What’s the role about?

You will provide food safety, hygiene and microbiology advice, guidance and management to the Partnership in order to protect our customers, and maintain legal compliance - ensuring our brand reputation is protected. You will be a provider of specialist advice to stakeholders on food safety matters, and compliance methods at all levels across the business. You will also maintain a network of experts in a similar field across the business and externally.  

What will you be doing?

• You will be the subject matter expert for food safety and hygiene for Waitrose.  Using your knowledge and experience, you will interpret complex legal and regulatory requirements into pragmatic and reliable advice, guidance, policy and procedure to ensure we keep our customers and Partners safe, as well as protecting our brand reputation. 

• You will be the go to person internally for departments within Waitrose and the wider Partnership on food safety matters, answering queries, complaints, assisting in any enforcement challenges, reviewing product information, as well as working closely with the policy section on government and NGO liaison where needed. 

• In everything you do, you will strive for excellence and integrity, establishing and maintaining a strong safety culture and the application of best practices, and continuous improvement methodology.

• You will be investing in your own personal and professional development to achieve your potential, 

• by doing more, doing better, or doing different. You will continuously engage with and actively contribute to your Profession. 

What will you have ?

• A strong scientific background be it microbiology/chemistry/science based degree or relevant professional/post graduate equivalent with significant experience advising the food industry or food retail business (in house or as an enforcement partner) . HACCP L4, Food Safety/Hygiene L4 and strong risk assessment experience. 

• The ability to translate complex scientific/legal into practical/pragmatic advice in a clear and concise way, so that business decisions can be taken in a timely manner. 

What else could you bring?

• Experience as a qualified Chartered Environmental Health Officer with experience guiding food retail businesses would be advantageous.

Please note: 

• As a business we encourage flexible working. We have a number of different ways to work flexibly, so at your interview feel free to talk about what flexibility means to you. There are no guarantees, however, examples of how our Partners already work flexibly include part-time, job share, home working and compressed hours

• We occasionally close vacancies early in the event we receive a high volume of applications. Therefore, we recommend you apply early .

We positively celebrate Diversity & Inclusion in the John Lewis Partnership. Our aim is to become the UK’s most inclusive business - for our Partners and for our customers, reflecting and connecting with the diverse communities that we serve. We want people from all walks of life to feel valued for their individuality, thrive in our business and share a sense of belonging. To find out more about D&I in the John Lewis Partnership click here - https://www.jlpjobs.com/about/diversityandinclusion/