Technical Manager

Impact the Future of Food Quality: Lead the charge in managing our ambient product categories and elevating supplier performance. Your expertise will be critical in upholding the renowned Waitrose standards for quality, safety, legality, and integrity. While you'll be the anchor within the Quality, Technical, and Regulatory team, you'll thrive in a collaborative environment, driving results and shaping strategy alongside our broader Own Brand and Commercial Teams.

• Salary - £57,000- £84,600  per annum based on skills and experience 

• Contract type - This is a secondment / fixed term position until March 2027 

• Working pattern/flexible working - 35 hours per week. The Partnership has adopted a hybrid working approach, meaning you'll be able to work a mixture between the office and home based upon your personal needs whilst balancing the needs of the business. 

• Location - Bracknell Head Office with an expectation to travel to suppliers as required and up to 3 days in the office, however flexibility will be required. 

• Interviews for this role are looking to be held - End of June / Early July

The successful candidate for this role will be looking after the following areas

• Sweet and Savoury Biscuits

• Homebaking

• Canned and packaged 

Key responsibilities

• Manage product and supplier performance in order to ensure compliance to Waitrose quality, safety, legality and integrity and all relevant Brand standards for categories of higher complexity or size to reflect the level of experience of the Technical Manager.

• Deliver the Own Brand Product Plan for the category by supporting the technical elements of all approved projects, and project managing those assigned to technical.

• You will operate in a collaborative matrix way of working across Quality & Technical, Regulatory, Policy & Compliance, Product Innovation, CPG Trading, Marketing, Customer Services, Retail and Ethics & Sustainability to deliver shared KPIs

Essential skills/experience you’ll need

• Degree in food science (or similar) or equivalent experience in Technical within the Food & Grocery industry 

• HACCP training (Level 3), Food Safety training (Level 3) ideally Lead Assessor 

• At least 5 years recent Technical experience within the food or non food industry  

• Supplier management and technical development 

• Passion for product and quality 

• Specialist training e.g. allergens, microbiology, specification management and product labelling legal requirements

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We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.  

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.   

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect. 

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective. 

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.  

Important points to note:  

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.  

We occasionally close vacancies early in the event we receive a high volume of applications, and therefore, we recommend you apply early. If you require a reasonable adjustment due to a disability which means you may need longer to complete your application please contact us as soon as possible.

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview. 

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