Jobs in Cellarhead

Role: Enterprise CI and Project Controller

Reports to: CEO / Head of Operations

• Dotted-line relationship with Finance Controllers for financial governance

Location: Leek, UK

Type: Permanent, Full-Time

Hours: 37.5 Monday to Friday

Business: Manufacturing - FOOD

Role Purpose

The Enterprise Project Controller is responsible for ensuring enterprise-wide project discipline, financial control, and value realisation. This includes all CAPEX, NPD, and customer delivery initiatives.

Acting as an extension of the CEO and the Head of Operations, the role provides independent challenge and assurance across project costings, delivery economics, and capital deployment, while driving continuous improvement across operations.

This role owns outcomes rather than day-to-day execution, delegating implementation to existing functional teams and leveraging a small direct team for analysis and improvement delivery.

Core Outcomes

• Continuous improvement embedded across customer delivery and operations
• CAPEX and investment projects delivered on time, on budget, and with validated ROI
• Accurate, Finance-validated costings supporting project, NPD, and customer delivery decisions
• Improved margin control, cost transparency, and operational efficiency
• Executive confidence in project governance, performance reporting, and risk management

Key Accountabilities

1. Enterprise Project Control & Governance

• Establish and enforce enterprise standards for project planning, CAPEX approval, and reporting
• Independently review and challenge scope, timelines, cost assumptions, and delivery models across NPD, CAPEX, and customer delivery
• Provide escalation and decision-ready recommendations to CEO where projects are at risk of underperformance or misaligned value

2. Financial Costing & Commercial Validation

• Partner with Finance to validate costings, margins, and ROI across customer delivery and CAPEX investments
• Review assumptions and variances for labour, overhead, and resource allocation
• Identify cost leakage, margin erosion, and opportunities to improve commercial and operational efficiency
• Ensure financial insights translate into actionable recommendations and improved governance

3. CAPEX & Investment Oversight

• Lead CAPEX governance processes from business case to benefits realisation
• Track and report on CAPEX spend, ROI, and payback versus approved plans
• Ensure capital projects deliver agreed operational and financial benefits
• Escalate risks and variances to the CEO in a timely manner

4. Continuous Improvement & Operational Effectiveness

• Collaborate with the Site CI lead to identify inefficiencies in delivery, NPD, and operations
• Sponsor and embed improvements into BAU processes across sites and functions
• Ensure improvements are measurable, sustainable, and aligned to enterprise goals

5. Executive & Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a trusted advisor to the CEO, Division Heads and Finance Managers on project performance, CAPEX, and operational risk
• Influence functional leaders including Portfolio Manager (NPD), Head of Commercial / Procurement, and Operations, without direct line management
• Provide clear, decision-ready reporting for the CEO and, where required, the Board
• Challenge assumptions constructively and escalate issues where necessary

Direct Reports

Role

Purpose

Key Responsibilities

Commercial / Cost Analyst

Independent financial validation

Validate customer delivery and CAPEX costings, perform variance analysis, support ROI tracking, post-project financial review

Continuous Improvement Lead – Site

Operational improvement delivery

Identify inefficiencies, implement improvements, track KPIs, standardise best practices across sites

Optional Analyst / PMO Support

Reporting and data integrity

Manage dashboards, collate data, prepare executive reports

Matrix / Dotted-Line Influence

Function

How the Controller Interfaces

Portfolio Manager – NPD

Ensure project prioritisation and progress align with enterprise governance, CAPEX discipline, and cost validation

Head of Commercial / Procurement

Challenge commercial assumptions, costings, and supplier decisions; validate alignment with enterprise financial controls

Operations / Site Managers

Collaborate through CI Lead to implement improvements; escalate critical delivery or cost risks directly to CEO

Delegation vs Direct Ownership

Directly Owned by Controller (cannot delegate):

• CAPEX, NPD, and customer delivery costing review and validation
• Executive reporting and escalation to CEO
• Enterprise governance, standards, and framework enforcement
• Independent challenge of project assumptions, scope, and financials

Delegated to Direct Reports:

• CI lead: Process improvement implementation, KPI tracking, sustainability of change
• Cost Analyst: Detailed cost modelling, variance tracking, ROI calculations
• Optional analyst: Dashboards, reporting packs, and data integrity

Delegated via Matrix Influence (no direct authority):

• Portfolio Manager – NPD: Project execution
• Head of Commercial / Procurement: Commercial delivery and procurement execution
• Operations / Site Managers: Operational implementation of improvement initiatives

Measures of Success

• Accurate and reliable costings underpinning decisions and investments
• Improved margins and reduced cost leakage across delivery
• CAPEX and NPD projects delivered to budget, timeline, and benefit targets
• Tangible operational improvements realised and sustained
• Executive confidence in project governance, reporting, and independent challenge

Skills & Experience

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in one of: Finance / Accounting /Business / Management /Engineering (especially industrial, manufacturing, or operations-focused)
• MBA or equivalent (especially with strategy, finance, or operations focus)
• Desirable: Degree in Chemical Engineering / Process Engineering / Manufacturing Engineering / Degree in Food Science / Pharmaceutical Science
• Desirable: NEBOSH General Certificate or equivalent HSE certification /IOSH Managing Safely
• ATEX Certification / DSEAR awareness training
• Professional certifications such as: ACA / ACCA / CIMA and PMP / PRINCE2
• Proven experience in enterprise project control, programme oversight, or transformation environments (continuous improvement)
• Proven track record delivering measurable operational improvements
• Experience embedding improvements into BAU (not just one-off projects)
• Experience working directly with:
• CEO / COO / CFO level /Board or investors
• Ability to:
• Challenge senior leaders constructively
• Present complex data in clear, decision-ready format
• Operate without direct authority (influence-heavy role)
• Strong commercial and financial acumen; experience validating costings and ROI
• Experience with Enterprise Project / Programme Control
• Experience working with Finance to challenge assumptions and track investment performance
• Track record in continuous improvement initiatives with measurable outcomes
• Credible presenting at CEO and senior leadership level
• Highly commercial mindset
• Professional, collaborative, approachable demeanour
• Confidence to challenge without conflict
• Instinctively seeks improvement opportunities
• IT literate across Microsoft 365 and TEAMS
• Experience in NPD, CAPEX-heavy, or high-change environments
• Exposure to Board or investor reporting
• Familiarity with Lean, Six Sigma, or process improvement methodologies

Personal Attributes

• Commercially sharp and detail-oriented
• Structured, pragmatic, and outcomes-driven
• Comfortable challenging assumptions and escalating issues
• Influential, resilient, and highly accountable
• Trusted to act independently in the enterprise’s best interests
• Professional, collaborative, approachable demeanour
• Calm, credible, and authoritative
• Naturally inquisitive (“show me the numbers” mindset)
• Comfortable with ambiguity
• Persistent in driving standards
• Pragmatic (not theoretical)
• Hands-on, can-do attitude
• Solutions orientated

If the above sounds like you, and you want to be part of an establish business in an exciting growth phase, we would love to hear from you

Unfortunately, due to the number of applications we receive, only shortlisted candidates will be responded to directly. If you have not heard from us within 2 weeks, your application has, unfortunately, not been successful on this occasion and we wish you every success in your career search.