Job Title: Factory Technical Manager
Location: Evesham
Job Type: Permanent
Reporting into: Head of Technical
Salary: Competitive
Hours: Monday – Friday full-time
Main purpose of the role:
The Factory Technical Manager will own and lead site technical standards to ensure food safety, legality, authenticity and product quality are consistently maintained.
Job Responsibilities:
Technical Leadership & Compliance
- Own and lead site technical standards to ensure food safety, legality, authenticity and product quality are consistently maintained.
- Act as HACCP Team Leader, maintaining HACCP, TACCP and Food Defence systems and ensuring they remain effective, compliant and up to date.
- Ensure the site maintains an audit-ready culture, achieving compliance with BRCGS, relevant legislation and customer codes of practice.
- Lead internal and external audit preparation and drive effective close-out of findings and improvement actions.
- Review and challenge factory operations and quality systems to ensure the highest standards are maintained.
Team Leadership & Development
- Build, lead and develop a high-performing factory technical team, providing clear direction, coaching and performance management.
- Ensure effective management of key technical areas including factory compliance, allergen management, validation and verification, and microbiological / Listeria control.
- Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability and continuous improvement with-in the technical function.
Operational & Cross-Functional Partnership
- Work closely with the Factory Manager and operational teams to embed strong food safety and quality practices across the site.
- Support operational teams in managing factory non-conformances, leading root cause analysis and implementation of corrective and preventative actions.
- Partner with Operations, Logistics and Commercial teams to ensure food safety, quality and legality are fully considered during NPD and EPD product introductions.
Quality Performance & Continuous Improvement
- Ensure customer complaints, non-conformances and out-of-specification results are investigated promptly, with effective root cause analysis and corrective actions implemented.
- Monitor, analyse and report technical KPIs, incidents and compliance metrics, driv-ing improvement initiatives where required.
- Champion continuous improvement, identifying opportunities to enhance technical systems, processes and site performance.
- Stay informed of industry and technological developments to strengthen technical capability and site standards.
Customer & Business Engagement
- Maintain strong customer confidence in the technical function through professional communication and robust technical management.
- Contribute technical expertise to site improvement initiatives and strategic projects.
- Manage the technical function budget effectively and ensure compliance with site Health & Safety standards.
Job requirements:
Skills & Experience required to do this role...
- Significant experience in a senior technical leadership role within FMCG food manu-facturing, ideally within chilled, short shelf-life products and high care/high risk envi-ronments.
- Proven track record of leading BRCGS and customer audits and maintaining strong compliance with regulatory and customer standards.
- Demonstrable experience working with UK retailers and food industry bodies, man-aging technical relationships and expectations.
- Strong technical knowledge of HACCP, BRCGS, auditing, traceability and food safety management systems within a manufacturing environment.
- Experience driving continuous improvement in food safety, quality and factory com-pliance standards.
- Degree (or equivalent) in a science, food science or related technical discipline.
- HACCP Level 4 and Lead Auditor qualification.
- Strong leadership, communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to engage, influence and challenge where required.
- Highly organised, collaborative and resilient, with the ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, retail-facing manufacturing environment.
- Willingness to be contactable outside of core business hours when required to support site operations.
Company Benefits:
- 25 days holiday plus Bank Holidays
- Health Scheme (Westfield Health)
- Private medical insurance
- Life assurance up to 4x annual salary
- Pension contributions 5%