career journey in the engineering industry.

Unathi tells us that her career in the energy sector started off when she became a trainee laboratory technician at an explosives and aviation company before she became a chemist. “It was my love for quality and processes that led me to pursue another degree in quality assurance,” she says. 

Thereafter, Unathi had the opportunity to work as a trainee production manager. “It allowed me to deepen my understanding of operations management which has aspects of quality assurance. It also allowed me to focus on how to build quality into a product,” Unathi explains. “I was later appointed as quality assurance manager, where I looked after technical quality and ensured continued certification with ISO quality standards.”

Browse and apply for production manager jobs here.

What I love most about my career is that it allows me to be the perfectionist that I am,” Unathi says. “With quality there is no room for doing things wrong; quality entails getting things right the first time every time.”

In addition, Unathi says that she also loves that working in quality assurance has enabled her to look at the overall business improvement, as well as reducing waste and meeting the strategic objectives of the company in a cost effective manner.

Unathi explains that quality is everyone’s responsibility and centres on teamwork. “In my career I need interact with people from different levels in the organisation; from executives to people on the ground. I also work with customers.”

Unathi has the following advice for people who would like to pursue a career in quality assurance:

Have a passion for excellence,” she advises.

Enroll for a degree in quality or take a short course which will enable you to look at the overall planning and implementation.

More importantly, maintain a good attitude – it will determine your overall altitude.”

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