Health Protection Manager (Food and Safety)
At West Northamptonshire Council (WNC), we are committed to making our area a great place to live, work, visit and thrive. As a Health Protection Manager (Food Safety), you’ll play a pivotal role in delivering this vision by leading a high-performing team responsible for food safety and health and safety across West Northants.
This is a leadership role with real impact - managing a team of officers, overseeing a significant budget, and shaping the delivery of statutory health protection services. You’ll work closely with internal and external partners, contribute to strategic planning, and ensure our services are efficient, effective, and community-focused.
What will you be doing?
This role offers a varied and engaging workload, including leading a complex and busy caseload of work including food hygiene official and non-official controls, health & safety investigations, infectious disease investigations, ensuring our private water supplies are safe and regulating the safety of our world class sports grounds. You will be:
* Leading, motivating, and developing a team of regulatory health protection professionals.
* Managing performance, allocating work, and ensuring delivery against targets and quality standards.
* Acting as a subject matter expert, providing guidance and making decisions in line with enforcement policies.
* Supporting the Head of Health Protection and Regulatory Support in service planning, policy development, and budget management.
* Representing WNC in regional forums and with external agencies.
* Delivering training and raising awareness of health protection across the organisation.
* Deputising for the Head of Health Protection and Regulatory Support when required.
While the role is based in Northampton, you will work across the entire district. The successful candidate will be expected to attend our offices in Northampton, Daventry, and Towcester as needed, with home working permitted where feasible.
About you
You will be an experienced environmental health professional with a recognised qualification and a strong track record in delivering health protection and enforcement functions. You will bring:
* Proven leadership and team management experience.
* Excellent communication, negotiation, and influencing skills.
* Strong knowledge of health protection legislation and enforcement.
* The ability to manage budgets, develop procedures, and work collaboratively with partners.
* A proactive, innovative approach to problem-solving and decision-making.
* A full UK driving licence and the flexibility to work across locations.
You’ll also share our values—Trust, High Performance, Respect, Innovation, Value, and Empowerment—and be committed to making a difference for our communities.
At West Northants Council, it’s about our people. People who thrive with ambition, bubble with new ideas, demand better ways of working, caring about every detail, and who never shy away from a challenge. Our culture is a gateway for new experiences. A place to forge new opportunities. To empower you in your career and unite you with like-minded people.
Our vision is ‘to make West Northants a great place to live, work, visit and thrive’. We truly stand by this and work hard every day to make this a reality. Our corporate values, THRIVE, stand for: Trust, High Performance, Respect, Innovate and Empower, they underpin everything we do and how we deliver services.
We are committed to ensuring diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion is woven into the fabric of WNC and everything we do, to enable all colleagues to develop and maximize their full potential. We are a disability confident employer, a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, and a Care Leaver Covenant partner
The following film was created by us to communicate our intentions - watch WNC colleagues explain what DEI means to us .
If you need additional support or reasonable adjustments during the application process, including needing the job description in another format or language, please email careers@westnorthants.gov.uk for support.
West Northants Council, where careers thrive.
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Health Protection Manager (Food and Safety)
* Salary Frequency Annual
* Job Reference Ref/76301/6968
* Contract Type Full Time
* Closing Date 24 August, 2025
* Job Category Environmental Health
* Location One Angel Square 4 Angel Street Northampton, United Kingdom
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