Production Kitchen Lead (CPU)

The Kitchen Lead role is a hands-on position that leads by example, suited to someone with a genuine passion for quality, consistency, and great food. Based across our production kitchens, you will play a key role in overseeing the production of best-in-class savoury breakfast and lunch items for our Houses, ensuring every item is produced and presented with care, precision, and attention to detail.

You will be fully involved in daily operations, managing a high-performing team to maintain exceptional product quality, consistency, and efficiency across all production lines. Alongside this, you will uphold high storage, dispatch, cleanliness, and food safety standards, while fostering a positive, engaged team culture built on honesty, empathy, and accountability. Directly reports to our Head of Food.

Key Responsibilities

• Responsible for the daily operation of the production kitchen.
• Lead and hold to account the kitchen team throughout your shift.
• Ensuring all shifts are opened and closed to the correct standards.
• Daily checks are done accurately and recorded on Trail.
• Produce weekly shift rotas to be approved by Bakery manager.
• Each shift volume is prepared and packed in full and on time.
• Solve production issues and optimize workflow and labour usage.
• Shift supervision of health and food safety of the bakery ensuring full compliance with WatchHouse’s operating procedures.

Product quality

• Uphold standards across the team to make sure product quality is maintained and that all items are being produced to the correct recipe and product specification, ensuring consistency across all product lines.
• Address any product quality issues (quality, weights, finish) within the shifts and elevate as required.
• Drive food safety compliance to ensure the bakery and all processes remain held to highest standards of cleanliness and traceability.

Inventory management

• Monitor ingredient inventory, coordinating efficient and accurate stock management.
• Escalate to kitchen lead if stocks of ingredients are too high/low and support adjustment and reduce wastage.
• Kitchen stock management, ensuring all items required are ordered correctly through MarketMan whilst controlling wastage, ensuring accurate stock takes are completed weekly and controlling stock levels accordingly.

Team management

• Ensure all team members take correct breaks, holidays and start and finish shifts on time.
• Maintain a positive culture and an engaged team, uphold standards with honesty and empathy to ensure consistent quality.

Key to this role

• Genuine passion for food and drive to deliver best-in-class products to our Houses.
• Available 40 hours per week, any 5 days out of 7.
• Strong leadership abilities, with a positive can-do attitude.
• Level 3 Food Hygiene knowledge of HACCP and ability to implement and manage food safety practices to remain compliant.
• Interpersonal skills, the ability to build and maintain relationships whilst showing empathy to your team.
• Level 3 Health & Safety or successful completion by end of probation.
• Demonstrated experience leading a team in a production environment, with the ability to deliver effective feedback and hold their team to account.
• Attention to detail, be diligent in ensuring all product lines are consistent and to product specification.
• Familiar with working on Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to work well at pace when under pressure.