Specifications Technologist; Dairy Manufacturing

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Specifications Technologist (Dairy Manufacturing)

Neg c £40,000 - 45,000 pa

Nantwich

DM/ST/NA

Fixed Term Contract

Dan Marshall

Some Specifications Technologists are brilliant at specifications.

Some understand the product, the customer and the whole journey between the two.

And if that’s you, there’s quite a lot here for you.

The role is based at the company’s dairy manufacturing site near Nantwich, but it can be hybrid and, for someone with the right experience who can hit the ground running, potentially even home-based.

We’re not going to put an arbitrary salary or day rate on the advert and expect the right person to squeeze themselves into it. We’ve been asked to find an experienced person quickly, and the company is prepared to pay top market rates to make that happen.

And then there’s the job itself.

Because whilst specifications sit at the heart of this job, they don’t define the edges of it.

You’ll get exposure to customers. You’ll support Technical Account Management. You’ll be involved in product launches, artwork and packaging. You’ll work alongside Product Development, Procurement and Supply Chain. You’ll attend customer meetings, audits and site visits. You’ll see considerably more of the technical operation than the bit that happens on your screen.

And that’s probably the biggest attraction of the role.

If you’ve already learned how to manage specifications and retailer systems, this gives you the opportunity to start building on that knowledge.

You’ll learn more about how customers think. You’ll understand more about how products make the journey from development through to launch. You’ll see how technical decisions affect other departments – and how decisions elsewhere in the business eventually find their way back to Technical.

You’ll also get the opportunity to become more customer-facing. Not simply responding to an email asking for a specification, but answering technical questions, explaining information, attending meetings and representing the business when customers need technical expertise in the room.

You’ll work closely with the Technical Account Management function too, giving you exposure to a broader, more commercially aware side of Technical.

So, if you’re ambitious about where your technical career eventually takes you, there’s a lot here to get your teeth into.

There’s still a proper Specifications Technologist job to do. Here’s the standard stuff:

• You’ll create, manage and approve finished product specifications, making sure they’re accurate and meet both customer requirements and internal standards.
• You’ll prepare ingredient declarations, nutritional information and allergen data, including customer-specific formats.
• You’ll produce legally compliant pack copy and review and approve artwork, making sure what’s printed on the packaging is technically accurate, compliant and meets customer guidelines.
• You’ll maintain branded and own-label specifications through retailer web-based systems and keep product information and records accurate and up to date.
• You’ll also stay on top of food legislation, labelling regulations and retailer codes of practice.

Accuracy matters. A lot.

But the really interesting stuff tends to happen when everything isn’t quite as straightforward as the specification suggests…

That’s when you’ll be working with customers and colleagues to solve problems, answer technical queries and work out what needs to happen next.

You’ll collaborate with teams across the business on critical paths and product launches, contribute technical knowledge to new products and help identify improvements to manufacturing processes and product…