Senior Machine Operative (Nights)

Hotel Chocolat; Huntingdon; On-site; GBP 34,000 - 46,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

50% product discount

70% discount for you and guests at Rab

Enhanced maternity/paternity leave

Company pension contributions

Job summary

Hotel Chocolat is seeking a Senior Machine Operative (Nights) to lead a production line on permanent nights at Hadley Park, Huntingdon. You will setup machinery, manage changeovers, and drive the team to hit plan targets while controlling costs and quality.

You’ll ensure GMP compliance, safety, and 1st-time quality, mentoring new starters and coordinating with engineering and hygiene teams on down times and downtimes.

Qualifications

• Essential food safety basics and KPI awareness for production.
• Strong English communication across shifts and teams.
• Understanding of HACCP and continuous improvement practices.

Responsibilities

• Set up and start production lines, manage changeovers and staffing on the night shift.
• Lead a team to meet production plans, maintain GMP and safety standards, and report issues promptly.

Skills

KPIs

Strong English

HACCP trained

Continuous improvement mindset

Education

Food Safety Level 2 qualification

HACCP trained

Job description

As we continue our mission to make people and nature happy through reinventing chocolate, we’re looking for a Senior Machine Operative (Nights) to join our Chocolate Manufacturing Team on a permanent basis. Our Senior Machine Operatives are vital in ensuring compliance with the Production Plan in supporting delivery our world-class chocolate on time and in full across our customer network. You will support in leading an effective team, taking ownership for the production line and change overs, driving the team in completion of required plan whilst taking into consideration cost, quality and efficiency.

So, what are you waiting for? If working within an ambient chocolate-filled environment sounds like somewhere you’d like to be

Salary: £40,111.50 per annum.

Shift Pattern: permanent night shift pattern of 10pm to 6am, Sunday to Thursday.

As well as a competitive salary and a range of company benefits including enhanced maternity and paternity leave and Company pension contributions, you’ll receive 50% discount on all products, and a 70% discount for you and your guests when you stay at our Rabot Estate hideaway on the paradise island of Saint Lucia.

The onsite location for this role is at our Factory ‘Hadley Park’, in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, right in the heart of where our chocolates are made and where weekly, we can produce between 4 to 6 million of the chocolates we all know and love. Hadley Park is just 5 minutes off the A141 and 1.3 miles from Huntingdon train station, with direct rail links to London King’s Cross.

What you’ll be doing

• Proactive: Setting up machinery, including but not limited to, changing over change parts of on the lines. You will work with wolf/copper panners, CAD, auto-demolding, shell depositor and cold press, CAP depositor, CAD depositor, Fuji, Fuji2, puddles depositor, enrobers. Working collaboratively with other departments to ensure that all required items are available and ready to support the smooth efficient running of the lines i.e., machinery/ ingredients / packaging. Communicating any shortages and discrepancies to your line manager on time to support plan completion. Ensuring that plan delivered on time and to costed expectation or better with targeted quality loss of less than 1% and delivering ‘Right First-Time’ products.
• Ownership: Owning the start-up of the production lines, ensuring that the correct staffing is in place to hit required targets or PMR’s in place on the production lines. Leading the team to successfully complete plan to required specifications, owning the clean down of the line between products and line start-up inspections to ensure that the line is free from any cross-contamination of the last run. Owning the sign-off and completing the paperwork checks. Continuously driving a culture of asset specific standards and settings across all shifts. Ensure 100% compliance with product specification. Conducting GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) compliance in your work area. Ensure compliance with all Health and Safety systems and to be always responsible for your own Health and Safety and the Health and Safety of others around you. Food safety standard compliance and hygiene, and PPE policies adhered to. Production is right first time to set specifications and requirements of our customers. Ensure all Piranha requests are submitted to engineering for downtimes. LeadingRunning the day-to-day management of the line. Ensuring that the team are adhering to set requirements for product and personal behavior. Reporting breakdowns in a timely manner, making the right decision. Ensuring team training is up to date. SupportingTraining and mentoring new starters within the business on your asset / process. Leading the team in All PMR activity required on the line per product group. Being an ambassador of driving the culture of pride for the produce by setting and demanding high standards. Be able to talk an external auditor through your process / procedure around utilising your asset. Proactive care and targeted hygiene work with the Hygiene team to ensure work area and asset stays in the best standard.

Who you are

Essential Food Safety Level 2 qualification.Knowledge of KPIs.Strong verbal and written English to clearly discuss performance of your asset / process.

Desirable Knowledge of Continuous Improvement skills, with the ability to deploy critical thinking.HACCP trained.

Who are we?

We’re one of the UK’s favourite premium chocolate brands, with a range of products spanning luxury gifts, alcohol and our pioneering drinking chocolate system, the Velvetiser™. A cacao pod takes years to grow – it can’t be rushed if it’s going to be just right for our products. The same can be said for Hotel Chocolat, which originally started as a mint production company before we realised it was luxury chocolate that we were really passionate about. Now, we’re market leaders in the industry. What began as an online-only business grew to over 100 stores across the UK, and we’re still growing… Today, we’re multi-category, multi-channel, and multi-territory, and our customers, colleagues, cacao farmers and suppliers all benefit from the success we make together. To learn more about us and read about our People Pledge – our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion –