Manufacturing Team Manager in Huntingdon

As we continue our mission to make people and nature happy through reinventing chocolate, we’re looking for a Team Manager to join our Chocolate Manufacturing Team on a permanent night shift basis. As Team Manager, you are responsible for the day-to-day activities and processes within your team and department. You are responsible for the safety, engagement, welfare and performance of your team, whilst continuously ensuring the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) of your work area, quality and food safety and the quality of the products produced. You will lead your team through a given balanced scorecard of KPIs delivering objectives set by the business within the framework of the operation.

We are a dynamic brand with ambitious growth plans, so this opportunity would suit a skilled Team Manager or Team Supervisor who enjoys making a difference and driving positive change.

Shift pattern: Operating on a permanent night shift pattern of 10pm to 6am, Sunday to Thursday. As well as a competitive salary and a range of company benefits, you’ll receive 50% discount on all products, and a 70% discount for you and your guests when you stay at our Rabot Estate hideaway on the paradise island of Saint Lucia. The onsite location for this role is at our Factory ‘Hadley Park’, in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, right in the heart of where our chocolates are made and where weekly, we can produce between 4 to 6 million of the chocolates we all know and love. Hadley Park is just 5 minutes off the A141 and 1.3 miles from Huntingdon train station, with direct rail links to London King’s Cross.

What you’ll be doing

• Compliance to Safety and Quality Standards
• Safety walks within your work environment to ensure the safety of your team / any agency colleagues and visitors in your work area.
• Fire warden responsibility making sure team’s safety in case of evacuation.
• GMP ownership and analysis to drive improvement to business world class standards.
• Drive the team to no‑compromise culture for product quality and behaviour.
• 100% compliance and confidence of companies processes and procedures.
• Ensure 100% compliance with the product specification.
• Raise non‑conformance and drive root cause analysis and action plan for non‑compliant produce.
• Ensure SOPs / CiCs are produced, trained, reviewed and are being adapted to changes in manufacturing and any skills matrixes reflect this.
• Ensure mandatory training completion of all team.

Leadership

• Have a balanced approach of support and challenge.
• Drive Pride into the team for their work area / product range.
• Frequently hold 121 with the colleagues to monitor performance and development, making sure clear objectives are set and managed.
• Evaluate performance of the team members and create development plans.
• Communicate on a daily / weekly basis on messages from the business to the team.
• Ensure area’s training matrix is updated.
• Driving a Food Safety / Quality culture.
• Skill gap analysis and communication with Manager, plan training and resources.
• Flexibility to cover absences in the team.
• Efficient RTW / Absence management to control attendance.
• Team’s holiday management.
• Interact with the support functions, to deliver business goals.

Operational responsibilities

• Ownership of daily and weekly plan completion for their line on their shift.
• Attend a DRM daily with shift manager escalating operational issues.
• Liaise with the planning team to find most effective and efficient way to deliver demand through daily meetings and weekly commitment.
• Safety, Quality, Delivery, Control KPIs reporting on time and accurately.
• TRAKSYS use and analysis.
• Product Assessments.
• In some areas a higher level of Continuous Improvement Activity will be a main part of the role.
• Actions raised, implemented, and escalated where necessary.
• Make recommendations about ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
• Own 1st Production runs.
• Completion and Ownership of Compliance Audits in the department.
• Agency planning and ordering.
• Understanding and compliance of Temperature management.
• Enforce effective handover within team and colleagues at the start and end of the shift.
• Own their area during internal and external audits.
• Ensure optimal utilisation of materials and resources through yield and labour control.

Who you are

• Knowledge and full understanding and adherence of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards.
• Proven experience of leading and developing a team.
• HACCP Level 2 and Food Safety Level 2 qualified.
• Knowledge and understanding of Health and Safety standards.
• Knowledge and full understanding of Food Hygiene Standards.

Who are we?

We’re one of the UK’s favourite premium chocolate brands, with a range of products spanning luxury gifts, alcohol and our pioneering drinking chocolate system, the Velvetiser. A cacao pod takes years to grow – it can’t be rushed if it’s going to be just right for our products. The same can be said for Hotel Chocolat, which originally started as a mint production company before we realised it was luxury chocolate that we were really passionate about. Now, we’re market leaders in the industry. What began as an online‑only business grew to over 140 stores across the UK, and we’re still growing… Today, we’re multi‑category, multi‑channel, and multi‑territory, and our customers, colleagues, cacao farmers and suppliers all benefit from the success we make together.