Technical Manager

Are you a fruit or veg professional with an eye for wonky, but tasty, produce? Can you help us ensure that the produce reaching our customers' tables is fresh and delicious?

The Role:

As our Technical Manager you'll be the owner of our quality and technical processes across Oddbox. While fresh produce will be the apple of your eye, You'll also need to support the business with the technical standards for non-fresh partnership products and our own brand consumer packaged goods.

You will provide the expertise to engage end-to-end from suppliers and manufacturers through to customers. You'll need to work closely with our sourcing, operations and customer teams to ensure the best possible customer experience.

Primary responsibilities:

You'll lead a talented team of technical and quality experts who have a wide range of skills that will complement your own technical expertise. You'll coach them through developing their skills in collaboration, innovation and continuous learning

🥦Lead on strategic Oddbox business initiatives from a Technical perspective in addition to owning and developing the Technical strategy and providing input into the Sourcing strategy

🥦Support the evolution of the Oddbox brand from a fruit & veg box to a multi-product brand which operates across various sales channels

🥦Manage end to end technical protocols, whilst ensuring compliance for all aspects of food safety and legislation

🥦Improvement and maintenance of fresh produce quality performance, keeping customer quality complaints within target levels and driving an improvement in the Oddbox OTIF score relating to quality issues

🥦Tracking product and supplier performance to enable data-driven decision-making when buying and managing the supply base

🥦Oversee supplier and third-party partner due diligence

🥦Support sustainability initiatives within supply base and across the business

What we’re looking for:

You're an experienced fresh produce professional with a technical background. You're comfortable combining your knowledge of working directly with growers and fresh produce suppliers with your experience of packing or production environments, adapting your communication styles to fit with different stakeholder groups.

🥕Qualified by study or experience in food science or food technology

🥕HACCP level 3 as a minimum

🥕Food safety qualified

🥕Outstanding communication, influencing and relationship-building skills.

🥕Strong awareness and understanding of food legislation and BRC requirements

🥕Experience owning fresh produce product KPIs

🥕Understanding of fresh produce seasonality, growing conditions and pesticides

Other details:

🍈Start date – ASAP

🍈Duration of role – permanent, full-time

🍈Location – Hybrid Birmingham or Vauxhall based- this is a hands-on role and you'll spend some in-person time each week with your teams and our produce.

Looking after you:

We won't waste your time telling you annual leave is a benefit- it's your right... But we'll give you five extra days of annual leave (33 days including bank holidays), four "not-sick" days and two volunteering days each year.

We offer you a £300 self-service L&D budget, backed by an extra generous helping of cohort and peer-to-peer learning opportunities.

You'll get access to perks and well-being support with Perkbox. Of course, you get discounts on Oddbox products (as well as the occasional stash of Oddbox merch).

Are you the Delightfully Fruity person that we’re looking for? Click below to apply (The application should take you no longer than 5-10 minutes)