Site Manager

Site Manager – Dairy & Beverage Manufacturing Facility

Location:
Berkshire

Reports to:
GM Quality & Product Innovation

Team:
3 direct reports

About the Opportunity

A long-established, fast-growing international dairy and beverage group has recently invested in a UK processing facility just outside London. This site is undergoing major transformation — with new systems, upgraded capability, and significant capital investment already underway.

The business is scaling fast across premium beverages and value-added dairy, and this site will play a central role in the next stage of global expansion.

This is your chance to step into a pivotal leadership role, helping stabilise, shape, and elevate a facility that's set to become the UK hub of a highly ambitious group.

Role Purpose

As Site Manager, you will own day-to-day operational performance, leading a small and growing team to deliver outstanding quality, safety, compliance, and efficiency. You'll be hands-on, visible on the floor, and deeply involved in embedding new processes, systems, and ways of working.

This is an ideal role for someone who thrives in turnaround environments, enjoys building structure where it doesn't yet exist, and takes real pride in lifting standards and delivering results.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & People

• Lead, coach, and develop the site team, building a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate closely with internal stakeholders across Quality, Engineering, Operations, Finance, and Supply Chain.

Safety & Compliance

• Maintain and continually elevate site Health & Safety standards.
• Ensure full compliance with UK food safety legislation, BRC requirements, customer specifications, and internal quality standards.
• Promote and uphold a strong food safety culture across the site.

Production & Planning

• Develop and manage daily–monthly production schedules.
• Optimise use of raw materials, labour, and equipment.
• Oversee purchasing of raw materials and packaging aligned to production needs.

Operational Excellence

• Drive improvements in efficiency, throughput, and cost control.
• Identify waste and implement reduction initiatives across all stages of production.
• Embed best-practice SOPs, systems, and processes.

Engineering & Site Development

• Partner with the engineering team to scope and deliver site upgrades and equipment improvements.
• Support preventive maintenance and ensure machinery reliability.

Logistics & Supply Chain

• Oversee inbound and outbound logistics to meet customer delivery expectations.
• Coordinate with UK-based supply chain partners to ensure smooth flow of finished goods.

Systems & Reporting

• Maintain accurate operational data across internal systems, including Xero.
• Provide weekly performance reporting to senior leadership.
• Track KPIs including efficiency, yields, waste, safety, and compliance.

About You

You'll thrive in this role if you are:

• A hands-on leader who enjoys being on the floor and working directly with your team.
• Experienced in dairy, beverage, or broader FMCG manufacturing (BRC experience essential).
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving and sometimes ambiguous environment.
• Passionate about building strong operational foundations and raising standards.
• Influential, collaborative, and able to work effectively across time zones.
• Highly organised, practical, and solutions-driven.

What's on Offer

• up to £70,000 base salary + 10% Short-Term Incentive Bonus
• Company pension scheme
• A rare opportunity to lead a strategically important UK manufacturing site with the autonomy to build systems, processes, culture, and capability from the ground up. A fast-moving, entrepreneurial environment backed by a long-established international group.