Formed over 40 years ago, DPS LTD, and its associated companies have grown to become a market leader in the sourcing, production and distribution of fresh produce to some of the UK's leading retailers.

We pride ourselves on the way we do business and understand that we are successful because of our people. As such, dpsM&S, one of our group companies is looking for a superstar Technical Assistant to join the team based in Bearsted, on a permanent basis, working full time.

Key Accountabilities

• Assist the Group Technical Director in matters appertaining to product safety, quality and legality.
• Assist the Technical team 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.
• Engage with any customer site visits as required.
• Effectively liaise and 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) on Monday afternoon for the commercial and technical team
• Weekly KPI reports, attend meetings, work with 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.
• Support the Technical Managers in improved visibility with KPI reporting (as out lined in the dpsM&S Technical KPI’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, Quality Contracts.
• Deliver & support effective and visible and industry leading customer service - clear and concise communication 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:
• Shelf Life, Intake Assessments summaries (support ISS on New shelf life reporting & database) o Waste (Financial, Suppliers and M&S Store Waste)
• Crop Reports in all categories in the standardised format – Frequency to be determined based on category.
• Supplier Reviews, M&S Meetings, Internal Meetings and collation of supporting information.
• Support the TM’s 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.
• Compile samples, and maintain Benchmarking formats for all categories with support of TM and product management team at ISS, collation of samples, and organising & tracking couriers:
• Weekly Internal & External Benchmarking across all categories – consistency and standardised way of working.
• 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 across all categories.
• Agent Audit, Food safety, quality and integrity audit - support the compliance team, sites and objective towards outstanding.
• Support M&S Policy change and new standards and delivery across the dpsM&S supply base and ISS packing 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 Technical Managers, as necessary.
• Working closely with other technical functions on Group projects to align one Quality plan and procedures as a mainstream.
• Support the responsibility for the product specifications against customer requirements, ensuring the maintenance of current data.
• Support 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 dps customers and help support and Grow with those key accounts.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Previous experience in auditing - GMP
• HACCP Level 2 Trained & TACCP trained.
• BRCGS – Understanding
• Understanding and experience of customer audit requirements –M&S, Ocado etc.
• Some Knowledge of Prophet – ERP Systems
• Ripening experience across multiple categories
• Experience across all dpsM&S categories.
• Experience in factory environment – ideally on produce
• Experience on labelling and requirements for Produce

For a superstar Technical Assistant we can offer the following benefits:

• Company Pension, 2% employee contribution and 7% employer contribution
• Enhanced Annual Leave
• Free food onsite
• Annual Bonus of up to 10%
• Salary Sacrifice
• Electric Car Scheme
• A competitive Annual Salary
• Onsite Parking
• 25 Days annual leave as standard
• Hybrid Working