Technical Manager

Role Purpose:

The purpose of this role is to technically manage our supplier relationships, mitigate risk, ensure traceability and to implement and maintain a sustainable supplier quality management system across the F&M supply base. This role focuses on conducting supplier audits, driving continuous improvement, and ensuring compliance with food safety, labelling and operational standards.

In addition to quality assurance, this role oversees maintenance operations for our store and hospitality outlet, ensuring facilities and equipment are well-maintained, compliant and operating efficiently. This includes coordinating with external contractors to deliver high standards of service, managing maintenance schedules, and supporting improvement projects with a focus on cost control and operational integrity.

This role will work closely with the UK Sustainability Lead to ensure we are in tandem with UK, to partner with a wider range of internal and external audiences and requires energy positivity, creativity, sustainability and brand empathy and strong relationship building and networking skills.

In return, we offer some fabulous benefits:

(FULL TIME)

5 working days per week (1 Day WFH)

16 AL

1 Volunteering Day Leave

4 Wellbeing Days Annually

Birthday Day Leave

Corporate Discounts

Health Insurance

End of year discretionary bonus

Free staff meal

Staff discount

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Audits

• All audits to be carried out to the schedule and all corrective actions followed up and closed off.
• Audit results to be communicated to relevant managers, in the weekly and monthly reports.
• Audit results to be trended and correctives actions to be closed off within the communicated timescales.
• External audits to be carried out to the standards agreed and within the timescales stated in the Supplier assurance policy.

Maintenance

• Proactively managing maintenance operations for store and hospitality outlets, ensuring facilities and equipment are compliant, safe, and efficiently maintained.
• Coordinate with external contractors to manage maintenance schedules, ensure quality of service, and maintain cost control.
• Manage contractors to ensure high standards and that any contractors are cost effective with performance standard.
• Proven negotiation skills and the ability to manage external contractors.
• Operational procedures
• To ensure internal operational procedures, COP and Policies manage current known risks to the business, within areas of responsibility.
• To keep these documents updated, reviewed on a scheduled basis and to have document control in place
• To ensure these procedures are trained out to all relevant areas of the business and supply chain.
• To ensue these documents are audited externally to a predefined risk assessed rota.
• To ensure all areas have in situ access to the Fortnum and Mason procedures.
• To ensure compliance to these documents are monitored, trended and reported to the business.
• Ensure all new suppliers are compliant and audited to all relevant operational procedures prior to manufacture and supply.

Health and Safety

• Leading in overseeing all employee and workplace health and safety matters to ensure compliance with legal requirements including the Occupational Health & Safety Ordinance and our Group’s Safety Management System
• Serve as the primary point of contact for safety-related inquiries, concerns, and reports, and ensure timely resolution within the company and external parties
• Manage emergency response plan to deal with emergency situations for the safety and health of employees

CSR Policy

• Implement and maintain a supplier quality management system.
• To ensure CSR requirements and quantifiable targets are trained out and monitored in real time.

Product specifications

• To ensure specifications cover all known risks to the business.
• All product both OB and Proprietary brands have signed off specifications by on sale date.
• Specification templates to be appropriate for all product types and supply routes.
• Clear written guidance to be available for suppliers to aid the completion of specifications.

New Product Development

• To ensure Provisional critical paths created by UK buying team in stage one of the launch process include all stages of the Technical process including any upskilling required.
• Ensure NPD product brief contains all technical requirements for the product.
• All technical stages to be delivered on time and a proactive manner.
• All new products are assessed and any new technical requirements fed in to the appropriate Technical processes. I.e. Operational procedures, surveillance testing etc.

Labelling

• Coordinating with all relevant parties to source information required for back of pack labelling and ensuring it aligns with local legislations
• Coordinating with local printer and labelling warehouse partner, ensuring all quality standards are met

Training

• Training schedule and bespoke Fortnum and Mason training in place that trains out the requirements of F&M operational procedures and provides add on tailored training for the specific needs of the supply base.
• All new F&M staff are provided with training to ensure an understanding of the supplier assurance rules and relevant internal and public facing commitments (buyers).
• Signed training records for all operational procedures relevant for each college agues roles to be collated.

Surveillance testing

• Surveillance testing scheduled to be maintained and followed.
• All relevant products to be tested to the schedule.
• F&M surveillance acceptable standards to be written, maintained and communicated to the suppliers and internal food preparation colleagues.
• Out of specification Internal audit results to be communicated to relevant managers, in the weekly and monthly reports.
• Surveillance results to be trended.
• Surveillance results to be actioned in a timely manner and closed off in a way to ensure due diligence.

Customer Complaints

• To be logged and dealt within the agreed timescales.
• To be trended and reported on a weekly and Monthly basis.
• To be investigated as per the F&M complaints policy.

Future Scan

• To identify and incorporate new and emerging risk in in product safety and sustainability.

We expect the successful candidate to have the following skills and experience:

• Excellent Microsoft office skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Be really resilient and be able to manage up
• Excellent diary management able to ensure Managers attend meetings on time
• Robust experience of the CRM systems and processes and reporting mechanisms to enable a function that is growing and maturing at speed
• Digitally savvy
• An ability to challenge, build credibility with a wide range of audiences and work with integrity/confidentiality at all times
• Demonstrate good judgement, drive and influence.
• Manage cross departmental relationships to ensure delivery of technical requirements
• Create and deliver long term sustainable relations ships with our supply base
• Good understanding of Quality management systems and Food Safety management
• Strong questioning and probing skills to discover issues and to verify the accuracy of information, results, and data.
• Ability to drive positive change at supplier locations
• Demonstrated troubleshooting ability
• Knowledge of product processing equipment and controls
• Familiarity with law and regulatory guidelines
• Effective written and oral communication skills
• Strong project management skills and ability to prioritize own workload
• Ability to make timely, consistent and well balanced decisions
• Scientific degree or equivalent
• 3+ year experience in a managerial role in a similar capacity
• Fluency in Engish & Cantonese/Mandarin