Duties –

• Assist & support the Technical Director & Head of Technical in matters appertaining to product safety, quality, legality and integrity at all times.

• Assist & support the Technical Director & Head of Technical, and group responsibility sourcing teams in matters appertaining to Human Rights, Sustainability & environmental (ESG) strategies.

• Ensure an ongoing dialogue and relationship with suppliers, the DPSM&S commercial team to ensure their awareness of the current supply and potential issues and communicate these as appropriate to the commercial team and customer. Have regular and ongoing dialogue with suppliers, and organise visits, improvement plans, innovation plans and support and drive the M&S asks & requirements/standards and policies with the Responsibly sourcing Teams, Audit teams and Compliance teams to deliver adherence and improvements.

• Ensure that Technical Visit reports are completed, circulated with clear next steps from all UK and overseas travel.

• Organise and plan accordingly supplier and customer visits where applicable.

• Work across the Technical function in maintaining the various customer technical libraries

• Organize samples and trials for DPSM&S and if required be involved with any trials / sampling of new varieties or packaging.

• LEAD and engage with ISS and wider teams with any customer site visits as required.

• Effectively liaise and work with TA & PM teams to communicate on day to day quality issues with ISS a weekly QSL and KPI summary of quality (to include incoming, shelf life, wastage and customer complaints)

• Weekly KPI reports, attend meetings, work with TA & PM team and ISS team to provide visibility and report on internal and customer KPI’s.

• Champion technically Continual improvements as out lined in the Project & Task Trackers, and to work across the Wider Group to deliver Process and System improvement while creating SOP’s.

• Ensure seamless communication and organisation across Technical & Commercial functions.

o deliver customer facing analysis of information sources, and plan to manage compliance going forwards i.e. FIND, One Food Platform, Tier 1 Packing sites, Supplier Codes, Quality Contracts, Customer communication – front end.

o deliver Supplier facing analysis of information and plan to manage going forwards i.e. Raw Material Specifications, Packed at Source Guides, Ways of Working, Varietal lists.

• Deliver & support effective and visible and industry leading customer service - clear and concise commu-nication both internally & with the Customer, including but not exhaustive of* o CPTHU & number of complaint reporting, and year on year comparisons o FSL Depot Inspections, RTM’s, Temporary specifications and Benchmarking. o Shelf Life, Intake Assessments summaries (support ISS on New shelf life reporting & database) o Waste (Financial, Suppliers and M&S Store Waste) o Crop Reports in all categories in the standardised format – Frequency to be determined based on category. o Supplier Reviews, M&S Meetings, Internal Meetings and collation of supporting information.

•Support the teams on Quality Culture, Masterclass sessions, Reporting of KPI’s with ISS, DPSM&S.

• Support all TM’s and commercial teams on Category Transformations by administering review, support on coordination of samples, packaging, presentations and meetings. • Work with TA on compile samples, and maintain Benchmarking formats for all categories with support of other TM’s and product management team at ISS, collation of samples.

o Weekly Internal & External Benchmarking across all categories – consistency and standardised way of working.

o Central sampling across the group is also reported internally & to the customers.

• Packaging – support the Packaging team, Commercial, operations & technical teams to deliver reduction, trackers and newness/innovation across all categories.

• Agent Audits, Food safety, quality and integrity audits and ISS packing sites, other UK sites and oversea suppliers - support the compliance teams, sites and objective towards outstanding.

• Support M&S Policy change and new standards and delivery across the DPSM&S supply base and ISS pack-ing sites.

• Resilience Plans – continue to deliver & support across all Tropical segments Resilience RA’s and presentations that are practically applied

General

• Project a positive image to colleagues, site workers, customers, and suppliers in all interactions

• Deputize for your colleagues at times of absence, holiday etc.

• Ensure regular and ongoing feedback to suppliers and your DPS colleagues on product quality to allow for continuous improvement.

• Effectively liaise and communicate on day-to-day quality issues with the ISS Production where required.

• Effectively liaise and support communication on day-to-day quality issues with the DPS Commercial, Packaging, Compliance, Technical and Product Management Teams where required.

• Maintain & move forward high standards of product safety, legality & quality assurance from the Grower, supply chain, goods intake & through packing, and despatch of the product.

• Being up to date with Customer requirements and implement new policies and procedures with support of the Technical Managers, and cross function teams, as necessary. • Working closely with other technical functions on Group projects to align one Quality plan and procedures as mainstream.

• Responsibility for the product specifications against customer requirements, ensuring the maintenance of current data.

• Deliver and own Innovation, new product development and Strategy within the customers and be actively involved in driving continual improvement.

• Maintain & administer Customer and DPSM&S KPI’s, action plans and use initiative and experience to drive on the relationship with DPSM&S customers and help support and Grow with those key accounts.

Key Performance Indicators

• Customer complaints, temporary specifications, and product rejections, warnings.

• Manage and inform Shelf Life and other product trials.

• Supplier Scorecards and performance (including – Audits on Food safety, Quality & Integrity, legality and adherence to M&S policies and requirements, continuous improvements and Sustainability & Ethical/Human rights work streams and projects.

• Internal product non-conformances

• Continued improvement across the ways of working within the business.

• Deliver Innovation – Varietal, Packaging, Shelf life and technological advances to M&S and the wider group where applicable.

• Pro-active management, quality hot spot planning and targeted focus on issues. Accountabilities – Outputs of the position

• Confidence in function.

• Stakeholder Management and confidence

• Time Management

• Reporting – (KPI delivery)

• Communication is clear – stakeholders, team (operations, commercial, procurement, technical)

• Continuous Improvements Person Specification – Skills, knowledge and experience Desirable Qualifications / Education / Experience:

• Previous experience in auditing – Ideally M&S standards and Policies (Select Farm, FSQI & Agent Audits)

• BRCGS – Understanding

• Understanding and experience of customer compliance requirements –M&S, Ocado etc.

• Knowledge of Prophet – ERP Systems

• Ripening experience across multiple categories

• Experience across dpsM&S Product categories.

• Experience in factory environment – ideally on produce

• Experience on labelling and requirements.

• Previous experience as an Internal Auditor. Preferably Lead auditor.

• Knowledge of Customer compliance systems Essential Qualifications / Education / Experience:

• Previous Experience in Technical Management, and direct customer interaction.

• Supplier Visit and experiences with continual improvements.

• Capability and experience in Microsoft Office, Excel, Database and Customers Specification portals.

Skills & Competencies:

• Self-managed and self-motivated.

• Excellent communication skills

• Excellent attention to detail

• Understanding and complying with specifications.

• Demonstrate problem-solving skills, continued improvement and “get it done” attitude.

• Able to make difficult decisions and be confident with conviction

• Able to manage challenging situations, balanced view, and considerations of overall current and future business performance

• Maintain a pro-active and positive attitude even under pressure

• A team player with problem solving attributes.

• Good attention to detail when completing technical documentation and reports

• Fully computer literate on all Microsoft applications

• Able to understand and comply with customer specifications

• Previous ERP experience an advantage, but training will be provided. Personal Attributes:

• People’s person. Able to motivate.

• Positive attitude towards Health and Safety

• Must be numerate

• Able to meet deadlines

• Self-motivated

• Ability to work under pressure and beyond.

• Great at multitasking & using initiative

• Problem Solver