Role Profile: Assistant Contract Manager
Reporting to: Contract Manager
Location: Based at one of our Scottish Depots with regular meetings at our Lockerbie Depot. National travel will be required on occasion.
Purpose of Role
The Assistant Contract Manager plays a key supporting role in managing TP Niven’s national milk contracts, ensuring strong service delivery, cost control, compliance and operational consistency across all milk-related workstreams. There may also be some involvement in our general haulage operations.
The role supports the Contract Manager with day-to-day contract performance oversight, customer relationship management, KPI reporting, operational improvements and issue escalation/resolution. Alongside the Contract Manager, the Assistant Contract Manager provides continuity of leadership and strengthens the strategic and operational resilience of the milk operations team.
This role requires excellent coordination, strong data and analytical capability, the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels, and a hands-on approach to resolving operational challenges.
Responsibilities
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
-Safety and compliance leadership
1. Champion a strong safety culture, ensuring that all operational activities related to national milk movements are carried out safely, in line with company policies and relevant regulations.
2. Co-ordinate with the Compliance Manager and Depot Managers to ensure site compliance with drivers’ hours, WTD, food hygiene regulations, milk quality requirements and industry standards.
3. Support the Contract Manager with audits, corrective actions and improvement plans.
4. Review and monitor compliance data, escalating any emerging risks.
5. Promote high standards of safety and operational integrity across all milk operations.
-Contract Support & Performance Management
6. Support the Contract Manager in delivering all national milk contracts in line with customer expectations, SLAs, and compliance requirements.
7. Develop and monitor daily and weekly operational performance across trunking and farm collection activities, ensuring KPIs, service levels and quality targets are met.
8. Review collection and delivery performance data, identify emerging issues and take action or escalate appropriately. Ensure corrective actions are implemented following service failures, customer feedback or compliance concerns.
9. Provide accurate and timely reporting to the Contract Manager and management team.
- Operational Coordination & Issue Resolution
10. Act as secondary escalation point for operational issues affecting national milk movements (vehicle availability, staffing, delays, farm access, dairy access, quality issues).
11. Support disruption planning, contingency arrangements and recovery decisions during challenging operating conditions (weather, breakdowns, shortages, etc.).
12. Liaise with maintenance, compliance and planning teams to ensure vehicles, equipment and documentation remain contract-ready.
-Customer & Stakeholder Engagement
13. Build strong relationships with key milk customers.
14. Attend customer meetings, providing updates, performance insights and supporting the Contract Manager with strategic discussions.
15. Support customer communication during incidents, delays or service changes.
16. Contribute to building long-term trust through reliability, professionalism and proactive problem-solving.
-Data, Reporting & Commercial Insight
17. Prepare operational performance reports, KPI dashboards, service summaries and root-cause analyses.
18. Analyse trends in cost, performance or resource usage and highlight opportunities for improvement.
19. Support with commercial activities such as costing, rate validation, and contract performance reviews.
20. Ensure systems and operational records are accurate and audit-ready.
-Continuous Improvement & Project Support
21. Contribute to national initiatives aimed at improving efficiency, service quality, or compliance across milk contracts.
22. Support the implementation of new processes, technologies or planning methods.
23. Coordinate pilot activities, trials or procedural rollouts across depots.
24. Identify areas for improvement based on data analysis, customer feedback or operational insight.
-Leadership, Teamwork & Development
25. Deputise for the Contract Manager during absence, holidays or strategic project work.
26. Promote positive communication and collaboration between depots, planning teams and customer-facing staff.
-Experience, knowledge & skills requirement
- Experience in transport operations, logistics planning or operational contract support within milk haulage/farm collection or food-grade logistics.
- Good understanding of drivers’ hours, WTD, and general transport compliance principles.
- Excellent analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and create clear reports.
- Strong communicator — able to engage confidently with customers, planners, drivers and senior stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to solve problems quickly and professionally under pressure.
- High levels of organisation, accuracy and attention to detail.
- Proficiency with IT systems, planning tools and Excel.
- Prior involvement in contract management or customer-facing operational roles.
- Experience supporting multi-depot or national operations.
Benefits:
- Bereavement leave
- Company pension
- Free parking
- Life insurance
- On-site parking
- Sick pay
- Store discount
Work Location: In person
