Head of Technical – Dual Site (Clitheroe)

Head of Technical – Dual Site (Clitheroe)

Location: Clitheroe

Salary: £80,000 - £85,000 + Car Allowance and Bonus

Dual Site Head of Technical – Chilled Food Manufacturing

Location: Clitheroe, Lancashire

About Us: The Compleat Food Group is one the UK's leading food manufacturing companies, dedicated to delivering high-quality and innovative food products to delight our customers. 

We are seeking an experienced and accomplished Head of Technical to join our experienced site team in Clitheroe, Lancashire the home of award winning Vadasz pickles and ferments. This site leadership role will be pivotal in driving our technical strategy, ensuring compliance, and maintaining our strong commitments to quality and food safety across our two sites which process and manufacture pickles, ferments, anti-pasti and fresh olives.

Position Overview: As the Head of Technical, you will be responsible for the delivery of our business and technical strategy at our chilled food manufacturing sites in the beautiful Clitheroe. You will lead and inspire both the technical and site Hygiene teams, collaborate with key stakeholders, form part of the site leadership team and ensure compliance with industry standards and customer expectations.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategy Execution: Deliver the business and technical strategy for the site and our customers, ensuring alignment with quality, legality, integrity, and food safety goals.
• Technical Leadership: Provide day-to-day technical accountability for the site (which is Chilled Ready to Eat products) and ensure the hygiene and technical performance of the site meets and exceeds standards.
• Leadership: Act as a key member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), contributing to the overall success of the site.
• Customer Management: Deliver excellence in technical customer management, ensuring compliance with client expectations and managing customer visits, audits, and launches effectively.
• Team Management: Manage the site's technical team on a day-to-day basis, driving technical standards, compliance, and continuous improvements.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Develop cross-functional relationships at site and group levels, encouraging joined-up working and raising awareness of technical activities across the group.
• Performance Management: Set clear SMART objectives for the technical function/team and conduct regular reviews. Use data effectively to manage site performance and drive continuous improvement.
• Quality Assurance: Develop and improve customer joint quality plans, maintain high audit accreditation/results, and ensure customer requirements and industry standards are exceeded,
• Budget Management: Set and manage technical and hygiene budgets effectively.
• Retailer Engagement: Represent the site/company at retailer meetings, audits, and visits, with a focus on Top 5 UK retailer experience (M&S, Waitrose, JS, Asda, Tesco etc).
• Technical Expertise: Utilise your technical expertise, including HACCP, Food Safety, TACCP/Integrity, and lead auditor qualifications, to support product process and design from a technical perspective with chilled ready to eat products.
• Continuous Improvement: Drive continuous improvement across the site against agreed KPIs, customer requirements, and legislation.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (Food background).
• HACCP level 3 certification.
• Food Safety level 3 certification.
• TACCP/Integrity certification.
• Experience of leading BRC level Audits
• Full UK driving license.
• Proven track record of technical/quality management in a large, challenging, fast-paced environment, ideally within Ready to Eat chilled foods.
• Strong communication and negotiation skills in reactive and flexible situations.
• Experience leading retailer and certification audits (ideally M&S, JS, Waitrose etc)
• Proven ability to manage a large technical team and develop talent.
• Accomplished in driving the group's technical agenda/strategy.
• Continuous improvement of site technical standards and technical KPIs.

The SLT level role comes with exceptional benefits you would expect from a company of our size and the for the technical expertise the role requires.

Benefits to Include:

33 Days annual leave

• 2 Employee Volunteering Days per year
• Employee well-being and community support groups
• Free Products
• Free Parking
• Informal and Formal training opportunities with personalised online LMS platform
• Charity Initiatives and Team events
• 24/7 Access to Grocery Aid (Free Financial, Emotional and Practical Support)
• Physical Well being benefits – Free on demand exercise hub and various gym discounts.
• Free Financial well being – mortgage calculators, budget tools, financial aid tools
• Holiday Discounts via Online Retail Discount

How to Apply:

If you are an experienced and qualified Head of Technical with a proven track record in ready to eat chilled food manufacturing and a passion for excellence in technical leadership, we encourage you to apply to join our high achieving Technical team in Clitheroe.

The Compleat Food Group are proud to build an inclusive and respectful culture where all our colleagues feel safe, supported and valued. A place where they can bring their whole selves to work to achieve exceptional results and thrive. 

We continue to attract diverse talent into our teams, because we know greater diversity leads to exceptional results and provides a better working life. That’s why we’re committed to ensuring Fairness, Equity, Inclusivity, and Respect in all that we do. 

Recruitment Agencies We have an active and trusted Preferred Supplier List to assist us if required. We do not acknowledge any speculative CVs or unsolicited candidate introductions from agencies.