Purpose of the Role
To take day-to-day ownership of all production and warehouse operations leading food safety, quality, GMP, output, cost control and people development in a small, hands-on manufacturing environment.
Key Responsibilities
Operations
- Plan and deliver the production schedule across both lines, balancing output against sales orders, packaging availability, shelf life and working capital.
- Own line efficiency: monitor throughput, waste (frying losses, packaging, oil, out-of-spec product), downtime and giveaway, and drive measurable improvement against agreed targets.
- Produce product to agreed quality standards.
- Oversee planned and reactive maintenance of fryers, slicers, seasoning drums, packing equipment and ancillary plant; manage external engineering contractors.
Food Safety & Compliance
- Act as a senior member of the HACCP team; maintain and develop the site food safety management system, along side the technical resource.
- Lead preparation & implementation for customer audits and BRCGS certification, host audits and EHO visits, along side the technical resource.
- Ensure full compliance with allergen controls, traceability, CCP monitoring (notably metal detection), labelling and weights & measures legislation.
People
- Lead, develop and appraise the production team; build a capable, flexible team of around eight production and warehouse staff.
- Own site health & safety: risk assessments, safe systems of work, training records, accident investigation and reporting.
- Recruit, induct and train new starters; manage absence, performance and basic employee relation matters with external HR support as needed.
Commercial
- Manage the production expenditure: labour, energy and maintenance, reporting monthly against agreed budgets.
- Provide weekly KPI reporting (output, yield, waste, labour cost per kg, service level, stock accuracy).
- Support new product development trials and the costing of new lines and pack formats.
Person Specification
Essential
- Proven supervisory or management experience in food manufacturing, ideally snacks, frying or similar ambient FMCG.
- HACCP, Level3+, allergen management, GMP and food safety certification schemes, experience operating at BRCGS standards.
- Comfortable in a small business: hands-on, willing to step onto the line, and able to switch between strategy and shop floor in the same hour.
- Command of KPI’s, including yields, costings, basic budgeting; competent with Excel/spreadsheets.
- Strong verbal, written and numeracy skills.
- Experience of CI / Kaizen/ 6Sigma.
- IOSH Managing Safely.
Join us as Head of Operations and lead our organization toward greater efficiency, innovation, and success!
Pay: £38,000.00-£50,000.00 per year
Benefits:
Work Location: In person
