Director Food Production Operations UK

Are you a visionary leader ready to drive success in the global food industry? NSF is seeking a Director Food Production Operations to lead and inspire a high-performing team across the UK. In this role, you will steer the implementation of our global strategy, ensuring operational excellence, financial performance, and growth in key sectors such as supplier assurance, agriculture, and certification services. You’ll be responsible for developing and mentoring top talent, fostering a results-driven culture, and building strong cross-functional relationships to maximize efficiency and exceed business objectives. Reporting to the Senior Director of Food & Nutrition EMEA, this is a unique opportunity to leverage your leadership experience and shape a dynamic team culture, making a lasting impact!

Principal accountabilities will include:

• Lead the regional implementation of the global Food Production strategy, ensuring alignment with financial and operational goals, as well as NSF’s mission, values, and customer expectations.
• Achieve client service level expectations by meeting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and targets, ensuring high client satisfaction and leveraging team resources for feedback and insights into customer needs.
• Drive growth through the NSF sales model, identifying new opportunities and enhancing service offerings across operational, product, and service delivery teams.
• Collaborate with operational managers to improve performance and operational measures, ensuring cost-effective support to all stakeholders while monitoring KPI performance.
• Manage client relationships to ensure profitable account growth and resolve any issues to both client and NSF’s satisfaction.
• Partner with Sales, Marketing, and Food Production leadership to identify business development opportunities and drive targeted campaigns.
• Foster a culture of high performance, accountability, and talent development, ensuring teams are empowered to meet and exceed goals through leadership, coaching, and effective performance management.
• Lead by example, demonstrating NSF values and motivating teams to achieve higher levels of performance, while maintaining a positive, collaborative team culture.
• Assist in the development and presentation of the business unit’s budget, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and driving revenue and margin growth.
• Establish and maintain key relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including customers, team members, and standard owners, to meet current needs and identify future requirements.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of Food Production solutions and technology to deliver a competitive edge.
• Operate in compliance with company policies, health & safety standards, and all relevant regulations.
• Support legal obligations and reporting, as well as take on other ad-hoc duties/projects as required.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in business or a related field.
• Relevant experience in the food industry, particularly in testing, inspection, certification (TIC), or food manufacturing.
• Proven leadership experience in business or general management roles.
• Expertise in strategy development and implementation.
• Experience leading teams in remote and hybrid work environments.
• Track record of leading global or regional operations, identifying market trends, and driving innovation.
• Proven ability to manage P&L ($16M), allocate resources, and exceed revenue and profit targets.
• Strong ability to build and maintain customer relationships, delivering customer-centric solutions.
• Skilled in team building, talent development, and performance management.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to interpret financial indicators and drive organizational goals.
• Effective communicator with the ability to deliver clear, transparent messages to teams.
• Demonstrates NSF core values: We Do the Right Thing. We Treat People Well. We Relentless Pursue Excellence. We Are One NSF.
• Collaborative mindset with experience engaging stakeholders across regions and functions.
• Proven ability to lead and develop other leaders.
• High proficiency in English; additional EU language skills are a plus.

What NSF offers you:

As the Director of Food Production Operations at NSF, you’ll lead a high-performing team to drive growth, profitability, and operational excellence across the UK. You’ll shape the future of food production, collaborate with global teams, and influence strategic initiatives. With the chance to mentor top talent, implement innovative solutions, and cultivate a results-driven culture, you’ll enjoy the freedom to make key decisions, gain global exposure, and thrive in a flexible hybrid work environment. Take your career to new heights and join NSF today! Apply now and send us your CV and cover letter. Come join our team, we look forward to hearing from you!

About NSF:

NSF is an independent, growing services organization dedicated to improving human and planet health worldwide. We deliver our mission by facilitating standards development and providing world-class testing, inspection, certification, advisory services and digital solutions to the food, water, life sciences and personal care industries. We’re passionate about the work we do, because together, we have a broad impact on our world. Our ~3,000 team members serve 40,000 clients in 180 countries from our 45+ offices and labs, as well as remotely/ at client sites. More information about NSF can be found at nsf.org.