Product Excellence Manager

Product Excellence Manager

Salary: £50,000 to £60,000 doe

Location: Cheshire

Reports to: Managing Director

Sector: Premium Food Manufacturing

Would suit: Process Manager, NPD Manager, Product Manager, QA Manager

About the Business

Our client is a leading UK food manufacturer, known for producing exceptional, high-quality products that blend craftsmanship, innovation, and uncompromising attention to detail.

Family-owned and proudly independent, they take immense pride in their work, not just in what they make, but how they make it. Every product that leaves the factory carries their name and their reputation for quality.

To protect and build on that reputation, they're creating a brand-new role: Product Excellence Manager. This is an opportunity to take ownership of product perfection, ensuring that what consumers experience is nothing short of the brand's best.

The Opportunity

This isn't a desk job. It's for someone who notices the smallest details, the person who can spot a flaw before anyone else does.

As Product Excellence Manager, you'll be the custodian of quality and presentation, ensuring that every product is delivered exactly as intended, from recipe and process through to texture, taste, and packaging finish.

Working directly with the Managing Director, you'll document, develop, and safeguard the brand's product standards, turning decades of expertise into consistent, measurable practice.

You'll be a regular presence on the factory floor: tasting, checking, challenging, and coaching teams to deliver excellence every single time.

Key Responsibilities

• Define, document, and uphold product quality and presentation standards across all SKUs.
• Monitor and verify product consistency through sensory, visual, and textural assessments.
• Lead by example on the factory floor — actively engaging, challenging, and supporting teams.
• Identify and resolve any product deviations with a root-cause mindset.
• Maintain up-to-date QAS documentation and product KPIs for management review.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Production, Technical, NPD, and Engineering.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives that enhance product quality and process control.
• Act as an internal brand ambassador — embedding a culture of accountability and pride.

About You

You're product-obsessed, passionate about quality, detail, and doing things properly.

You have a strong background in food manufacturing, ideally in chilled, dairy, or premium branded environments.

You're hands-on, analytical, and confident enough to challenge when standards slip.

You thrive on the factory floor and take pride in ensuring the end product is something you'd happily take home yourself.

You're also capable of working directly with a highly experienced Managing Director — someone who will share decades of knowledge with the right person willing to protect and build upon it.

Why This Role?

• A newly created position with genuine influence and autonomy.
• Direct access to the Managing Director, shaping the next chapter of product excellence.
• Be part of a respected, values-driven business with an unwavering commitment to quality.
• Work in a culture that rewards curiosity, pride, and craftsmanship, not just output.

If you're the kind of person who can't walk past a product that's "almost right", because you know "almost" isn't good enough, this is the role that was made for you.

About Williams Recruitment

We're Williams Recruitment — a boutique agency that
actually
gets Food Manufacturing. We move fast, know our stuff, and only work with businesses we believe in. No egos, no waffle, just honest advice, brilliant opportunities, and game-changing talent. Whether you're hiring or job hunting, we'll cut through the noise and make things happen.