Rachel Ziregbe

"I think my personality types match me almost perfectly (Investigator, Explorer, and Manager). This fits well with the work I do as some of my responsibilities involve some problem solving when there may be an instance where something has gone wrong or there has been a customer compliant, I would assist in working out what’s gone wrong and why and helping to propose a solution. My role also involves ensuring we are compliant with our internal procedures and external standards and regulations which all medical device manufacturers must comply to. This involves a lot of reading, investigating, interpreting, and communicating with other teams to ensure everyone knows what they need to do. "

"Majority of the work we do is in research and development (R&D) and project based so I would be the Compliance Lead or assist for a particular project. I ensure design control compliance so that when we are designing a combination product (a product where a medicine is within a device), we are controlling the design and manufacturing process to make sure that we have made the device in the best possible way. I conduct risk management activities to ensure that we have considered every possible way the device could go wrong or harm a patient and ensure we have a solution in place (risk controls) to prevent this from happening. This involves communicating with a lot of different people/ teams across the business (i.e., Medical, Safety) to ensure we have considered all different hazardous situation (a situation where something could go wrong) and potential patient harms. I spend a lot of time reviewing documents and ensuring that they are compliant to our procedures and global guidance from standards and regulations on how we should operate. I act as a document controller, ensuring documents which are put into our global document storing system are described/named correctly and tracked for progress and approval. I enjoy all aspects of my job as it is a varied role and differs from day to day, I particularly enjoy the risk management side and process improvement as there is always opportunity to improve how things are being done. "

"I really enjoyed Chemistry in school because I had a great teacher, so I decided to study it at A-level and then at university. I went to Loughborough University and for my bachelor’s degree I chose to study Chemistry with Sports Science. I chose this combination as at the time I worked part-time at a Nuffield Health gym and really enjoyed health and fitness so I thought this would be a good degree in case I decided I wanted to continue a career in health/ fitness. I found while doing this degree, that going to the gym is a lot more fun for me than learning about the science behind it, so I decided for my master’s degree to go strictly down the chemistry/pharma route and chose to study Pharmaceutical Science and Medicinal Chemistry. I loved my masters, and it included a 4-month research placement at 3M as an Analytical Chemist. I got a job working for the NHS as a QC Analyst performing microbiology testing, chemistry, and quality assurance (QA) for their aseptic services, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy units. This was a good, varied role and involved a lot of investigation work when there were drug or environment contamination. From this role, I realised I wanted to move away from testing/being in a lab and move into QA completely. I got a contract role at Thermofisher as a QA Scientist with a focus on risk management for in-vitro diagnostic medical devices, ensuring that the devices were safe for use and complied to the new regulation in place (IVDR). In this role, I discovered my love for risk management which led to me to my current role at Pfizer as a Quality Compliance Engineer where I am involved with risk management and design control compliance ensuring that the devices, we make are safe and effective for patient use. "

"In my spare time, I love to travel and visit different countries, 3 years ago I got see the Northern Lights in Iceland. I also enjoy playing tennis, going to the theatre and I am currently taking French lessons at my local library. "

"In a typical day, I spend a lot of time reviewing documents and ensuring that they are compliant to our procedures and global guidance from standards and regulations on how we should operate. I act as a document controller, ensuring documents which are put into our global document storing system are described/named correctly and tracked for progress and approval. On a project, I ensure design control compliance, making sure that when we are designing a product, we are controlling the design and manufacturing process to make sure that we have made the product in the best possible way. I conduct risk management activities which are used to consider every possible way the device could go wrong or harm a patient and ensure we have a solution in place to prevent this from happening. This involves communicating via email or setting up meetings with a lot of different people/ teams across the business (i.e., Medical, Safety, Device Development) to ensure we have considered all possible scenarios. "

"Chemistry, Mathematics and Religious Studies (A-Level)Chemistry with Sports Science BScPharmaceutical Science and Medicinal Chemistry MSc"