Head of Operations

Head of Operations, Food Manufacturing

Our client is a highly innovative food manufacturer, constantly evolving and consistently investing in their facilities, their processes and their people. As a trusted supplier to customers from multiple retailers to foodservice providers, they are proud to dedicate time and resource into market insight, reinvention and bespoke ideas to truly deliver top tier products at scale. Their state-of-the-art manufacturing capability supports this delivery, ensuring excellence in operations and in quality.

Due to further expansion in operations and in product ranges, the Company has created a new role for a Head of Operations to be accountable for all teams across Production, Planning, Technical, Quality, Health & Safety, HR, Logistics and Distribution. As well as providing operational leadership, they will be a strong leader of people, ensuring achievement of corporate goals and contributing positively to the overall strategic direction of the Company.

The Head of Operations will develop teams to create a culture of high performance and excellence with ownership across the workforce for delivering results whilst recognising and nurturing talent across departments. They’ll oversee planning, continuous improvement and compliance in H&S, food safety and achievement of audits whilst ensuring the delivery of outstanding customer solutions. The role holder will also have a wider general management remit with oversight of logistics, HR and the capital assets of the business including input into new projects and investments.

Applicants should possess the following skills and criteria:

• Significant experience at senior operations or production leadership level within a sizeable, fast-paced food manufacturing company.
• Proven track record in leading a multi-functional team, driving results and improvements in each area of responsibility.
• Evidence of establishing and maintaining excellent business relationships with external and internal stakeholders.
• Demonstrable success in leading the development and implementation of process improvement and efficiency programmes.
• Project management experience with the ability to manage and allocate resources to maximise operational capacity, ideally having led people through operational growth.
• A Degree in a relevant discipline such as food science would be highly desirable and a qualification in LEAN, Six Sigma or other continuous improvement tools would be of particular interest.

This is the perfect career opportunity for a food manufacturing operations professional to take on a wider general management remit in a privately owned business as it scales.