Job Title: F&B Sourcing & Sustainability Manager
Salary range: Up to £ 72,055
Contract Type: Permanent
Location: Office based 3 days a week Dunstable LU5
This role serves as Whitbread’s subject matter expert on Animal Welfare Policy development, outcome measures, reporting, BBFAW requirements and stakeholder engagement. It advises on the animal welfare standards Whitbread should meet, balancing brand proposition, commercial realities and sector expectations. The role leads the development and delivery of sustainability and supply chain strategies for F&B, ensuring supply chains are resilient, responsible and aligned to FFG targets. It manages relationships with key industry, research, investor and NGO partners, and supports the Investor Relations team by leading all FFG and animal welfare related engagement, including preparing responses to investor queries and representing Whitbread’s approach in meetings.
A core part of the role involves working closely with suppliers and producers to help them understand and meet customer expectations on environmental and farming standards, while ensuring responsible resource management across Whitbread’s global supply base. The remit spans priority sectors and commodities such as dairy, poultry and eggs, meat, fresh produce, palm and soy.
As the technical lead for specific F&B deliverables, the role ensures all policies remain current and aligned with emerging regulation, and maintains a dynamic horizon scanning process to identify new risks and issues across the supply chain and animal welfare landscape.
What you'll do
- Lead sustainable sourcing policy — Develop, refine and track animal welfare and sustainability policies, ensuring suppliers meet welfare outcome measures and align with organisational standards.
- Drive compliance and performance — Monitor supplier adherence to welfare, commodity and sustainability commitments, improving guest experience, reducing complaints and safeguarding brand reputation.
- Enhance investor relevant welfare metrics — Design and implement initiatives to strengthen performance in key benchmarks such as BBFAW, including data collection, KPI management and final reporting.
- Manage stakeholder and NGO engagement — Represent the organisation across industry panels and working groups, maintain positive relationships with investors and NGOs, and navigate emerging welfare expectations.
- Strengthen supply chain integrity — Identify emerging risks (disease, regulatory changes, commodity pressures) and build resilient, ethical supply chains that ensure commercial availability and long term sustainability.
Why You'll love it here
Bonus potential 20%
Matched Contributory Pension up to 10%
Up to 60% off Premier inn and Hub stays
Essential Criteria
- A degree (or equivalent experience) in Agri Food or a related discipline.
- Subject matter expertise in agriculture and detailed knowledge of food supply chain structures and operations.
- Proven track record of working within sourcing and sustainability in F&B supply chains, preferably hospitality or retail with a commercially astute mindset.
- Experience of representing a business at external industry panels and organisations, supporting Investor Relations Team and leading relationships with relevant industry, research, investors, and NGO partners.
- Strong knowledge of the food security risk (Disease/regulation/supply chain challenges) across the different protein categories to ensure commercial/scale availability and able to provide insight and support to manage and mitigate adverse impacts.
- Able to demonstrate strong examples off cross functional project working across agriculture, technical, procurement teams.
- Able to identify opportunities to reduce carbon emissions, environmental risk, and waste in a commercially astute way in the F&B sector.
- Excellent stakeholder management skills with significant experience of dealing with internal, external, and third-party supplier senior-level decision makers up to MD level.
