Assistant Production Manager

Dale Farm; Cookstown; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 48,000; Full time

Job summary

Dale Farm Cooperative, a UK dairy farmer co-operative owned by over 1200 farmers, operates across the UK and Ireland producing and distributing a wide range of dairy products. The Assistant Production Manager will report to the Production Manager and play a key role in delivering operational excellence.

Your role will support day-to-day management, development of a skilled operator team, and accountability for plant performance, audits and projects, while promoting compliance with quality,

Qualifications

• A degree qualification in Applied Science/Chemical Engineering or Food Technology or related discipline.
• A minimum 2 years' experience managing and developing teams across operator, team leader, and supervisory levels within a manufacturing or production environment.
• Proficient in MS Office applications.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the confidence to build strong relationships and collaborate effectively across multiple departments.
• The ability to lead, motivate, and develop teams, creating a positive and high-performing working culture.
• A continuous improvement mindset, with a proven ability to identify opportunities to improve efficiency, optimise performance, and reduce costs.

Responsibilities

• Assist the Production Manager with the daily production activities of the plant to ensure optimum operational performance.
• Take ownership of compliance and health & safety regulations, ensuring consistent adherence to standards and playing a key role in driving and sustaining a robust site safety culture.
• Take responsibility for product quality and adherence to GMP through management of the production team and process to deliver agreed product specifications as defined in quality standards and policies.
• Take accountability for people management within your team, supporting the Production Manager to develop and empower operatives to take full ownership of their roles, proactively managing and addressing performance and attendance issues, and ensuring clear, consistent, and effective communication across the team.
• Assist the Production Manager in ensuring that site policies and procedures are documented, trained to Shift Managers, Team Leaders and Operatives and that SOPs are consistently followed.
• Prepare regular production status updates and reports on a daily, weekly basis for the Production Manager and General Manager highlighting key performance metrics, identify performance gaps, trends, potential challenges and improvements.
• Develop strong working relations with all internal departments including production, engineering, and quality.
• As part of a wider team engage with and facilitate with the delivery of site and Capital Projects that have an impact on Production.
• Support the use of lean manufacturing techniques with particular emphasis on lean tools such as Problem-Solving, Root Cause Analysis and Standard Work for the investigation and identification of preventative and corrective action.

Skills

Excellent communication

Team leadership

Continuous improvement

Organisational skills

Problem-solving

Education

Applied Science/Chemical Engineering or Food Technology degree

Level 3 Food Hygiene

Level 2 HACCP

Tools

MS Office

Job description

Closing Date : 30 September 2026 12:00 pm

Dale Farm Cooperative is a UK dairy farmer co-operative owned by over 1200 dairy farmers who supply us with fresh milk. Dale Farm has operations throughout the UK and Ireland producing and distributing a wide range of dairy products which it sells across the UK and Ireland as well as exporting to over 45 countries worldwide.

At Dale Farm virtually every career discipline is represented in our workforce, from production, engineering and distribution, to sales & marketing and food technology/quality assurance, to Finance, HR and IT through to general management. Our standards are high and when we recruit we are looking for those with energy and drive, who are keen for responsibility and motivated to succeed with a record of achievement and with the potential to develop as the company grows.

Culture

Our culture is based on setting best in class standards, working to-wards and delivering on committed objectives, striving for constant improvement and involving everyone in the company. We strive to develop our people and harness everyone's contribution to deliver a winning team.

The company is an Equal Opportunities employer and is committed to a safe, inclusive and relationship based workspace.

In return, we offer a high degree of responsibility, plenty of challenge, good opportunities for learning and personal development and rewarding benefit packages, all within a fast moving and results oriented environment.

About the Role

As an Assistant Production Manager, you will report directly to the Production Manager and play a key role delivering operational excellence.

Your role will require you to support the day-to-day operational management. You will support the Production Manager in the continued development of a team of operators, operational accountability for the plant performance, supporting audits and key projects. In addition, you will role model a culture of compliance in quality, regulatory compliance, H&S and environmental standards.

By working closely with our Production management team, you will learn and understand the production process delivering a world-class performance. This role will blend hands-on leadership learning with cross-functional collaboration to deliver operation excellence, right first time.

Key Responsibilities

• Assist the Production Manager with the daily production activities of the plant to ensure optimum operational performance.
• Take ownership of compliance and health & safety regulations, ensuring consistent adherence to standards and playing a key role in driving and sustaining a robust site safety culture.
• Take responsibility for product quality and adherence to GMP through management of the production team and process to deliver agreed product specifications as defined in quality standards and policies
• Take accountability for people management within your team, supporting the Production Manager to develop and empower operatives to take full ownership of their roles, proactively managing and addressing performance and attendance issues, and ensuring clear, consistent, and effective communication across the team
• Assist the Production Manager in ensuring that site policies and procedures are documented, trained to Shift Managers, Team Leaders and Operatives and that SOPs are consistently followed.
• Prepare regular production status updates and reports on a daily, weekly basis for the Production Manager and General Manager highlighting key performance metrics, identify performance gaps, trends, potential challenges and improvements.
• Develop strong working relations with all internal departments including production, engineering, and quality.
• As part of a wider team engage with and facilitate with the delivery of site and Capital Projects that have an impact on Production
• Support the use of lean manufacturing techniques with particular emphasis on lean tools such as Problem-Solving, Root Cause Analysis and Standard Work for the investigation and identification of preventative and corrective action

About the Person

• A degree qualification in Applied Science/Chemical Engineering or Food Technology or related discipline
• A minimum 2 years' experience managing and developing teams across operator, team leader, and supervisory levels within a manufacturing or production environment
• Proficient in MS Office applications
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the confidence to build strong relationships and collaborate effectively across multiple departments.
• The ability to lead, motivate, and develop teams, creating a positive and high-performing working culture.
• A continuous improvement mindset, with a proven ability to identify opportunities to improve efficiency, optimise performance, and reduce costs.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a dynamic 24/7 operational environment.
• A hands-on approach, coupled with the ability to make sound operational decisions and take ownership of challenges.
• The ambition and drive to develop as a future leader within a critical operational function.
• A minimum of 2 years’ recent relevant experience in Cheese/Whey processing
• Experience in lean manufacturing or process improvement techniques
• Level 3 Food Hygiene
• Level 2 HACCAP

12:00pm on Wednesday 30 th September 2026

Only applications from EU Nationals or those with a valid permit to work in the UK will be accepted.

We are an equal opportunities employer

AMBITION | CURIOSITY | TEAMWORK | POSITIVITY | RESOLVE | ACCOUNTABILITY