Technical Manager – Fresh Produce
Are you a confident and experienced Technical Manager with a background in fresh produce and a passion for product quality and compliance?
We are recruiting for a Technical Manager to join a well-established fresh produce business. This role is responsible for leading technical compliance, supplier performance, and food safety across a multi-site supply chain, ensuring the highest standards are met from grower to customer.
The position is based primarily in Maidstone location of Kent, with regular travel to suppliers and third-party service providers across the UK.
This is a key position within the technical team, managing the end-to-end relationship with a premium UK retailer. You’ll act as the primary point of contact for all technical matters, ensuring that food safety, product quality, and integrity are upheld across a complex and fast-paced supply chain.Working collaboratively with growers, supply partners, and internal stakeholders, you will lead compliance, specification management, and continuous improvement across all technical functions
Key Skills
- Manage the day-to-day technical interface with the premium retail customer
- Acting as the lead technical contact for a key retail customer, ensuring full compliance with technical standards and customer requirements.
- Managing supplier relationships and performance, including site visits, improvement plans, and innovation discussions.
- Supporting ESG, sustainability, and ethical sourcing initiatives across the supply base.
- Leading technical documentation, sample management, quality reporting, and internal KPI tracking.
- Driving process improvements and supporting product benchmarking and packaging development.
- Participating in supplier audits and ensuring continual improvement across technical functions
- Ensure full compliance with specifications, food safety legislation, and customer codes of practice
- Maintain and develop supplier and grower assurance schemes
- Lead on ethical sourcing, technical audits, and customer visits
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives across quality and compliance
Candidate Profile
- Proven technical experience within the fresh produce industry, ideally in a retailer-facing role (2–5 years)
- In-depth understanding of UK food safety regulations, due diligence, and retail specifications
- Confident communicator with strong stakeholder management and collaboration skills
- Hands-on, proactive mindset and comfortable in a dynamic supply chain environment
- Degree in Food Science, Agriculture or equivalent, or qualified by experience (QBE)
- Ability to support a multi site role
Interested?
If this sounds like your perfect next step, we’d love to hear from you.
Apply today or reach out for a confidential discussion about the role.
