Head Baker

Welcome to Hovis. We are the proud guardians of over 130 years of baking experience that make up our iconic and much-loved brand. We produce bread and bakery products created with Hovis goodness at the heart of each. We deliver around 1.3million loaves, every day of the week throughout the UK and Ireland, where we also make Mothers Pride and Ormo products.

We are 2,800 people working within 8 bakeries, 1 flour mill, and 2 regional distribution centres across the UK. Our success is a result of the hard work of our people; they are experts in their field whether it’s baking, manufacturing, logistics, engineering, or the many departments within the central functions team based in our head office in High Wycombe. We are a values-led business and expect our colleagues to live, breathe, and embed Quality, Accountability, and Trust into their ways of working.

**KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES & RESPONSIBILITIES**
- Development of process controls relating to product and equipment specification
- Delivering Quality Strategy through in depth understanding of bakery processes and recipe development.
- Keep up to date on bakery trends and innovation; translate this to plant objectives
- Develop training plans relating to process and fill any development gaps for all employees
- Successfully implement new product launches on site, by supporting Central NPD team
- Member of the Hovis Head Baker Team, purpose being to align / agree aspects of approach which benefit the Hovis sites as a whole, sharing best practice, successes and ideas for improvement.

**KNOWLEDGE & SPECIFIC JOB SKILLS**

**Knowledge & Experience**
- Likely to have a minimum of 5 years plant bakery process knowledge and experience
- Likely to have a minimum of 2 years craft, Test Bakery NPD (ingredients knowledge) or ISB experience
- Proven training experience
- Proven competence in driving product and process validation and improvement

**Desirable**
- HNC / HND / NVQ 3 in Bakery / Food Technology
- Training / teaching / coaching experience in or outside work.
- Experience of new product introduction processes and implementation

**Why work for us and our benefits**:
At Hovis, we understand the importance of looking after our colleagues, so we provide a variety of benefits in addition to their salaries. The benefits we provide at Hovis are as varied as the people who receive them but they are offered with the intention of creating value to them personally over and above their salaries
- There is a range of colleague benefits available, which individuals can select based on their needs.
- Our benefits scheme is called Hovis Choice, which offers a variety of savings and cashback offers on day to day living and much more including eyecare vouchers, and a healthcare scheme to suit everyone. It also includes our Cycle to Work scheme where you can obtain a brand new bike at a significant saving
- We offer competitive annual leave entitlement and flexibility where possible in order to create a healthy work-life balance
- We celebrate loyalty with our generous long service and colleague recognition schemes
- We offer three levels of pensions

Hovis values diversity and is committed to promoting equal opportunities in the workplace. Every job applicant, employee or worker will be treated fairly and equally with dignity and respect regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, colour, social class, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religious belief, union membership, political opinion, sex, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic.