Food Plant Operator

City:
Cardiff

Address:
Cardiff, Wales, GB, CF24 5SB

Job Requisition Number 8765

Work Type Permanent

Job Function Operational

Salary Range £28,065.00-£31,887.00

Base Cardiff East

Closing Date Wednesday 29th July 2026 at 23:59

As a Plant Operator you will be responsible for the day‑to‑day safe operation and maintenance of the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) facility. Your role will involve the acceptance of food waste feedstock and operating a computerised process system.

You will also be responsible for maintenance and housekeeping of infrastructure and assets to comply with WWOE and regulatory standards, contractual requirements and to safeguard the process and people.

As an AD Plant Operator, you will be the initial point of contact for the receipt of food waste and will liaise with customers, contractors and visitors to the site in accordance with the company’s values and behaviours.

You will load process equipment using mobile plant and clean delivery vehicles in order to maintain compliance with regulatory requirements. Accurate completion of site documentation will form part of daily tasks as well as interrogation of data to identify trends and process related issues.

You will be part of a standby rota, so a valid driving licence is essential.

As Plant Operator you will also:

• Undertake all activities in a safe and hygienic manner.
• Receipt of food waste deliveries.
• Undertake activities in accordance with the site environmental permit and contractual requirements.
• Conduct plant process sampling and analysis.
• Complete data entry, analysis and interrogation.
• Reporting incidents, accidents, hazards and near misses.
• Manage consumable stock volumes and provide feedback for required orders.
• Undertake first line maintenance and housekeeping on infrastructure and assets.
• Complete and distribute plant reading reports to stakeholders.
• Be a Tier 1 responder for the site standby arrangements.

• Operational experience of process plant.
• Ability to solve problems; takes ownership and approaches problem solving with logical approach.
• A good understanding of health and safety is key to the role, knowledge of waste legislation and operating under an environmental permit would be an advantage.
• Organised dedicated approach with the proven ability to meet deadlines and targets.
• IT literate – confident in using email and putting data into spreadsheets.
• Ability to attain the appropriate level of competence to operate moving plant and licensing, where appropriate.
• We are looking for a good team player who will work within a small team to support other Plant Operators, guide Operators and the site management team to maintain and improve process efficiencies.
• Operational experience of working within a waste, water or AD processing facility.
• Experience and understanding of working under a Waste Management Licence (WML), Environmental Permit and Animal By-Products (ABP) Regulations.

• If you would like any further information on this role, please contact

As well as a market competitive salary, 34 days annual leave (pro rata, including public holidays), we offer a range of employee benefits and rewards including:

• Variable pay schemes (your salary will always stay the same, but depending on the performance of the company you could receive a yearly bonus).
• Enhanced employer pension contributions – Up to 11% employer contributions.
• Enhanced family friendly policies.
• Progression opportunities, including the ability to apply for funded training and coaching and mentoring programmes.
• Reduction on gym memberships and high street shopping.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Car‑leasing scheme.
• An employee assistance programme for employees and their immediate family.

Whilst also working for a not-for profit company that truly cares about earning the trust of customers everyday, and about looking after our beautiful environment.

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water keep 3 million people healthy each day with safe, reliable water, and take away wastewater to clean, before returning it safely to our beautiful rivers and seas.

To be able to deliver high quality, essential services which help to protect the health of our customers, colleagues and…