Group Auditing & Compliance Manager

Salary: £60,000 – £90,000 per year

Our client is one of UK’s largest importers and packers of fresh produce supplying many of the top UK food retailers. They are renowned for sourcing and packing a range of fresh produce from around the world and have a great rapport with their grower base and customers. Our client is now seeking a Group Auditing & Compliance Manager to join their highly motivated team and to continue to deliver exceptional quality & safe products to their customers.

Reporting to the Group Head of Responsible Sourcing, you will be responsible for monitoring and improving the quality & technical standards. You will also be responsible for Technical standards to ensure they remain robust, effective and industry leading.

You will need to have an excellent technical understanding of the fresh produce accreditation expected by major UK retailers. Ideally you should have at least 5 years experience of working in a similar technical role. You will need to have worked within the Technical function understanding the pressures on labour and quality as well as utilising your knowledge of TFS, TMPS, BRC, HACCP and organic standards. Excellent interpersonal skills are vital in order for you to develop and assure a great working relationship with key internal and external stakeholders.

The candidate will coordinate, manage and deliver the Group Auditing schedule, to ensure the delivery of over 500 annual internal supplier audits, working to various UK retailer standards. You will be responsible for a team of five Audit Managers in various global continents, so you must have people management exprience.

Key Requirements

• Lead auditor or equivalent formal auditing qualification, previously in an internal or external supplier auditing role
• Previous retail customer facing experience
• Proven track record of implementing food safety and manufacturing standards (in the fresh produce supply chain), undertaking risk assessments and root cause analysis to enable supply chain integrity and transparency
• Extensive incident and crisis management experience, supporting suppliers to resolve non-conformances / resolve issues to remove barriers to supply
• Ability to manage, lead and inspire a team essential
• Flexibility to travel to any sourcing country (global)
• At least 3 years’ experience in manufacturing/production/farming/retail/auditing in technical roles
• At least 2 years’ technical/operational experience in the fresh produce category
• Proficient in the Microsoft Office Suite

 Desirable

• Experience of Tesco and M&S produce or manufacturing standards
• HACCP Level 3-4 qualification
• QMS review and implementation
• Field to fork auditing experience
• Ethical auditing experience
• Familiar with retailer online systems such as TQC or Foods Connected, or Food Experts
• Familiar with global gap, TN11, and / or assured produce
• Spanish, Italian or French speaking

There is plenty of international travel throughout the year with this role (northen & southern hemisphere), so if you don’t mind a bit of plane hopping, this would be the ideal role for you!

This is a great opportunity not to be missed for someone who gets a real buzz out of driving improvements and wants to join a hugely successful business that is constantly looking for new challenges.