Interim Process Manager – Bakkavor Desserts Highbridge (TA9 4JR)
12 Month Interim contract
Inside IR35
Day Rate : up to £550 day rate, depending on experience, plus expenses
Start Date : Ideally end of January 2026 / start of February 2026
We’re Proud to be Bakkavor
Why join us?
We’re proud to offer you a career with a global leader in the fresh prepared food industry. We're proud to give everyone the opportunity and support to develop and progress their career. To nurture talent, fuel ambition and work with resilience and purpose to achieve the highest possible standards.
What we do.
We’re the market leader in the UK fresh prepared food industry - supplying meals, salads, desserts, pizza and bread to leading grocery retailers including Tesco, M&S, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.
Our Bakkavor site in Highbridge, which is one of our three Desserts sites in the UK, specialises in Cheesecake and Tarts, working closely with our sister site in Devizes that specialise in baked goods.
About the role
This is a fantastic opportunity for a Process Manager to join Bakkavor Desserts Highbridge on an interim contract.
In this exciting role you will provide leadership and expertise in the Process function and drive delivery of process development with stakeholders at business, functional and individual level.
Managing a team of eight (1 Senior Process Technologist, 5 Process Technologists and 2 Process Technologists), you will be a natural people leader, offering coaching, development and mentoring support to our existing Process team, with strong Project Management and Critical Path skills. This is a customer facing role, working with all the big seven retailers.
Accountabilities:
* Building relationships & trust in department and business by providing a flexible but pragmatic approach.
* Ensures & challenges audit readiness to meet business and customer needs demonstrating a drive towards best practice
* Provides direction for the team, if site supports one, from business objectives. Develops the team by coaching and by setting stretch objectives in line with business and customer target or establishes clear, agreed objectives for themselves if working in a smaller unit.
* Ability to influence business, NPD, CI and innovation direction. Supporting innovation & improvement plans in line with business objectives Share learning across the site
* Responsible for providing consistent cross function communication. Lead resolutions of project issues with all stake holders by negotiating in a pragmatic and calm objective manner.
* Leading the delivery of the Critical path for projects across categories & customers from project definition to launch. Delivers the trial programme against the critical path to successfully launch products against timelines, achieving customer requirements
* Proactive management of the trial budget. Accountable for delivery of NPD products within defined project costs and margins.
* Provides direction in problem solving guidance. Demonstrate problem solving skills and root cause analyses with a consistent and proactive approach
About you:
* Strong preference for process development in fresh food manufacturing
* Experienced in process management with sound operational and technical experience at site level
* Demonstrates good organisational and influencing skills and an ability to facilitate across all levels of the business
* Commercially minded, monitors initiatives with agreed processes
* Communication style that engages multi discipline teams to get results
* Experienced People Manager with a track record in developing people and teams
Proud to be Bakkavor
We’re proud to be the market leader in the UK fresh prepared food industry. We’re proud to supply meals, salads, desserts, pizza and bread to leading grocery retailers including Tesco, M&S, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose. We’re driven by the hard work and passion of our people and are delighted to offer a wide range of careers across our business – come and join our dedicated Bakkavor team!
At Bakkavor, we are committed to building an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive, and we believe that diversity makes us stronger. We welcome and encourage applications from all backgrounds and ensure fair, transparent recruitment practices. Learn more about our commitment in our Inclusion and Diversity Policy (Inclusion & Diversity Policy).
Apply now to find out more about this fantastic interim opportunity!