Lead Operator - Nights

Yeo Valley; Cannington; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive holiday allowance

Non-contributory pension

Life cover

Healthcare cash back plan

Cycle to work scheme

Job summary

Yeo Valley Production Ltd is seeking a proactive lead to support the on-site production team in Somerset. You will coordinate resources, maintain safety and quality standards, and optimise asset and material use to meet performance goals.

You will work with frontline teams and the site team to drive improvements and engage employees. The role focuses on safety, quality, process improvements, and effective team leadership across shifts, with emphasis on adherence to GMP and HACCP principles.

Qualifications

• Good team working skills.
• Able to undertake manual tasks.
• Attention to Detail.
• Effective Communication.

Responsibilities

• Demonstrate commitment to Health & Safety and role-model safe practices.
• Lead team involvement in Health & Safety updates and safety improvements.
• Escalate any food safety breach or quality issue and ensure proper containment and resolution.
• Govern quality management systems and ensure controls and procedures are followed to exceed standards.
• Maintain and apply good manufacturing practices, hygiene, PPE, and dress code.
• Model a Clean as You Go approach and drive workplace organisation and visual management.
• Collaborate with Technical team to address audit non-conformances and consumer complaints; drive corrective actions.
• Lead Short Interval Control Reviews and assign actions to optimise tasks and resources.
• Analyse asset performance to identify opportunities and drive improvements in yield and efficiency.
• Lead changeover optimisation with the team to improve asset utilisation.
• Share performance data with the team and connect roles to site objectives.
• Record downtime and raw material usage accurately to support improvement initiatives.
• Perform basic fault finding and assist with root-cause analysis for escalations.
• Ensure equipment is cared for and cleaning tasks are validated as scheduled.
• Train and coach team members to build capability and knowledge.
• Suggest and implement improvements within and across shifts.
• Coordinate handovers across shifts to address common challenges and opportunities.
• Inspire the team with an enthusiastic, proactive approach.

Skills

Team coordination

Safety focus

Communication

Problem solving

Job description

So, what will I be doing?

Would you like a job with purpose? Grow your career with Yeo Valley, where looking after people, planet and the most sustainable food is what we do.

As a lead member of the team you will be supporting the production team on the site where you are based. You will be responsible for the coordination and optimisation of all resources in a defined area and be the go-to person for support. Using your coordination skills, you will ensure operational activities are completed whilst maintaining the highest standards of safety and product quality to ensure our customers receive our fantastic products to specification.

You will be working with the frontline production teams and the wider site team to ensure optimal utilisation of our assets and raw materials, whilst working toward performance improvement goals and employee engagement.

Key responsibilities:

• Demonstrating a commitment to Health & Safety by working in a safe manner, role modelling our safety behaviors, challenging unsafe practices, rectifying unsafe conditions and escalating to other team members when support is needed.
• Leading the active involvement of the teams in all Health & Safety aspects of their work to support the ongoing improvement to safety practices.
• Escalating any food safety breach or quality issue and ensure that any product below our standards is identified and held and the issues are escalated appropriately, resolved and released.
• Active involvement, commitment and governance of the quality management system, making sure all relevant controls and procedures are completed effectively to validate food safety controls and the products we make exceed customer and consumer expectations.
• Understanding, leading and maintaining good manufacturing practices and company standards of hygiene, PPE, and dress code.
• Role models a 'Clean as You Go' approach, leading workplace organisation and visual management standards with the team.
• With support from and working with the Technical team, understand audit non conformances and consumer complaints and work together to manage communications with the team, putting in place actions to prevent reoccurrence.
• Leading the facilitation of Short Interval Control Reviews, establishing actions and owners for the ongoing improvements and coordination of task and resource to optimise the operation.
• Analyses and interprets asset performance to establish areas of opportunity and initiates the necessary support to drive improvements to performance and raw material yields.
• Active involvements in changeover optimisation with the team, identifying areas of opportunity and resource coordination that improve asset utilisation.
• Communicates and shares performance data and ensures team awareness and connection of how their role contributes to the success of the shift, site and business.
• Maintains the accurate and timely recording of downtime and raw material usage across the area in support of focused improvement initiatives.
• Undertake basic fault finding and rectification on equipment and actively support the identification of root cause when escalating to the wider support team when required.
• Ensuring all equipment is properly cared for through the layered validation of the cleaning tasks and the compliance to the schedule.
• Train and validate understanding to the highest standard, coaching and mentoring others to build capability.
• Collate, suggest, initiate and implement improvement activities within own team and outside of team across all shifts
• Work across the team and effective handovers to understand common challenges and opportunities seeking to identify where investigations may help most.
• Energises the team and demonstrates a consistently enthusiastic approach,taking action quickly and encouraging others to do the same.

Sounds interesting, what do I need?

Essential:

• Good team working skills
• Able to undertake manual tasks
• Attention to Detail
• Effective Communication

Desirable:

• Basic food hygiene
• Knowledge of HACCP
• Relevant work experience as a machine Operator in a production environment

Why should I join the family?

We’re independent, British and proud to be making the highest quality yogurts, desserts and ice cream under the Yeo Valley brand and for many of the UK’s major retailers. Operating from four dairies and two logistics centres in Somerset and Devon, we employ over 1700 staff and produce more than 25% of the UK’s packaged yogurt.

We’re sure you don’t need convincing, but there’s a whole host of benefits that we offer.

It goes without saying that you'll have access to free parking, top of the range personal protection equipment (PPE) and your own locker.

You’ll also receive the following:

• Competitive holiday allowance
• Non-contributory pension scheme
• Life cover
• Healthcare cash back plan
• Cycle to work scheme subsidised Yeo Valley products
• Services preferential rates with our partners learning and development opportunities; we’re committed to ensuring all of our employees have the chance to grow.

Our closing dates are a guide for when the application window should close, although we may close the advert sooner if we can.

Unfortunately, we’re not able to provide employment sponsorship to candidates at this moment in time.

Please note that Yeo Valley do not accept speculative agency applications; we will only accept applications from preferred suppliers that have been submitted to us via our recruitment portal at the point of instruction.