Head of Food, Capability & Culture – 6969

South West of England
£negotiable
Permanent
Ref: 6969

The Company

This established food brand has a great market presence, reputation and products consumers adore. With a forward thinking and quality focussed approach, they have created a new role for a confident and capable food professional. Someone who is just as adept at working with the factory team on improving process and capability as they are inspiring everyone in the company to appreciate food, imbedding a robust food culture across the business.

This role is hybrid with four days on site with occasional UK travel.

The Role

This is a pivotal role, reporting into the Director of Food, with responsibility for driving product excellence, food culture and continuous improvement across a multi-site operation. You will lead the agenda to ensure every product consistently exceeds customer expectations for taste, quality and authenticity, while also embedding a strong food-first mindset throughout the wider business.

You’ll take ownership of food capability development across production and support functions, creating engaging training programmes, championing quality standards and building pride in the products being made every day. Working closely with operational teams, you will lead initiatives that strengthen skills, improve consistency and elevate standards across sites.

The continuous improvement projects you’ll be leading will enhance hero products, optimise processes, improve systems and refine production methods. You will ensure learnings from trials, launches and previous projects are captured and contribute to operational performance.

As well as managing a development chef and the on-site Process Development team, you will collaborate with the wider Food Teams team, motivating them to deliver projects with energy and enthusiasm. You will work with all site teams to instil a foodie culture, engaging them with your passion and knowledge of food.

You will also oversee the successful implementation of ingredient changes, product improvements and site-based development projects, working closely with innovation, technical, finance, procurement and operations teams to ensure projects move smoothly from concept through to launch.

The Person

This role will suit a passionate and driven Senior Development Manager or CI / Process Manager with experience gained from a chilled food manufacturing or food service / QSR environment.

We are looking for that special Food professional who has a proven track record of leading continuous improvement initiatives as well as leading the development and scale-up of multiple EPD projects.

You’ll also need to be insights driven with a consumer-centric approach, have amazing project management skills – and to top it off, be technically savvy and fully at ease in a food manufacturing environment.

You’ll need to have experience of working with suppliers, manufacturing and cross-functional teams to continually raise the bar on product innovation through driving the continuous improvement agenda. You will be a natural communicator, able to effectively manage and influence key stakeholders, building strong working relationships to deliver significant projects.

If you think you have what it takes to help this brand elevate their product offerings in the UK market, blowing the competition away, then please get in touch. Apply or call Georgina on 0345 2600 737 // 07700 137 110 for more information.

ref: 6969

—

Due to the large number of applications our opportunities attract, it sometimes takes us time to thoroughly review and consider them all. We endeavour to respond to every application within 5 working days, however if you have not heard from us within this timeframe, we are sorry to say your application for the role has not been successful. To support you in showcasing your best self, we make sure that any necessary accommodations, whether physical or non-physical, are provided to assist you throughout the job application and interview process.

Also, please note that we are only able to accept and respond to applications from candidates with eligibility to work in the UK and those who hold valid work visas.

A few kind words

Blue Spark have been a completely different experience. Dhrutee genuinely cares, investing the time and energy to get to know the sorts of role I was searching for and importantly the reasons why. She has an enviable network across the industry and deep intuition about people which means the fit was perfect. I couldn't recommend Blue Spark highly enough and look forward to partnering for years to come. Thankyou!

Working with Blue Spark was a game changer for our team, their expertise and dedication finding the right talent transformed our team. Blue spark delivers excellence in recruitment, they swiftly found us the right candidate with a perfect fit for our team.

Working with Dhrutee is a pleasure, her industry knowledge is second to none, she always has her finger on the pulse and will offer advice when asked. I have always found Dhrutee to be professional, passionate and discrete she genuinely cares about both her candidate and her client. I would strongly recommend speaking to Dhrutee whether you are looking for your next opportunity or looking to add talent to your team.

The Blue Spark team offered a fantastic experience by guiding me through my work options based on my background which they had deep expertise in. They were kind and friendly over the phone, and listened well to my requests to ultimately help me understand what sort of roles I should be aiming for. They followed up the conversation with an email with all the points we discussed together over the phone and guidance for my next steps. This approach helped bring clarity and confidence to my decisions going forward.

Blue Spark are brilliant! They listen well to what’s needed and use their great insights into people and businesses to really match the right people to the right roles. I have worked with Dhrutee who is always friendly, has great strengths in filtering to the heart of what’s wanted (skills & character) and always gives “spot on” recommendations that make sense. I would highly recommend if you are either recruiting for NPD / Innovation roles or looking for a new role as a candidate; especially if you prefer an easy journey that feels positive throughout with no time wasted at any point.

Dhrutee and the team at Blue Spark are wonderful, they always make sure candidates are kept in the loop and provide feedback at all stages of the interview process, with complete honesty and transparency. They are truly one of the best recruitment agencies I have come across in my years of experience.