Process and Specification Technologist

JOB DESCRIPTION AND PERSON SPECIFICATION

Job title Process and Specification Technologist
Reports to Senior Retail Technical Account manager
Department Technical
Location Community Foods Ltd, 31 Eastways Ind. Estate, Witham
Salary £28 000(negotiable based on experience)
Hours per week 40 hours
Job type Permanent, office based

 INTRODUCTION

Community Foods Limited is a major supplier of dried fruit, nuts, seeds, pulses, and other ambient stable ingredients to the UK food industry, including a number of market leading brands. With ingredients sales having grown by over 100% since 2009 thanks to the introduction of new suppliers and new customers, Community Foods is one of the largest suppliers of our type of ingredients to the UK market. Community Foods is also a pre-wholesaler as well as acting as agents and brand holders with a portfolio of organic and natural brands, including Crazy Jack Organic Sanchi and Tarantella and operates a packing and dried fruit reprocessing plant in support of these business sectors

THE ROLE

The role is intended to provide support for the technical function in the following areas:

• Manage the customer technical libraries and specifications to ensure they are appropriately maintained and updated. All the specifications are live and current with the necessary due diligence certificates uploaded and all alerts are responded to in the deadlines proposed. Support with verifying and approving artwork and finished printed packaging and labels to ensure compliance with our customers and legal requirements.
• Generate Technical reports (for internal & external requirements) and work in conjunction with CFL teams and externally with the customer / suppliers to analyze and respond to deviations from required standards.
• Maintain effective lines of communication between the Technical Department, Commercial, NPD, Production, and the rest of the business, and externally where appropriate.
• Provide support where appropriate within CFL and externally to meet the needs of the business and the customer.
• Continuously strive to improve and expand the area of the business that you are working on, using previous experience to enhance working practices.

 MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Customer Specifications
Build and maintain customer specifications on online systems to gold standard completion. Manage new products and amendments to existing.

Customer Codes of Practice / compliance legislation
Up to date knowledge of the retailer codes of practice including label compliance. Provide advice on compliance legislation and be able to support the customer enquiries for retail products.

Support review of QAS documents
Knowledge of retailer and internal QAS documents. Support with review of QAS documents to make sure all information is correct and up to date

Support Supplier Assurance Process
Have a comprehensive understanding of the supplier assurance process and requirements and to provide support where required

Support Artwork Process
Review the artwork for finished products and complete Artwork Check Sheet

HACCP
Understanding of HACCP and HACCP documents.

General support of retailer account information requests
Supporting retailer information requests on an as needed basis – gathering data regarding our current line offering and testing results. To be able to support the Retail Technical Account Manager in specification queries and liaising with the retail Technical Departments where required.

Support review of packaging rationalisation
Assisting in the review of existing pack formats to avoid duplicating multiple packaging components and working to achieve retailer packaging reduction and sustainability requirements.

SAP and Reflex bills of materials
Build and Maintain SAP and Reflex system BOM’s. Manage new products and amendments to existing. Amend BOOM change database.

Support in managing of film artworks
Coordination of retailer own brand packaging and internal approval with internal teams.

Manage approval of labels
Coordination of the generating of labels for branded products and internal approval with internal teams.

OTHER

The incumbent could be expected to deputise for the Retail Technical Manager in a number of situations, including site visits/inspections by customers or regulatory bodies, and will normally play a key role in preparing for such inspections. The Technical function at Community Foods (Witham) is very much a team-based operation, so it will be expected that the incumbent will work with and assist technical colleagues to achieve the overall goals of the department. The incumbent should be prepared to undertake such extra tasks as reasonably requested by either the Retail Technical Manager or the Technical Director.

CONFIDENTIALITY

During the course of your employment, you may have access to, see or hear information of a confidential nature and you are required not to disclose such information, particularly that relating to service users and staff.
You must not make any disclosure to any unauthorised person or use any confidential information relating to the business affairs, unless expressly authorised to do so by the company.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES
Education and qualifications

• Degree in Food Technology or a related discipline, or significant industry experience in a similar role
• Specification creation, verification and amendments

Skills and abilities

• Ability to correspond clearly and professionally in writing with suppliers, customers and colleagues.
• Must display a methodical and organised approach to managing workload.
• Must display an ability to meet demanding timescales.
• Must show care, accuracy and attention to detail in dealing with technical information.
• Ability to provide a reliable and efficient service with minimum supervision.
• Conduct oneself in a professional and courteous manner especially if conducting audits and dealing with customers.
• Display a helpful and polite telephone manner

Good working knowledge / Experience of

• Outlook
• Word
• Excel
• SAP