Interim Technical Manager

Reporting to: General Manager, Ornua Trading UK

Contract: Fixed Term Contract to cover Maternity

Salary: £50,000 to £60,000 depending on experience

Benefits: Company pension scheme, discounted cheese and butter, free parking, flexible working, confidential employee assist programme, life assurance, bike and tech scheme and many more.

Ornua (meaning “new gold”) is Ireland's largest exporter of Irish dairy products, proudly bringing the unique taste of Irish dairy to the world for over 55 years.

Are you a technical professional looking for the challenge of taking a mission driven organisation to its next level of success? Ornua is actively seeking a Technical Manager to join our Ornua Nutrition Ingredients Trading Business as we continue our growth trajectory. The Technical Manager will play a key role in driving technical excellence, to assure product quality and microbiological safety, meeting customer expectations in line with all relevant quality, service, legal and regulatory standards and obligations.

Led by the General Manager, Ornua Trading UK, you will be part of a wider Trading team of around 10 colleagues working across commercial, sales and technical functions.

Why Ornua?

• Ornua operates from 10 business units worldwide, including 16 production facilities, and has sales and marketing teams working in-market across all four corners of the globe.
• The Group is structured across two divisions: Ornua Foods and Ornua Ingredients.
• Ornua Ingredients is responsible for the procurement of Irish and non-Irish dairy products and for the sale of dairy ingredients to food manufacturers and foodservice customers across the world.

Our co-operative ethos lies at the heart of how we do business as a purpose and values-led organisation, creating value for Irish dairy farming families. Our Values lie at the core of everything we do. Our five values encourage us to Seek and Embrace New Ideas, Make It Happen, Be Our True Selves, Show You Care, and Achieve Great Things Together.

We invest in our people and foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Dynamic Working policy in place which facilitates flexible hours and hybrid working. Career Progression including Global Mobility opportunities. Comprehensive Benefits with regional specific offerings.

Why This Role Is Valuable:

• Providing technical expertise to advise, educate and support internal and external stakeholders in all food safety and quality matters ensuring products are delivered to the highest standards.
• Champion team awareness of the functional strategy, vision, objectives, goals, measures and actions / initiatives.
• Champion the application of continuous improvement tools and techniques, including root cause analysis, and problem solving to resolve quality issues, and continually improve processes to meet customer demands.
• Develop, implement, maintain and ensure adherence to a Quality Management System which drives associated best practice for quality and safety and is in line with customer, GFSI & regulatory requirements.
• Implement and lead the onsite HACCP and VACCP plan in accordance with customer, GFSI & regulatory requirements.
• Own the supplier approval process to ensure suitability of supply to all required standards.
• Lead the maintenance of all Specifications ensuring they remain up to date – both within internal systems and within customer platforms.
• Completing all required customer documentation in accordance with defined customer segmentation requirements. Inclusive of completing safety, quality & sustainability documentation.
• Lead and manage the onsite traceability and mass balance schedule to ensure that it is maintained 100% of the time.
• Own the resolution and response for customer complaints and internal rejections, leading the investigation, undertaking root cause analysis, overseeing corrective actions and preventative measures in a timely manner that meets with customer expectations and prevents recurrence.
• Drive corrective & preventative actions in response to non-conformances from internal or external audits.
• Maintain compliance with ways of working defined within Global platforms such as M3 & Foods Connected.
• Engage with business projects and change initiatives to inspire action and drive operational excellence whilst working cross functionally.

What You Bring To The Role:

• Experience of driving quality and food safety excellence across an organisation.
• Ability to thrive on ambiguity/change and be able to push the business into new technologies/opportunities/directions.
• Excellent influencing skills with the ability to clearly communicate objectives, provide feedback and get buy in at all levels.
• Demonstrable experience of developing strong working relationships with Trading Standards, Environmental Health, Customer Technical reps and other bodies.
• Advanced Food Safety level 4 or equivalent / higher related science subject preferred.
• Advanced HACCP Level 4 or equivalent preferred.

Our interview process is designed to be thorough yet supportive. This process includes a first stage via Teams to allow us to get to know you better and to understand your skills and experiences and, if successful, a second stage face-to-face interview that will build upon the first stage and give you the opportunity to get a feel for Ornua and the environment in which you will be working.

Ornua has ambitious growth plans and we’re building a team to help enable and accelerate that growth. We are looking for people who share our values, are curious, forward-looking, take ownership and work together to build a future for themselves and Ornua. Ornua values diversity and inclusion and welcomes applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds. We also strongly encourage women and other underrepresented groups in the manufacturing industry to apply. Your unique perspectives and experiences are highly valued and will be instrumental in driving our company’s continued success. Join us in shaping a more innovative, inclusive, and sustainable future.