Technical Manager Competitive salary Middlesbrough Once in a lifetime opportunity to grow as an established site quadruples output over the next three years; work with celebrity endorsed brands; and gain the kind of experience most people never get to. The Company: For most of the last 30 years, ICB was a steady, profitable manufacturer of co-manufacturer and retailer own label spirits and alcohol products. Cut to two years ago and the business was bought. The new owners decide to take the profitable, existing infrastructure, and the best of a talented management team, and shoot for growth over lifestyle. Now the business is investing heavily at all levels. Branding, manufacturing, capex, people – everything. Not only will you be working on a site as it quadruples output and invests heavily; not only will you work with almost every major UK retailer and a clutch of brands that most manufacturers could only dream of; you’ll also be working on celebrity endorsed brands. The Site: Over the next three years, the output of this site is going to quadruple. That isn’t the kind of challenge many people get to walk into, in their whole career. There isn’t a single piece of kit that hasn’t moved in the last 12 months. There’s a new line being commissioned to open up completely new pack formats. There’s millions of pounds of investment. This isn’t like driving up to the flagship site of a multi-billion pound business (where *anything* you do is unlikely to be noticed by the wider business). The walls are brick. In some parts of the factory, the paint on the floors is faded. Where it counts, though, there has been some absolutely world class investment and innovation. Their ERP system actually works. Scan the barcode on a pallet of packaging, and it’ll tell you what product it’s destined for, it’s PO, everything. They’ve won co-packing business from the biggest alcohol manufacturers in the world because those manufacturers “can’t get this to work”. There’s also innovation. Not just in products but in processes. Investment across the whole site. Old being replaced by new. The Job: You’ll be the site’s technical lead – shaping how quality, compliance, and customer confidence scale alongside the site. You’ve got a fairly typical reporting structure (Ǫuality Manager, Lab Techs, Tech Admin) beneath you. You’ve then got an absolutely-not-typical challenge in front of you. Firstly, you’re doing an incredibly complex mix of products. Some are alcohol free, some are spirits, some are super high sugar, some are super high alcohol content. You’ve got everything from super premium brands manufactured under license (think Lake District Vodka). It’s a bonded warehouse. Then you’ve got packaging challenges. Different sizes of bottles. Some outsourced manufacturing. Some products coming from different continents, sometimes brought over already bottled, sometimes to be packaged and distributed. You’ve got almost every retailer, so all of those audits, as well as the unusual pleasure of being audited by the likes of Johnny Walker and Diageo. You: Believe it or not, you don’t need to be a drinks expert. You don’t need 20 years’ experience as a technical manager. You could have come from meat free products, sushi, salads, meat, anything. But you need to be switched on enough to manage that level of complexity. You need to be determined enough to help overcome the inevitable challenges that will come during such a huge period of transformation. You will also absolutely need: * Bags and bags of energy and enthusiasm. * A strong background as a quality manager or technical manager, within a reasonable (BRC not Salsa) sized food or drinks manufacturer. * Problem solving skills and a strong desire to both understand and own the site from a technical perspective. If the following sounds like you, then this probably isn’t the right role: Like people more than systems. For this, you’ll need to be the face of technical, to everyone from the yard to the customers. You’ve had a lot of jobs in a short space of time (unless an interim). The site needs commitment and a track record of leaving places, I’m afraid, will be a cause for concern. You’ve been there, seen it all, got the t-shirt. The role needs a strong desire to learn something new, and commit to the site. A committed, enthusiastic and aspirational Quality Manager will be a better fit than someone who wants to just check in and check out. What you’ll get: You’ll get a competitive starting salary. I’ll happily share it with you over the phone. The business pays 6% pension, if you add 4%. There’s BUPA for you and you can add your family. There’s a health cash plan as well. Then there’s personal growth. As the business grows, future acquisitions aren’t off the table, and the technical team will continue to grow in stature, size and importance. This means opportunity for you. And as they’re open to people coming from other industries, this means there’s the opportunity to learn an entirely new industry, and also shape your own technical team during a period of huge investment. What to do now Sound like you? Send a copy of your CV to Ryan.Barlow @silven. co. uk, or press apply. If you send an email, if you want to let me know why you think you’re right for the role, that’d be awesome. If not, no worries