Quality Manufacturing Shift Lead

Finsbury Food Group; Salisbury; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 55,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Enhanced Pension Scheme

Death in Service Benefit

Employee Assistance Programme

Retail discounts

Job summary

Finsbury Food Group is seeking a Quality Manufacturing Shift Lead at its Salisbury site to lead the Quality function, ensure GMP/compliance, and drive continuous improvement. You’ll work closely with Operations, Engineering, Hygiene, Planning and Supply Chain to raise standards and support customer compliance.

The role requires strong leadership in a fast-paced bakery environment, with data-driven problem solving and a passion for developing people and quality culture.

Qualifications

• Experienced in a Quality or Technical Leadership role within food manufacturing or FMCG.
• Confident people leader capable of coaching and developing a team.
• Strong knowledge of food safety, quality management systems, GMP and industry standards.
• Experience auditing, root cause analysis and implementing corrective actions.
• Proficient in using data and insights to identify issues and drive improvements.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to influence at all levels.
• HACCP and internal/Lead Auditor qualifications are an advantage; bakery/high-care experience is beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Take day-to-day leadership and performance ownership of the Quality function.
• Lead quality systems, GMP, auditing and compliance with data-driven improvement.
• Act as technical escalation point for the operation and manage incidents and CAPAs.
• Coach and develop the quality team and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
• Support external audits (customer/regulatory) and maintain audit readiness.

Skills

Quality leadership

People leadership

Food safety

GMP knowledge

Auditing

Root cause analysis

Data-driven improvements

Communication

HACCP knowledge

Bakery/high-care experience

Job description

Location: Nicholas & Harris, Salisbury, SP2 7PU
Hours: Monday to Friday – 9am until 5pm
Salary: Competitive with Opportunities for Growth
We have an exciting opportunity to join our Technical team as Quality Manufacturing Shift Lead (QMSL) at our Nicholas & Harris site, part of Finsbury Food Group. Nicholas & Harris has over 180 years of heritage in craft baking methods, producing a fantastic range of speciality bakery products from our Salisbury site.
As our Quality Manufacturing Shift Lead, you’ll play a key leadership role within our Technical function, leading, developing and coordinating our Quality team to ensure we consistently deliver the highest standards of food safety, legality, quality and customer compliance.
Reporting to the Site Technical Lead, you’ll turn our technical strategy into effective day-to-day delivery. Through visible leadership, coaching and collaboration, you’ll help build capability within the team, strengthen our quality culture, and ensure robust standards are embedded throughout our manufacturing operation. You’ll also work closely with Operations, Engineering, Hygiene, Planning and Supply Chain, making this a highly visible and influential role across the site.
This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced Quality or Technical leader who enjoys being close to the operation and wants the opportunity to make a real impact. If you’re passionate about developing people, raising standards, and driving continuous improvement within a fast-paced food manufacturing environment, this could be the perfect next step in your career.

This is what you’ll actually do!
As Quality Manufacturing Shift Lead, you’ll take ownership for the day-to-day leadership and performance of our Quality function, creating clarity around priorities and ensuring the team has the capability and support needed to succeed.
You’ll lead our approach to quality systems, GMP, auditing and compliance, using quality data and structured problem solving to identify opportunities and continually improve performance. You’ll be a key technical escalation point for the operation and play an important role in responding to quality incidents and non-conformances, ensuring effective investigation and corrective action.
You’ll also support customer, third-party and regulatory audits, champion strong audit readiness and work collaboratively across the site to ensure quality and operational performance go hand in hand. Just as importantly, you’ll coach and develop your team, creating a culture where people take ownership, understand what good looks like and are encouraged to continuously improve.

Ideally this is you!

• Experienced within a Quality or Technical Leadership role in food manufacturing or FMCG.
• A confident people leader who can coach, develop, and get the best from a team.
• Strong knowledge of food safety, quality management systems, GMP and industry standards.
• Experienced in auditing, root cause analysis and corrective action management.
• Comfortable using data and insight to identify issues and drive improvements.
• A strong communicator who can collaborate, influence, and constructively challenge at all levels.
• HACCP and internal/Lead Auditor qualifications would be advantageous, as would experience within bakery or high-care manufacturing.

What’s in it for you!

• Enhanced Maternity & Paternity Leave to allow quality time with your new arrival!
• Enhanced Pension Scheme for our employees
• Death in Service Benefit
• Free Employee Assistance Programme (open to colleagues and their families)
• Retail discounts accessible via our Benefits Hub platform!
• Refer a Friend Scheme (up to £300 per referral – T&C’s dependant)
• Employee Recognition Awards
• Extensive Learning & Development opportunities (including opportunities for sponsored professional memberships and our own in-house development course!)

Our vision is to be the leading speciality bakery group in the UK, and we know that having great people is fundamental to achieving that. At Finsbury Food Group, we’re passionate about developing our people and creating opportunities to grow, both at site and across the wider Group.

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Quality Manufacturing Shift Lead?

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