Head of Operations

Lime Talent Limited; Southampton; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Lime Talent is partnering with an ambitious food and drink business to recruit a Head of Operations reporting to the Founder. You will lead end-to-end operations across production, procurement, planning, inventory and fulfilment, combining hands-on leadership with scalable processes for sustainable growth.

This role offers broad ownership within an entrepreneurial setting, with the chance to develop a talented team and directly impact quality, service and profitability.

Qualifications

• Experience leading operations or supply chain in a growing food, drink or FMCG business.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deliver the operational strategy, aligning capacity, resources and investment with business growth.
• Lead and develop the operations team, setting priorities, responsibilities and performance measures.
• Oversee production, including scheduling, capacity planning, maintenance and continuous improvement.
• Maintain standards across product quality, food safety, health and safety, traceability and compliance.
• Build demand and supply planning processes, balancing availability and working capital.
• Lead supplier sourcing, negotiations and performance management across ingredients, packaging and services.
• Manage third-party logistics relationships and improve warehousing, distribution and fulfilment across B2B and D2C.
• Develop processes and capacity to support ecommerce growth.
• Coordinate delivery of new product launches from sourcing to fulfilment.
• Improve systems, reporting and stock visibility to reduce costs.

Skills

Manufacturing ops

Procurement

Demand planning

Inventory mgmt

3PL management

Ecommerce fulfilment

People development

Strategic problem solving

Job description

Growing Food & Drink Business | Reporting to the Founder

Lime Talent is partnering with an ambitious food and drink business to recruit a Head of Operations. With an established customer base across hospitality and foodservice, the business is now looking to strengthen its operations and expand its direct-to-consumer channel.

Reporting directly to the Founder, you will lead end-to-end operations across production, procurement, planning, inventory and fulfilment. You’ll combine hands‑on leadership with the development of processes, systems and capabilities that support sustainable growth.

This is an opportunity to take broad ownership within an entrepreneurial business, develop a talented team and make a measurable difference to quality, service and profitability.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and deliver the operational strategy, aligning capacity, resources and investment with business growth.
• Lead and develop the operations team, setting clear priorities, responsibilities and performance measures.
• Oversee production, including scheduling, capacity planning, maintenance and continuous improvement.
• Maintain strong standards across product quality, food safety, health and safety, traceability and compliance.
• Build effective demand and supply planning processes, balancing availability, product freshness and working capital.
• Lead supplier sourcing, negotiations and performance management across ingredients, packaging and operational services.
• Manage third-party logistics relationships and improve warehousing, distribution and fulfilment across B2B and D2C channels.
• Develop the processes and operational capacity needed to support ecommerce growth.
• Coordinate operational delivery of new product launches, from sourcing and production through to customer fulfilment.
• Improve systems, reporting and stock visibility, reducing manual processes, waste and operational costs.

About you

You’ll bring experience leading operations or supply chain within a growing food, drink or FMCG business, alongside a strong understanding of production and customer fulfilment.

We’re looking for someone with:

• Experience managing manufacturing or production operations.
• Strong knowledge of procurement, demand planning, inventory and logistics.
• Experience managing 3PL partners and supporting ecommerce or D2C fulfilment.
• A track record of improving processes, systems and operational performance.
• Commercial awareness across margins, costs and working capital.
• The ability to develop people, build accountability and work collaboratively across a business.
• A practical approach and the confidence to move between strategic decisions and day‑to‑day problem-solving.

The opportunity

You’ll work closely with the Founder, with the autonomy to shape operations and support the next stage of growth. This role would suit an operations leader who enjoys building capability, improving performance and seeing the direct impact of their decisions.