Technical Assistant

Founded in 2003 by Dong Hyun Kim, his mission was simple, to make fresh and flavorsome sushi and bento available to everyone. Almost 20 years later Wasabi have **40 successful branches** across London, other UK major cities and New York.

The journey continued in 2019 with the launch of Wasabi Home Bento exclusively into **Sainsburys**. After several years of great success there, the grocery business expanded launching into **Tesco** in September 2022. Wasabi has now firmly established itself as the **No2 chilled ready meal brand** and a driver of significant market growth. And we’re just getting started. The leadership team have set out their 5 year strategy which encompasses company growth, franchise and international expansion.

Our menu is renowned for its distinctiveness, freshness and flavour. The cold food range of sushi, pokes and salads are made fresh daily in our branch kitchens and our hot bento, noodle bowls and soups offer an indulgent and comforting alternative to our broad and democratic demographic.

As we prepare for our next phase of growth and innovation, we have an incredibly exciting opportunity for a **Technical Assistant** to join our Technical Team based in **Park Royal**.
**The Role**:
To provide technical support to the company, by undertaking tasks and duties associated with supplier assurance, raw material specification, legal labelling of finished products and updating of the sites operating system (Nav for e.g). Ensuring ingredients and finished products and are in-line with the company’s technical requirements & standard, along with required legal legislation and to ensure that all raw materials and suppliers consistently meets Wasabi’s Quality, Safety, Legal and Sustainability Standards

**Key Responsibilities**:

- To carry out risk assessment on all raw material, escalating any issues to senior management.
- To ensure all raw material’s technical documentation e.g. specification, factory accreditation, CoA (certificate of analysis), HACCP/process flow documents etc. are accurate and up to date, maintaining systems and data to drive continuous improvements for products and quality management systems.
- To maintain of the supplier portfolio of product specification
- To liaise with suppliers for any out of specification and non-conformance.
- To provide support for introduction of new materials or suppliers.
- To provide support for any changes to existing raw materials or suppliers.
- To calculate and approve nutritional information for new product/product change using nutritional calculator and update the nutritional traffic light tracker.
- To calculate and score HFSS for load the data to the retailer tracker.
- To check and approve legal information on artwork for pre-packed/own brand product.
- To assist customer service team on answering customer’s queries relating to raw material and recipe.
- To support technically new/existing product development process, including allergen information for name card and guideline, ingredient and other legal information for product label or display etc.
- To co-operate with new product development, health & food safety and operation team for information use in branches e.g. recipe card, shelf life and customer information etc.
- To update as required the sites operational systems (i.e Nav)
- To update and check the info to the brand bank website.
- To update and maintain the Master data, artwork folders and factory paperwork.
- To work with all required departments (procurement, food team, marking etc) providing technical information and support to ensure compliance against company standards and UK legislation.

**Our Requirements**:
***
- Graduate (food related) or food safety certificate is preferred.
- Knowledge of supplier assurance or UK food labelling requirements is preferred. A logical approach to working along with practical problem solving and decision-making skills is desired.
- Have a keen eye for detail and be able to process and understand large amounts of data to ensure that it meets Company standards.
- Strong communication skills and be comfortable escalating information to management where it does not meet required standards.
- Good time-management skills.
- Ability to work in a high-pressure environment.
- Ability to prioritise workload.
- IT literate is essential.

**In return we provide**:
- A great working environment
- Pension scheme
- Target Bonus
- Refer A Friend Scheme
- Free Sushi or hot food (vegan options available)
- 50% discount in our Branches
- Employee Assistant Programme
- Hybrid working model
- Long Service Awards
- Wagestream - a financial wellbeing benefit that lets you access your pay as you earn it in real time and manage savings
- Life Assurance
- Cycle To Work
- Free on-site parking
- A variety of discounts (shopping, food & drink, entertainment and health & fitness) through Perkbox and
- The opportunity to develop your skills within a growing company.

**COME ROLL WITH US