Raw Material Technical Manager

London, England, United Kingdom

Salary: £38,000 – £42,000 per annum (paid monthly)

• Take ownership of ensuring allocated Raw Material products used by Prepworld meet the compliance requirements of the end customer. Act as key contact within the Prepworld for driving quality improvement initiatives for raw material and production processes.
• Have sole ownership of several Prepworld Raw Material products as allocated by the Supplier Technical Manager, ensuring that they meet required internal and external standards.
• Operate at all times in accordance with Health and Safety regulations and in adherence to any relevant health, safety and environmental policies and procedures, ensuring safe use of facilities and equipment and providing a safe working environment for staff and visitors.
• Responsible for collection of all relevant compliance paperwork in good time, working from the Pre‑season Raw Material Supply Plan provided by the Procurement Manager.
• Organise and allocate any audits required to meet customer compliance needs as part of a logical, timely and cost‑efficient plan, ensuring that all audits are completed, and non‑conformances resolved within allocated timescales.
• Complete all Supplier Risk Assessments in allocated timescales, ensuring that they receive the Supplier Approval Pack and Checklist upon receipt of the Pre‑Season supply plan from Procurement Managers.
• Implement supplier microbiological testing in accordance with the Technical Compliance department’s requirements and ensure all necessary samples are sent for accredited residue analysis.
• Manage all retail customer due diligence platforms, ensuring all technical documentation is approved prior to supply and maintained during the season.
• Ensure suppliers/growers meet ethical standards required for each retailer for the product areas that you manage.
• Work collaboratively with Procurement Managers, completing Product QIP plans and analysing opportunities in the supply base in terms of new varieties, alternative packaging, new suppliers, shipping methods etc.
• Work collaboratively with Intake QC team, offering training and support to ensure that they have the best possible information about our current fruit supply, and ensure that the Raw Material Rejection process is followed at all times to minimise the risk of out‑of-specification fruit being used.
• Complete reviews of Raw Material specification on a regular basis, implement trials with the wider team to assess suitability of new products and varieties.
• Communicate rejections to suppliers, outlining the reasons for any rejections and working with the suppliers to help them improve the quality of future arrivals.
• Actively seek opportunities to improve product quality, working collaboratively with Production teams to identify, implement and develop initiatives to reduce waste rates and improve finished product quality, recording and tracking weekly waste rates against agreed KPIs.
• Participate in key product quality improvement initiatives, attending on a rota basis, daily product benchmarking sessions, daily Production meetings, weekly quality meetings and any relevant customer complaints meetings.
• Assist Procurement Managers with end‑of‑season supplier scorecards, collate key technical information for the season with corrective actions recorded where suppliers have failed to meet the desired standard, track and trend performance year on year to drive supplier improvements through strategic supplier score‑carding.
• Lead by example and strategise ways to promote and implement business vision and values to the Raw Material Technical team.

• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to negotiate and communicate with internal and external stakeholders.
• Independent with a self‑organised approach and the ability to plan a workload and support other members of the team. Good time management is essential.
• Resilient with a strong work ethic.

• Qualified graduate in Agriculture/Horticulture, Postharvest, Food Technology or similar fields.
• HACCP, Auditing qualifications/experience and a Food Safety qualification are desirable.

• Pro…