Hygiene Manager

Birtwistles Food Group; Irlam; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Staff sales

20 days holiday plus bank holidays

Free car parking

Birthday voucher

Job summary

Birtwistles Food Group is seeking a Hygiene Manager to lead the Hygiene Team on day and night shifts, developing and maintaining high cleanliness standards across the site. You will implement schedules, train staff in cleaning techniques and chemical handling, and ensure compliance with food safety standards.

You will conduct audits, manage deep cleans, and liaise with production to avoid downtime while supporting third‑party hygiene audits.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in the food industry with food safety experience is desirable
• COSHH trained
• BRC experience
• HACCP experience would be an advantage

Responsibilities

• Manage the Hygiene Team on Day and Night shifts.
• Create, implement, and monitor hygiene schedules and cleaning procedures.
• Provide training in cleaning techniques and handling of chemicals.
• Conduct audits of cleaning schedules and ensure they are followed.
• Oversee deep cleaning duties and equipment strip downs.
• Coordinate with Production to avoid downtime and maintain efficiency.
• Assist with hygiene audits and prepare for third‑party visits.
• Oversee annual leave and absenteeism management.
• Maintain health and safety procedures and PPE usage.
• Lead continuous improvement and staff development.
• Organize shift coverage and CIC training updates.
• Prepare the factory for visits and maintain the Hygiene QMS.

Skills

Communication skills

Team leadership

Problem solving

Adaptability

Job description

About the Role

The purpose of the role is to ensure that factory cleanliness is maintained to the highest standards, and supporting documentation to validate this is completed and kept up to date.

Responsibilities

• Management of the Hygiene Team on Day and Night shifts.
• Create, implement, and monitor hygiene schedules and cleaning instruction procedures.
• Ensure all operatives are provided with the appropriate training in cleaning techniques and the use of handling of chemicals.
• Conduct audits of cleaning schedules, ensuring that all schedules are carried out correctly.
• Manage the full deep cleaning duties, ranging from both surface contact sanitization to full equipment strip down.
• Work with the production management teams to ensure that the hygiene operations do not adversely affect production efficiency or create machine down time.
• Achieve and maintain the targets set by the technical team in relation to microbiological trend analysis, HACCP, and, where deemed necessary, the positive release of key equipment.
• Liaise with any specified chemical provider to develop a food hygiene audit system.
• Assist the Technical Manager with the site preparation for customer or third-party hygiene audits, to include the provision of departmental schedules, cleaning, and staff training records.
• Oversee the allocation of annual leave and the general management of absenteeism.
• Maintain the appropriate departmental health and safety procedures at all times, including ensuring that the necessary PPE is worn by all staff.
• Review and update the training requirements of the department in line with current legislation and changing departmental requirements.
• Ensure that all Hygiene staff have been given the appropriate level of training necessary to carry out their work within legislative and Health and Safety guidelines.
• Objectively assess the team's performance and develop improvement plans.
• Conduct shift inspections for staff safety.
• Ensure clarity of role for team members, including assigning tasks and providing feedback.
• Effective labor planning to limit reliance on overtime working within the department.
• Communicates in an engaging way, ensuring inspiring and motivating messages are conveyed across all teams.
• Completion of all documentation for BRC Global Food Standards Issue 9.
• Respond to any micro issues that may arise using root cause analysis.
• Works well under pressure to meet the challenging deadlines for both operational and people aspects of their roles.
• A team player with the ability to lead by example through operational excellence, strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to interact at all levels.
• Set daily routines/tasks for the Hygiene Team.
• Organize cover for Holidays/Weekend cover.
• CICs to be reviewed and operatives trained against CIC.
• Proactively work with the Operations Team to utilise time effectively for reactive cleaning.
• Prepare the Factory for all visits.
• Maintaining the Hygiene Quality Management System.
• Responsible for Food Safety.

Hours

The hours for this role are: Tuesday to Friday, #removed#, and Saturday, #removed#.

Benefits

• Staff sales
• 20 days holiday plus bank holidays
• Free car parking
• Birthday voucher

Qualifications

• A minimum of 5 years in the food industry with food safety experience is desirable
• COSHH Trained
• BRC Experience
• HACCP would be an advantage but isn't essential

Skills

• Good communication skills, written and verbal
• Ability to develop good working relationship with managers in other areas of the business, to deliver the common goals of the business in terms of profitability and provision of agreed service levels to customers, maintaining the highest Hygiene standards.
• Must have a can-do approach with the ability to embrace change, and develop people within your team
• Problem solving skills with the ability to provide solutions and work to tight deadlinesTake ownership of hygiene, compliance, and team leadership in a role that shapes the success of our site