Food Technologist

£35,000 - £45,000 plus great benefits, including company car (Work Level 6A)

Manchester city centre, with UK travel to supplier sites

We’re now working in a hybrid way, with colleagues dividing their time between home/remote working and the office (1-2 days per week). You can find out more about our hybrid working policy at colleagues.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy

We’re experiencing an exciting period of growth and expansion in our food technical team, and we’re looking for a dedicated Food Technologist to help us maintain the highest standards for our own-label products. There are 5 permanent opportunities plus 1 12 month FTC in the following areas:

• Protein
• Ambient
• Chilled (12 month FTC)
• Bakery
• Produce

In this role, you’ll work closely with our food commercial team to ensure that our products are not only safe, legal, and compliant, but also taste amazing and consistently meet our rigorous quality standards. Your focus will be on maintaining the highest quality standards, protecting our brand’s reputation, and driving continuous improvement, innovation, and compliance. 

Join a forward-thinking team at the forefront of industry innovation and have the opportunity to grow your career within a business that places people at the heart of everything we do. 

You’ll support our team aim of ‘Delivering safe, authentic, sustainable supply chains, as we strive to make a positive impact for customers, the environment, and our Co-op. 

What you’ll do

• Drive quality specification for Co-op products across defined categories, ensuring measurable quality in partnership with suppliers and category colleagues.
• Manage supplier performance, ensuring compliance with quality, safety, legal, and ethical policies, and address under-performance within GSCOP guidelines.
• Assess the supply base to ensure suppliers meet or exceed customer expectations in terms of competency, capability, capacity, and policy alignment.
• Collaborate with category teams to support new product launches, from approval to specification and QAS signoff, following the Stage & Gate process.
• Identify solutions to drive innovation, improve product quality, safety, and legality within the category.
• Deliver shelf-life improvements, efficiencies, and value chain opportunities to support the category’s commercial strategy.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with external stakeholders, ensuring all Co-op brand products meet food safety and technical auditing requirements. 
• Stay up-to-date with legislation and Co-op policies, ensuring compliance and supporting iconic market-leading product launches.

This role would suit people who have

• A Food Tech or Food Science degree, or equivalent technical experience with a retail, hospitality, food services or manufacturing 
• A Food Safety Qualification - HACCP/ GMP/ Hygiene
• Strong understanding of microbiology and nutrition
• Willingness to travel nationwide or internationally for site visits
• An understanding of the operational side of food retail
• Strong communication and networking skills
•  A co-operative and collaborative approach

Why Co-op? 

Here you’ll do work that matters. We’re a commercial organisation with a purpose beyond profit, you’ll have an opportunity to help us build a stronger Co-op and stronger communities. You’ll also get a package that includes:

• competitive salary
• company car
• coaching, training and support to help you develop
• pension with up to 10% employer contributions
• annual incentive scheme
• Wagestream - a money management app that gives you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn it
• 28 days holiday (rising to 32 in line with service)
• discounts on Co-op products and services

Building an inclusive work environment 

At Co-op, we’re proud to do things a different way. As one of the world’s largest co-operatives, owned by millions of members, community is at the heart of what we do. Since our Co-op was founded in 1844, we’ve had a clear social purpose, and everything we do as a business helps to build a fairer world for our members, customers, colleagues, and communities.

We’re actively building diverse teams and we welcome applications from everyone. If you have a disability, we can make reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process according to your needs. We're also part of the Disability Confident scheme, meaning we'll always offer an interview to disabled candidates who apply through the scheme if they meet the minimum criteria for a job.

We'll ask whether you’d like to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme when you apply.

If we invite you to take part in the recruitment process for any of our jobs, we’ll ask you if you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to participate.

You can find out more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process.

You can find out more about the Disability Confident scheme and all our commitments to diversity and inclusion at colleagues.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion-and-wellbeing.

As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes between 45-60 minutes. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.