Central Technical Director in London

We are FBC UK, Fox's Burton's Companies! We bake the UK's most incredible biscuits. FBC UK was a match made in heaven, with two of the top UK biscuits manufacturers (Burton's Biscuits and Fox's Biscuits) coming together to create one unique, integrated company. We are home to famous iconic brands, including Maryland, Fox's, Jammie Dodger & Rocky, to name just a few. We are proud manufacturing partners to some of the biggest UK retailers and household names. We bake our incredible biscuits at eight bakeries across the UK, located at Isle of Arran, Livingston, Blackpool, Llantarnam, Edinburgh, Kirkham, Batley & Dorset and our HQ in St Paul's. Together, we employ circa 4,000 amazing colleagues across all our locations.

We know that the key ingredient to our success is our people, and the passion we have for our brands. We knead people with innovative ideas, an entrepreneurial spirit, and the commitment to drive FBC UK to success. We are committed to building an inclusive workforce that feels empowered to build a fulfilling and successful career. By embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) we create a supportive environment for people to thrive and strive to have more positive impact.

We understand that having formal and on-the-job learning opportunities is key to our colleagues’ professional and personal growth. We are committed to providing an environment where everyone can learn from each other and grow through a variety of learning experiences. Our colleagues make our business special. With strong community values, we believe FBC UK is a more prosperous and fun place to work when people feel free to be themselves. We believe in the power of being authentic, entrepreneurial, and supporting each other whilst meeting our business goals.

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced Central Technical Director to lead Food Quality and Safety across our central functions, including operations and third-party manufacturers. You will head the central FSQ function, ensuring compliance with regulatory, customer and industry standards while driving continuous improvement. Working closely with R&D, Operations and Supply Chain, you will ensure the consistent delivery of safe, high-quality products aligned to customer frameworks and business strategy. You will also lead Product Incident Management where required and play a key role as a member of the Technical Leadership Team.

Main Responsibilities

• Customer Interface
  • Lead and maintain strong technical relationships with existing and new customers, acting as the senior technical representative on quality, food safety and sustainability matters.
  • Oversee delivery of customer quality plans, technical activities and portal requirements for strategic accounts.
  • Provide clear direction to internal teams on customer technical expectations and strategy.
  • Ensure effective management of artwork changes, corrective actions and continuous improvement in response to customer and audit feedback.
• Performance Management
  • Oversee the development of technical scorecards and evaluate performance review outputs, providing guidance and challenge where required.
  • Ensure impactful customer requests are assessed in alignment with FBC strategies.
  • Oversee the Product Quality Assessment framework, providing feedback to Operations and defining clear success measures for improvement.
• Product Development
  • Oversee teams responsible for evaluating technical aspects of new product launches, finished product specifications and artwork origination/changes, escalating unmitigated risks where necessary.
  • Lead delivery of technical support for retailer brand project work.
• Food Law
  • Ensure effective evaluation of global and local food law requirements using best-in-class sources, including trade associations, law firms, consultancies and online services.
  • Oversee the internal legislation hub, ensuring the business is prepared for regulatory change through clear communication and action planning.
• Food Regulation
  • Support the definition of regulatory strategy for product development aligned with business requirements.
  • Lead the provision of regulatory intelligence and the development of business-wide response plans.
• Compliance
  • Lead the product labelling compliance team, ensuring legislative checks, claims validation and guidance to operational teams.
  • Oversee validation of local legislation on claims (health, nutrition, ingredients) and conditions of use, including risk assessments covering legal and reputational considerations.
  • Lead teams contributing to cross-functional working groups to improve workflows, best practices and ways of working.
• Project Management
  • Own the intake and prioritisation of new FSQ system and standards projects.
  • Ensure appropriate stakeholder engagement and effective project kick-off.
  • Monitor project execution and progress to ensure delivery against objectives.
• FSQ Governance
  • Define and implement FSQ governance aligned to key milestones within the FBC UK calendar.
  • Facilitate the definition of the FSQ budget and SAF.
  • Coordinate internal FSQ stakeholders to ensure effective governance and alignment.
  • Act as FSQ lead for the introduction of Ferrero Ecosystem products into FBC UK distribution and sales, ensuring all legal and food safety requirements are met.
  • Ensure ongoing quality assessment of Ecosystem products and implementation of corrective actions where required.
  • Lead FSQ activity for FBC brands entering international markets, ensuring ongoing quality assessments are maintained.

Who we are looking for

Qualifications

• Food or Science-related degree
• FSSC 22000 certification

Experience

• Proven leadership experience within a multi-site FMCG food organisation
• Demonstrated ability to operate at senior leadership level in complex food manufacturing or FMCG environments
• Strong background in retailer private label, managing high-risk, high-profile customer requirements
• Significant senior-level experience working with major UK retailers, including M&S and Tesco

Diversity Statement
FBC UK is committed to building a diverse and inclusive culture in which all employees feel welcomed and appreciated and have the same opportunities. We believe all of our people are equally talented in their own way. In nurturing the curiosity and natural abilities of our employees, we provide them, generation after generation, the means to succeed personally and professionally, enabling them to craft their journey at FBC UK. The diversity of our talents is what makes our work environment multicultural, innovative and highly rewarding.