IT Director

Founded in 2003, Wasabi's vision is to lovingly create and serve delicious Asian food for a busy nation. Wasabi now has 42 thriving restaurants across London and major UK cities and 4 in New York. In 2019, we introduced Wasabi Home Bento, the grocery channel, launching exclusively in Sainsbury’s. Building on that success, the grocery business broadened its reach to Tesco in September 2022, followed by exciting launches in Co-op and Morrisons in 2024. Wasabi grocery has seen phenomenal growth and is now a £62m RSV brand. Wasabi proudly stands as the No. 2 chilled ready-meal brand in the market, consistently attracting new customers to the category through an innovative East Asian range. Wasabi’s menu is celebrated for its unique character, exceptional freshness, and bold flavours. Our diverse range is designed to delight a wide audience, delivering both comfort and excitement with every bite.

We have an ambitious 5-year growth strategy, focusing on new restaurants, franchise partnerships, and international expansion. As we prepare for our next phase of growth and innovation, we have an incredibly exciting opportunity for an IT Director to join our IT team based in Park Royal.

The Role: This is a critical role responsible for leading the company’s technology strategy to enable scalable growth, operational resilience, cybersecurity, and data-driven decision-making across the business. The IT Director will be responsible for the strategy and execution of the IT infrastructure and systems roadmap for the Wasabi business in the UK across our Restaurant, Support Centre, and Manufacturing divisions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Business Alignment & Vision: Set out the IT strategy that supports the delivery of Wasabi’s 3-year plan where strategic goals require IT enablement for success. Provide thought leadership on the automation of business activities, leveraging machine learning and AI capability where appropriate. Lead the AI Working Group, providing structure and guidance and contributing industry and IT market insights. Define the IT function’s ‘service proposition’ to stakeholders and internal customers and implement ways of measuring and improving perception of service.
• Transformation: Lead the automation and removal of manual processes and work-arounds. Support Continuous Improvement activity, consulting on IT enablement, with particular focus on our factory and restaurant operational efficiency. Technical lead and management of our IT roadmap, including continuous improvement of our ERP, infrastructure, and associated solutions. Partner with key stakeholders across the senior leadership team to ensure alignment on IT priorities and delivery and that IT change is managed seamlessly with minimal disruption to operations or customer experience.
• Core IT Operations: Management for all core business systems, including Microsoft Business Central, Data Warehouse and interfaces into Microsoft Business Intelligence platform. Set, measure and deliver on user support and experience for all support office, manufacturing, and branch IT users. Manage and optimise Wasabi’s network and telecoms infrastructure with particular focus on customer-facing systems and technology. Select, onboard and manage key partners and suppliers, ensuring adherence to agreed SLAs. Manage relationship across Wasabi business and different functions to ensure link between business requirements and IT deliverables. Manage and coach the IT team, including setting objectives, giving regular feedback and creating development plans. Drive a culture of continuous improvement across the IT function. Role model the Wasabi behaviours and hold direct reports accountable for the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’, aligning to our cultural drivers.
• Governance & Standards: Set standards and ensure these are continuously met for IT compliance, standards, security, and policies. Oversee the governance of in-flight IT project delivery, and financial budget management for projects, and overall IT spend ensuring capex, opex and resource are managed effectively. Assume the role of Data Protection Officer for Wasabi and coordinate policies and processes to adhere to data protection standards and legislation.

Our Requirements: The ideal candidate for this role will be educated to degree level or equivalent and have significant experience in a senior IT role, ideally in a multi-site retail, QSR or manufacturing environment. Additionally, candidates should demonstrate:

• Experience of leading/programme managing IT transformation projects
• Experience of managing complex ERP solutions – preferably Microsoft
• A proven track record of formulating and executing IT strategy
• The ability to lead and develop a team, including both infrastructure and application teams
• The ability to work in a fast-paced and changing environment
• Excellent organizational and leadership skills

A great working environment includes:

• Refer A Friend Scheme
• Free Sushi or hot food (vegan options available)
• 50% discount in our Branches
• Employee Assistant Programme
• Help@Hand (a service providing health and wellbeing support)
• Long Service Awards
• Wagestream - a financial wellbeing benefit that lets you access your pay as you earn it in real time and manage savings
• Life Assurance
• Cycle To Work
• Free on-site parking
• A variety of discounts (shopping, food & drink, entertainment and health & fitness) through Perkbox
• The opportunity to develop your skills within a growing company.

Our people make us who we are. If you're looking for an exciting challenge and this sounds like the job for you, please apply today as we can't wait to hear from you.