- Flax Bourton, Bristol, North Somerset, BS48 1UL View on Map
JOB TITLE
Operations and Procurement Team Manager
REPORTS TO
Head of Procurement
DIRECT REPORTS
Operations and Procurement Specialist(s), and other specialist roles as the team grows
LOCATION
FSC Bristol Innovation Centre (BIC), Farleigh Church, Farleigh Court, Old Weston Road, Flax Bourton, Bristol, North Somerset BS48 1UL, GB, with travel to other UK locations as required
BENEFITS
Competitive salary + healthcare scheme + other company benefits
HOURS
Permanent, full time, 35 hours per week; office-based with flexible working options considered
Company background
FSC is a family business with more than 35 years of award-winning experience in creating, rolling out and managing bespoke customer food-on-the-move solutions. Our customers include a selection of blue-chip companies in various industries, such as Shell, National Trust, Waterstones and Dunelm.
We offer a range of consultancy services drawing on our in-depth knowledge of the food-on-the-move sector and have managed projects all over the world.
Our Head Office is located in the world-famous village of Cheddar, our Innovation Centre is based near Bristol in Flax Bourton. Internationally, we also have offices in Prague (Czech Republic) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
Although our colleagues are based all over the world, we regularly get together to review performance, share best practice and socialise! As well as working in a challenging and fast-moving environment, we believe it is important to have a big chunk of fun and no day is ever the same at FSC.
At FSC we believe in ethical stewardship of all aspects within our business. This means that we thrive in a diverse, equitable culture where we celebrate inclusion and empowerment within our teams, and seek to always support our global community, minimising our carbon footprint wherever possible.
To help grow this awareness we have adopted a companywide ESG focus.
Purpose of role
The Operations and Procurement Team Manager is a blended role: hands-on day-to-day operations and procurement delivery within FSC’s UK Agile business, combined with line management of the team’s Operations and Procurement colleagues, ensuring operational and procurement activities run smoothly and remain aligned to FSC’s strategic goals. Day to day, they personally source ingredients, packaging and finished product, negotiate with suppliers, manufacturers and distributors, and build a strong product and commercial understanding of suppliers and manufacturers as part of an Agile scrum team. Alongside this, they lead and manage the team’s day-to-day activity, distribute workload effectively, develop team capability, and report on team performance to the Head of Procurement. The successful candidate will operate confidently and independently as a sourcing and supplier specialist in their own right, while bringing the people management skills to lead, coach and hold a small team accountable for delivery in a fast-moving, customer-focused consultancy environment.
The role will involve
Stakeholder & Project Delivery: Develop strong relationships with key internal and external stakeholders to identify and resolve risks and ensure successful delivery of the critical path, update the Agile team on operational project tasks, activities and risks at the daily stand-up, and use agreed project tools to capture and present information.
Sourcing & Supplier Management: Source ingredients, packaging and finished product to meet project and customer requirements, negotiate regularly with suppliers, manufacturers and distributors to achieve commercial targets for both FSC and the customer, and work with Technical and Finance to approve new suppliers and products.
Customer, Market & Compliance Insight: Build a strong understanding of the customer’s brand values, operations and logistics parameters, and maintain knowledge of relevant legislation affecting customers, suppliers and projects.
Team & People Management: Lead and manage the day-to-day activity of the Operations and Procurement team, ensure objectives are clearly communicated, understood and achieved, distribute tasks and workload to protect deadlines, provide regular coaching and feedback, conduct 1:1s and performance reviews, and report on team performance and progress to the Head of Procurement.
Qualifications
Educated to UK Level 5 or equivalent qualification
A full, clean driving licence
Right to work in the UK
Preferred
Professional qualification in People Management or Project Management
Experience
Proven experience managing, coaching or mentoring others, ideally within an operations, procurement or supply chain team
Experience of working on multiple projects in a cross-functional environment
Experience in the FMCG industry
Supply chain experience, including logistics cost and capability
Experience sourcing ingredients, packaging and services preferred
Skills and Qualifications
Supplier Management: Strong supplier management and negotiation skills, with the ability to quickly establish knowledge of a producer, including their capabilities and constraints.
Project Delivery: Understanding of the critical path process, with the ability to multi-task and prioritise across own workload and team oversight.
Attention to Detail: Good attention to detail in a fast-paced environment.
Communication Skills: Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Leadership: Strong people management skills, empowering and trusting the team, fostering psychological safety and running day-to-day work in line with Agile principles.
Technology: Competent in the use of Microsoft Office, with demonstrable experience using AI tools (e.g. Claude) in day-to-day work and enthusiasm for driving adoption across the team.
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