Site Director in Cambridge

Pilgrims Europe is seeking an experienced and commercially astute Site Director to lead our Huntington and Peterborough Food Service sites. This is a critical senior leadership role with full accountability for site performance, including quality, health & safety, efficiency, cost control, and competitive advantage. The successful candidate will have full P&L responsibility, lead and develop the senior management teams across both sites, and be accountable for all employees on site. You will play a pivotal role in driving operational excellence, delivering outstanding customer service, and supporting new product introductions on time and to specification.

Key Responsibilities

• Overall leadership and optimisation of site performance across Huntington and Peterborough.
• Full accountability for financial performance, including profit, turnover, margin, cash flow, yield optimisation, working capital and cost control.
• Development and delivery of site strategy, budgets, business plans, forecasts and performance targets, aligned to overall business strategy.
• Ensuring robust production and material planning to meet customer demand and operational efficiency.
• Leading, developing and coaching the site senior management teams and wider workforce, addressing underperformance through training and corrective action where required.
• Driving Operational Excellence and labour optimisation, embedding a high-performance culture with strong ownership for continuous improvement and innovation.
• Benchmarking against best-in-class operations, introducing new methods and technologies, and proactively driving improvement initiatives.
• Ensuring all plant and equipment are correctly operated, cleaned and maintained, and developing a rolling capital investment plan in conjunction with the Group Technical team.
• Delivering best-in-class standards in product quality, customer service and operational performance.
• Ensuring full compliance with all statutory, regulatory and customer requirements, including food safety, health & safety, environment, employment law and trading standards.
• Developing and maintaining systems, procedures and working practices that meet group policies, accreditation standards and customer requirements.

Experience & Qualifications

• Senior management experience within manufacturing, with a minimum of 5 years at a senior leadership level.
• Proven track record of leading a key function or site within manufacturing or food production.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing processes and up-to-date knowledge of processing equipment.
• Relevant qualifications in food, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain management, economics, or similar.
• Demonstrable change management experience.
• Customer-facing experience, including managing and developing key customer relationships.
• Experience managing large, multi-disciplinary workforces.
• Proven capability in developing, motivating and coaching teams.
• Strong negotiation experience (internal and external), including pay negotiations.
• Experience communicating effectively at all levels and across all functions.
• Successful involvement in capital project implementation.
• High level of IT literacy.

Technical & Commercial Capability

• Strong people leadership and delegation skills.
• Performance management expertise, including KPI development and delivery.
• Sound understanding of management accounting, budgeting and financial controls.
• Strong commercial acumen with experience of P&L, balance sheets, ROC, financial planning and EBITDA.
• Understanding of engineering processes and standards.
• Knowledge of procedural agreements and union relationships.
• Strong understanding of supply chain processes.
• In-depth knowledge of GMP, Health & Safety and Environmental standards.
• Excellent presentation and report-writing skills.
• Ability to drive optimum performance across all functions.

Personal Attributes

• Results-driven with a strong commitment to success.
• Able to engage, influence and communicate with a diverse workforce.
• Demonstrable team builder and collaborative leader.
• Confident to challenge constructively and make balanced decisions.
• Flexible, logical and pragmatic in approach.
• High levels of integrity; fair, honest and objective.
• Passionate about food manufacturing.
• Strong analytical capability with sustained drive and enthusiasm.
• Self-motivated, organised and resilient.
• Creative and imaginative thinker, able to think outside the box.