PRODUCTION OPERATIONS MANAGER
EAST LONDON
OVERNIGHT FOOD PRODUCTION. CENTRAL PRODUCTION UNIT. PEOPLE-LED OPERATION.
What You’ll Get
• Up to £70k base salary (depending on experience)
• Vitality healthcare and great employee benefits
• Free meals on shift and 50% discount across the business
• On-site parking including electric vehicle charging
• Genuine flexibility around working pattern and rota management
• Direct exposure to senior operational leadership
• A chance to lead a flagship production site in a growing hospitality business
• Real autonomy to improve standards, performance, and team capability
Who Are They?
A well-established, fast-growing hospitality business with a strong reputation for quality, consistency, and craft.
Behind the scenes sits a large Central Production Unit in East London that supplies product across the estate. This is where the magic happens — and where this role sits.
The business is now looking for a Production Operations Manager to lead the overnight operation, taking responsibility for a large, multicultural team and ensuring food is delivered to the highest possible standards.
This role has become a real priority. The business has struggled to find the right person and is now looking for someone who can step into a visible, hands-on leadership role and make an immediate impact.
This is not a desk-based operations role. This is a role for someone who likes being on the floor, managing people, solving problems, improving standards, and making sure things happen properly.
What You’ll Get Up To
• Lead the overnight operation during peak production hours
• Manage a team of around 40 people across bakers, pastry chefs, team leaders, and support staff
• Drive quality, consistency, and food safety standards across the site
• Ensure HACCP, health & safety, and compliance standards are always maintained
• Recruit, train, coach, and develop team members across the CPU
• Build strong relationships with production, maintenance, supply chain, and retail teams
• Monitor labour, productivity, waste, and production output to improve performance
• Deal with maintenance issues quickly and proactively before they become bigger problems
• Support rota planning and workforce management across a seven-day operation
• Help create a positive, inclusive culture across a highly diverse workforce
This is a role for someone who enjoys being present, visible, and fully immersed in the operation.
What You’ll Bring
• Experience leading within a CPU, food production, bakery, FMCG, manufacturing, hospitality, or large-scale kitchen environment
• Strong understanding of food safety, HACCP, and health & safety
• Experience managing large teams in fast-paced operational environments
• Confidence dealing with recruitment, training, development, and performance management
• Strong operational awareness and an eye for detail
• Ability to remain calm and make decisions under pressure
• A proactive mindset — especially around standards, maintenance, and operational issues
• Strong communication skills and the ability to build trust across different teams and cultures
• Flexibility around overnight working and operational demands
Bakery experience would be helpful, but it is not essential. The business is open to people coming from food manufacturing, hospitality, FMCG, or wider production environments.
The Bottom Line:
This is a high-impact operational leadership role inside a busy, complex, overnight food production environment. The business needs someone who can lead from the front, build credibility quickly, and bring structure, consistency, and energy to the team.
If you enjoy leading people, improving operations, and being part of a fast-paced food environment where no two nights are the same — this is a seriously good opportunity.
Lead it. Improve it. Own it.