Head of Automation

Social network you want to login/join with:

We're a leading manufacturer of convenience food in the UK and our purpose is to make everyday taste better.

We're a vibrant, fast-paced leading food manufacturer, employing 13,300 colleagues across 16 manufacturing units and 17 distribution depots across the UK. We supply all the UK's food retailers with everything from sandwiches, soups, and sushi to cooking sauces, pickles, and ready meals, and in FY24, we generated revenues of £1.8bn.

Our vast direct-to-store (DTS) distribution network, comprising of 17 depots nationwide, enables us to make over 10,500 daily deliveries of our own chilled and frozen produce and that of third parties.

What You'll Be Doing

Automation is a key pillar of our operational excellence agenda, and we are looking for a Head of Automation to manage this across the Group. You will be responsible for designing and implementing the future, next-generation automation strategy for Greencore.

As our Head of Automation, you will work closely with our Head of Capital Projects, Operations Directors, Operational Excellence Leads, and General Managers to set a vision for Greencore's automation potential over the short term and the next 3-5 years.

You will report directly to our Group Manufacturing and Engineering Director.

As we build the automation strategy roadmap, there will be the opportunity to develop your team.

Aligned to the automation strategy, your responsibilities will include, but not be limited to:

1. Building a portfolio of preferred suppliers/specialists and, where applicable, automation partners.
2. Development and control of the financial status of each project feeding into our weekly/monthly business processes (capital/opex costs, paybacks, etc.).
3. Ensuring requirement specifications are robust and fit for purpose (required standards, performance & acceptance criteria).
4. Supporting all Greencore sites to ensure the automation strategy is cascaded and implemented to plan.
5. Leading on post-implementation reviews to ensure that continuous improvement is applied to the rollout plans.
6. Supporting the achievement of our sustainability plan through leading with a sustainability mindset.

To fully implement our automation strategy, you will be required to visit all our Greencore sites, and therefore you can be based anywhere in the UK. Please be aware that regular meetings take place at our Manton Wood site (Worksop), so regular travel here will be necessary.

What We're Looking For

As our next Head of Automation, you will also ideally have:

1. Held a position with an Automation or Engineering background.
2. Expertise in developing next-generation thinking, technology, partnerships in the FMCG market, having developed concepts and taken them through to commercialization.
3. Ability to keep up with the latest technologies and a desire to continually upgrade technical knowledge.
4. Experience in executing capital projects with disciplined control of specifications, timelines, and costs.
5. Excellent leadership, stakeholder management, and problem-solving skills.
6. Change Management Experience, experience of leading complex change across multiple sites and influencing senior stakeholders and site leads.
7. Experience in successful system deployment.
8. Experience working in varying environments, including wet, food-safe environments.

If this sounds like you, join us and grow with Greencore, and be a part of driving our future success.

We're proud to be recognized in the Gender Equity Measure Top 100 for our commitment to gender equality.

What You'll Get in Return

1. Competitive salary and job-related benefits.
2. Holidays.
3. Pension up to 8% matched.
4. Life insurance up to 4x salary.
5. Company share save scheme.
6. Greencore Qualifications.
7. Exclusive Greencore employee discount platform.
8. Access to a full Wellbeing Centre platform.

Throughout your time at Greencore, you will be supported with on-the-job training and development opportunities to further your career.