Beverage Technical Manager

Costa Coffee; St Albans; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Share Investment Plan

Annual discretionary bonus

Smart pension scheme

Financial Support Fund

50% store discount

Private medical cover

Job summary

Costa Coffee is seeking a Technical Manager to oversee product quality, safety, and consistency across their supply chain. The role requires strong expertise in coffee roasting and technical management within beverage manufacturing. Responsibilities include delivering technical governance, managing supplier performance, and conducting investigations to ensure compliance with safety standards. This position will be based in St Albans and offers the opportunity to make a significant impact on product excellence.

Qualifications

• Strong, hands-on experience in technical management within food or beverage manufacturing.
• An expert in coffee roasting or beverage processing.
• Expert knowledge of Food Safety, Quality Management, and Regulatory Requirements.

Responsibilities

• Deliver robust Technical governance across regional platforms.
• Lead Technical oversight of coffee roasteries.
• Approve and monitor supplier performance.
• Manage the Technical commercialisation process for new beverage products.
• Identify and manage food safety and quality risks.
• Conduct Technical investigations and ensure corrective actions.

Skills

Technical management within food or beverage manufacturing

Expert in coffee roasting

Food Safety knowledge

Quality Management knowledge

Regulatory Requirements understanding

Risk Management experience

Incident management capability

Strong communication skills

Job description

At Costa Coffee, we are what we craft. We’re reimagining coffee experiences in over 50 countries and counting as a key part of the Coca‑Cola System. Whether you get your coffee in a store, from a machine, at home or on the go – we’ve got you covered.

Our teams make a difference. From creating industry‑leading technology for the perfect pour, delivering seamless launches, and protecting our brand, to supporting our global supply chain – every role helps us stir up success.

Being a Technical Manager at Costa is about ensuring our products are consistently safe, high‑quality and delivered to market with excellence. You’ll be the technical lead for your region, shaping governance, risk management and supplier performance across our end to end supply chain.

This role also requires specialist expertise in coffee roasting and beverage manufacturing, ensuring Costa maintains the highest technical standards across all roastery partners.

And Technical Manager, there’s never been a better time to join us.

So, why Costa?

We didn’t become a global coffee brand by sitting back. When you work here, you join a community that values passion, progression and integrity, with some pretty brilliant perks to sweeten the deal:

• Own a piece of Costa’s success by becoming a share owner in Coca-Cola with our Share Investment Plan (SIP)
• An annual discretionary bonus scheme, based on business results and individual contribution.
• A smart pension that saves you money on tax and national insurance, and matches your contributions up to 10%
• The Costa Financial Support Fund, supporting team members who find themselves in unexpected financial pressure
• 50% discount in all Costa-owned stores, and 25% off in other participating stores
• Private medical cover thanks to our Private Healthcare scheme
• And that’s not all. Explore even more of our perks.

We’re passionate about being a great place to work, where you can bring your unique self into our mix. We firmly support diversity, equity and inclusion, and continue to work with our teams to shape the future of our culture and values: Disciplined to Deliver, Passion for Progress, Win with Warmth, Courage to Challenge and Trusted Team Players.

What you’ll do

Being a Technical Manager is about so much more than governance. It’s your opportunity to safeguard the quality, safety and consistency of Costa products end‑to‑end. In this role, you will:

• Deliver robust Technical governance across regional platforms, ensuring compliance with Costa, legal and regulatory standards.
• Lead Technical oversight of coffee roasteries, providing expert assessment of roasting processes, food safety controls, and supplier capability.
• Approve and monitor supplier performance, reviewing KPIs, supporting quarterly business reviews, and escalating risk where required.
• Manage the Technical commercialisation process for new and renovated beverage products — supporting development from concept through to launch, attending production trials and factory visits.
• Identify, assess and manage food safety and quality risks, applying strong judgement to mitigate or escalate as needed.
• Conduct and lead Technical investigations, driving root cause analysis (RCA), ensuring corrective and preventative actions are implemented, and holding suppliers to account.
• Pre‑approve new suppliers through detailed Technical review, ensuring they meet Costa’s stringent standards before onboarding.
• Act as Costa’s expert representative when visiting manufacturing sites, identifying best practice and ensuring products remain within agreed specification throughout their lifecycle.

Who you are

It’s your unique ingredients we’re excited about:

• Strong, hands‑on experience in technical management within food or beverage manufacturing.
• An expert in coffee roasting or beverage processing, with practical understanding of how roasteries operate from a technical, safety and quality perspective.
• Expert knowledge of Food Safety, Quality Management, Regulatory Requirements and Risk Management.
• A detail‑driven mindset with experience evaluating factories, suppliers and production processes.
• Strong incident management capability- able to lead investigations, drive RCA and ensure supplier accountability.
• A confident communicator who influences effectively and builds strong cross‑functional relationships across Marketing, Procurement, Innovation and Supply Chain.
• A self‑starter who can hit the ground running with minimal support, bringing immediate expertise into the team.

Where you’ll work

Our Support Centre teams work flexibly, blending home working with purposeful in‑person collaboration.

We’re excited to be moving into our new brand home in St Albans in January 2027 – an inspiring space where teams will come together three days a week to connect and innovate.