Operational Excellence Manager (OpEx Manager) in Crewe

We’re excited to offer an excellent opportunity for an experienced Operational Excellence Manager to join our team in Crewe and play a key role in driving continuous improvement across the business.

About The Compleat Food Group – a purpose‑driven food business formed in 2021, on a mission to create Food to Feel Good. We provide high quality, tasty and affordable food that people love to eat, and are home to some of the UK’s most exciting and loved food brands, including Wall’s Pastry, Pork Farms, Wrights, The Real Yorkshire Pudding Co., unearthed, Vadasz, Squeaky Bean, Palace Culture, and Harvey & Brockless. We are also a leading supplier of own‑label pastry, sweet bakery, party food, olives and antipasti, added‑value egg products, continental meats, dips and sauces and plant‑based food to major UK retailers and across foodservice. With over 6,000 talented colleagues across 17 sites, and an annual turnover of £1.3bn, we’re united by a shared ambition to shape the future of food for the better.

Job Purpose: To drive the identification and quantification of the improvement agenda in collaboration with the site leadership team, ensuring maximum focus and return on key strategic challenges. Act as a leading change agent, identifying and closing gaps in operational efficiency, capacity utilisation, wastage, quality, and safety against approved targets. Embed an Operational Excellence (OpEx) culture across the site by coaching, facilitating, and developing colleagues at all levels, contributing to ongoing OpEx delivery. Manage projects from concept through to handover, delivering them to required time, cost, and specification standards while maintaining the highest levels of safety and quality compliance.

Key Duties, Responsibilities & Accountabilities

• Lead the diagnostic cycle to define the annual ‘bottom up’ Operational Excellence budget.
• Collaborate with manufacturing colleagues to identify improvement opportunities, utilising data analysis, process observations and industry best practices and implementing flight plans to delivery.
• Provide analytic support to enable an understanding of the current state, baseline performance and capture existing issues.
• Implement principles of project governance and administration, including progress reporting and benefits delivery.
• Collaboratively support and lead multi‑skilled/cross‑functional teams.
• Use industry knowledge, product and equipment knowledge, project management experience and relationships across the organisation to enable successful delivery of complex/challenging projects.
• Collate data and present it in an understandable format to deliver required change.
• Coaching and developing of Compleat Food colleagues from management to shop floor.
• Develop and upskill colleagues in lean manufacturing principles, tools and techniques.
• Facilitate, coach and support the effective deployment of a tiered Performance Management system at site level.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Formal qualification in an OpEx methodology such as Lean Six Sigma, Lean, TPS.
• Either a Bachelor’s degree or a vocational qualification short of a degree level (HNC/HND) or Apprenticeship.
• Minimum 5 years of work experience, preferably in manufacturing environments.
• Proven experience of implementing and leading teams in the delivery of continuous improvement projects and embedding an OpEx culture with quantifiable business impact.
• Experience of coaching, developing, facilitating and leading teams.
• Strong financial acumen including the ability to accurately value the monetary impact of initiatives.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, with the ability to analyse complex data and communicate findings.
• Resilience and perseverance to establish an OpEx culture.
• Experience of seeking and identifying cost opportunities, improving efficiencies, improving safety and quality capability, generating innovative/creative solutions.
• Proven leadership skills and business acumen, and the ability to work with different functions within the organisation.
• Integrity to handle sensitive topics and respect/value the contributions of others.
• Strong analytical, logical and numerical competence.
• Highly developed influencing, persuasion and negotiation skills.
• Excellent IT skills.
• Fluency in English.

Why Join Us?

At The Compleat Food Group, we believe our people are the heart of our success. Our benefits support your lifestyle, wellbeing and career growth.

Financial & Lifestyle Benefits

• Salary sacrifice schemes including Electric Vehicles, Home & Tech, Cycle to Work, SMART Pension.
• 33 days annual leave with an option to purchase extra days.
• Holiday discounts via our online retail platform.
• Free product handouts across our sites.
• EV charging points available at selected sites.

Health & Wellbeing

• 24/7 access to Grocery Aid for free financial, emotional and practical support.
• Physical wellbeing hub with free on‑demand exercise classes and gym discounts.
• Free diet & nutrition advice with access to thousands of healthy recipes.
• Online wellbeing support from mindfulness to lifestyle resources.
• Financial wellbeing tools including mortgage calculators, budgeting tools and financial aid.

Career Growth & Development

• Access to a personalised online learning platform (LMS).
• Formal and informal training opportunities tailored to your role.
• Performance development plans and regular career conversations.
• Company mentoring scheme to support your career journey.
• Recognition through Club Compleat rewards.

Community & Culture

• 2 paid volunteering days per year.
• Charity initiatives and fundraising events.
• Team socials to connect and celebrate together.
• Employee networks & support groups including Women Compleat, LGBTQIA, and Neurodiversity.

We create an inclusive, respectful environment where everyone feels safe, supported, and able to be themselves at work. We’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to fairness, equity, inclusivity and respect. If you need a reasonable adjustment at any stage of our recruitment process, just let us know – we’ll support you confidentially and with care.