Operations Director in London

Company About Us: Founded by former Michelin-starred chef Paul Rhodes in 2003, Paul Rhodes Bakery has built a strong reputation as the go-to supplier of quality handcrafted sourdoughs, cakes and pastries in the capital. Paul’s ambition when he started the bakery was simple: to provide London’s busy chefs with the best handcrafted bread, made from the finest ingredients possible and traditional techniques. Today, as the bakery heads towards twenty-five years in business, the goal remains the same and this ambition underpins everything we do. We have both a wholesale business supplying some of London’s top restaurants, hotels, cafés, and entertainment venues, as well as our local retail bakery shop which is based a ten minute walk up the road, in Greenwich Market. As we continue to grow, we are looking for talented individuals to join our team and contribute to our success. At Paul Rhodes Bakery, we believe in nurturing talent. By joining our company, you’ll have the chance to work with experienced professionals, learn valuable skills, and be part of a friendly, supportive environment.

Role overview: This is a senior leadership role for someone who wants to be part of something that matters: a business with genuine craft at its heart, exciting plans ahead, and the values to pursue them in the right way. As Bakery Operations Director, you will have full oversight of all operations across our Greenwich site: production, technical, food safety, hygiene, packing, and logistics. You will lead a team of department managers, shaping the culture, standards, and systems of a bakery that is ambitious about its future. We are a business that takes quality seriously and takes its people seriously. We are also a business that is not standing still. This role is for someone who shares that energy and has the experience and leadership to help drive it forward. You will report directly to the Managing Director and work closely with our Head of Food and the rest of the senior leadership team, playing a central role in how this business operates and evolves.

What the role looks like: This is not an office role. You will be on-site and visible: walking the floor, knowing your team by name, understanding the rhythm of the bakery across shifts and seasons. You will not be managing daily operations directly. Your job is to lead the people who run those operations: to develop them, challenge them, support them, and hold them to account. You will spend time on the production floor, not because you have to, but because that is where you will see what is really happening and where your presence will matter most. You will also make time to step back, to review, to plan, and to build. You will be expected to know this site intimately: its layout, its equipment, its constraints, and its opportunities. And you will be expected to have a clear view of how all of it can be better.

Key Responsibilities

• Operations and Production: Lead and oversee all bakery functions: production, technical, hygiene, packing and logistics; Set and maintain the highest standards of product quality, consistency and food safety across every shift; Drive operational performance across efficiency, throughput, waste reduction and on-time delivery; Own the physical production environment: equipment, facility standards and maintenance schedules; Ensure food safety systems, allergen controls and HACCP processes are robust and genuinely embedded in daily practice.
• Efficiency and Continuous Improvement: Embed lean principles and smarter ways of working across the bakery; Identify and eliminate waste in process flow, scheduling, material handling and team deployment; Build a culture of continuous improvement where every team member feels empowered to make things better; Use data and operational insight to identify gaps and lead structured improvement.
• People and Culture: Lead, develop and support a team of department managers with honesty, warmth and clarity; Build a collaborative, accountable and high-performing culture across the bakery; Champion diversity and inclusion as a genuine strength of the team and the business; Be a visible, trusted presence on-site: know your people and make sure they know you.
• Quality, Craft and Values: Protect and uphold the product quality and ingredient standards that define Paul Rhodes Bakery; Be a passionate advocate for responsible sourcing, environmental stewardship and producing food properly; Draw a clear and confident line between where modern methods add value and where human skill is irreplaceable; Balance operational improvement with the integrity of craft and the values of the brand.

What we are looking for

• Experience: Significant senior leadership experience in bakery, food manufacturing or quality-led food production; Proven track record leading multi-department bakery or production operations in a site-based role; Direct experience implementing lean manufacturing or continuous improvement programmes; Exposure to production technology or digital systems in a food manufacturing context; Experience in environments where quality is the primary measure of success, not just volume; Strong understanding of food safety, HACCP and regulatory compliance in a production environment.
• The Person: More than any single credential, we are looking for someone with the right instincts, values and ambition: Genuinely people-focused: someone who builds trust, develops others and creates cultures people want to be part of; A progressive thinker who is open to new ideas, new technology and new ways of working; Emotionally intelligent, approachable and collaborative; a leader people follow because they want to; Values-led and accountable: someone who takes ownership and does the right thing, even when it is harder; Passionate about food, quality, sourcing and what it means to produce something genuinely good; Ambitious and driven, with the vision and patience to build something properly; Someone who embraces diversity and understands, instinctively, the strength it brings.

International Applicants and Visa Sponsorship: We welcome applications from candidates based both in the UK and internationally. We are open to providing visa sponsorship for the right candidate. If this applies to you, please mention it in your application. It will not disadvantage you in any way and we are committed to making the process as straightforward as possible.

Package: Location: Lassell St, Greenwich, London SE10 9PJ; Contract: Full-time, permanent; Competitive salary.

Benefits include: Free and discounted bakery products to take home; Company pension scheme; Personal development and training budget; Staff discount at our Greenwich retail shop; Birthday cake of your choice; Summer and winter company events; 500 pound referral bonus for successful hires; Cycle to Work Scheme; Additional holiday with length of service; Paid breaks.