Location: Yorkshire
Salary: Competitive, depending on experience
Working Pattern: Full-time, site-based
Are you an experienced food manufacturing professional with strong butchery knowledge across beef, lamb and pork? Do you have an eye for detail and enjoy working closely with suppliers and production teams to improve raw material quality?
Our client is looking for a Raw Materials Co-ordinator to join their site in South Kirkby. This is a hands-on, factory-based role where you will play an important part in ensuring the right raw materials are available, meet the required specifications and consistently deliver against customer expectations.
Reporting to the Technical Services Manager, you will work closely with Technical, Commercial, Operations, Production and external suppliers. Your knowledge of meat and butchery will be particularly important as you assess incoming raw materials, identify quality issues, support supplier improvement and help the site get the best possible value from its raw materials.
The Role
Your main responsibility will be to coordinate and assess raw materials against agreed specifications, reacting quickly to quality, logistical and production requirements. You will review incoming materials, identify any issues and make sure findings are clearly communicated to the relevant teams and suppliers.
You will work alongside the Technical team to keep supplier specifications accurate and up to date, while proactively identifying opportunities to improve the overall quality of raw materials used on site. Where material does not meet specification, you will ensure the appropriate NCR or rejection process is followed and that issues are communicated effectively across the business.
A key part of the role will be supplier management and improvement. You will develop professional relationships with suppliers based on compliance, integrity and collaboration, supporting regular performance discussions and, as the role develops, taking part in weekly and monthly supplier calls. You will also support supplier visits, technical audits and site-based improvement initiatives alongside the Technical Manager.
Your practical butchery knowledge will allow you to add genuine value to the business. You will help production teams understand butchery specifications and meat cuts, while also identifying opportunities to improve butchery methods, packaging formats and the way raw materials are utilised. Any proposed changes will be assessed and quantified before being discussed with the relevant site teams and suppliers.
Quality, Testing & Analysis
You will carry out product assessments at both raw material intake and during production, using a range of monitoring and testing methods. This may include Foss analysis, cook-ups and practical butchery assessment, allowing you to assess whether raw materials are performing against agreed parameters.
You will also support the assessment of supplier claims and material downgrades, using your technical and practical knowledge to establish whether raw material meets the required standard.
Accurate reporting will be important. You will produce regular reports and trend analysis to monitor raw material and customer performance, identify recurring issues and help drive improvements. You will be expected to communicate both positive and negative findings clearly to Technical, Commercial and Operational teams as well as directly to suppliers when required.
Over time, the objective will be to build a stronger and more consistent raw material supply base, reducing quality issues, minimising losses and ensuring the site continues to meet customer specifications.
What We're Looking For
We are looking for someone with strong practical knowledge of beef, lamb and pork, ideally gained within a fast-moving food manufacturing or meat processing environment. You should understand how raw materials, specifications and butchery processes affect the finished product and be confident challenging issues when standards are not being met.
You will need good planning and organisational skills, a strong eye for detail and the ability to identify errors or inconsistencies in both data and written specifications. You should also be comfortable using Microsoft Excel and Word, including producing graphs, analysing trends and presenting information clearly.
A Level 2 Food Safety qualification is essential. Knowledge of HACCP, VACCP and TACCP would be advantageous, together with a wider understanding of food manufacturing standards and customer Codes of Practice.
Just as importantly, you'll need to be proactive, practical and comfortable working in a fast-moving environment. The successful candidate will have a genuine can-do attitude, strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively with production teams, technical colleagues and external suppliers.
You should be methodical and structured in your approach while remaining flexible enough to adapt to changing customer requirements, production priorities and developments within the food industry.
Why Join?
This is an opportunity to take on a varied role where your butchery and food manufacturing experience will have a direct impact on quality, supplier performance, production efficiency and customer satisfaction.
You will have the opportunity to work across Technical, Production, Commercial and Supplier teams, develop your technical and commercial understanding and become a key contributor to the ongoing improvement of the site's raw material standards.
If you are an experienced meat or food manufacturing professional looking for a role where you can combine practical butchery knowledge with quality, supplier management and continuous improvement, we'd like to hear from you
Salary description
£40000.00 - £40000.00 per year