Specifications Technologist

**Specifications Technologist** - Due to our continued growth and success we are looking for a Specifications Technologist to join our New Product Development team in Wrexham (LL13 9UG). The hours of work for this role are Monday to Friday 08:00hrs to 17:00hrs with the opportunity for some of these days to be worked from home.

**What would you get for working here?**

If you have the Specification Technologist experience and skills we are looking for then you will receive a total reward package that includes:

- A competitive salary between n£28,000 and £30,000 (DOE)
- 8% Pension Contribution
- 28 days annual leave (Inc of Bank Holidays)
- £500 refer-a-friend scheme
- Access to an exclusive employee benefits/discounts platform where you can save £££s on your everyday spends
- Professional development opportunities and qualifications
- A progressive working environment that puts its people at the heart of what it does
- Great opportunity for career development (our Group NPD Manager joined the team in a graduate role and has since progressed to head up the entire function)

**What would you be doing?**

Our Vision as a business is to be the “Go-to” supplier of bakery products, working nationally with retailers such as M&S and Waitrose on their premium private label range and regionally through the Village Bakery brand. In achieving this vision, we want to be recognised as a family business that continually invests in the future through the development of our people, quality and food safety culture, equipment and processes.

As a Specifications Technologist you will be directly contributing to this vision through your core tasks and responsibilities these will include, but are not limited to:

- Leading and managing the administration and completion of finished product specifications
- Working cross functionally with NPD, Technical, Compliance and Purchasing teams, you will be the key point of contact for all technical specification and artwork queries for the specific business sites.
- Acting as the key point of contact for legal labelling queries
- Review and management of finished product artwork to ensure the finished product artwork standards and legal requirements are met and delivered to the agreed critical path. Escalates appropriately internally/externally if discrepancies are found, or if projects deviate from critical path.
- Ensuring all retailer online systems are reviewed and the housekeeping of site details are kept up to date and accurate.
- Ensuring the raw material details entered on the finished product and technical specifications are the most up to date and applicable for the launch of the product. Tracking any changes to raw material supply and updating finished product specifications accordingly.
- Supporting the NPD team by working with the Technical Compliance Manager to ensure approval of any new raw materials, when required.
- Contributing to customer audits and visits demonstrating the full compliance to the specification’s administration and provide relevant documentation required for audits.
- Supporting the NPD team on generation of ingredient declarations, theoretical nutrition analysis and sample submission forms, ahead of key stage & gate submission deadlines.
- Supporting the NPD team on cutter guide approval / generation, and general NPD administration duties, when required.

**What skills and qualifications would you need?**

To be a successful Specifications Technologist you will need to demonstrate the following skills, qualifications and attributes:
**Essential**
- Demonstrable experience working in a Food Manufacturing Specifications Technologist role, with a strong understanding of NPD and Technical processes
- Broad understanding of retailer specifications portals, to include M&S, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Co-op and Waitrose.
- Good understanding of food manufacturing processes and food science
- Strong understanding of food legal labelling
- Strong understanding of nutrition and health claims
- Strong attention to detail, with experience of consistently achieving right first-time specifications.
- Experience of managing artwork approval systems and processes, both internally and externally
- You will need to have the ability to adapt to an ever-changing workload, with excellent communication and organisational skills.

**Desirable**
- Bakery sector experience
- HACCP and Food Safety L2

So, who are we? If you haven’t heard of us before we are a family owned and managed Craft Bakery producing an award-winning range of Bread, Morning Goods, Pies and gluten free products.

Our business has been producing products in this category since 1964 and since then we have grown in success due to our reputation for quality, innovation and technical experience. As a result of this continued growth, we now operate from a number of world class and well invested bakeries in and around Wrexham, including our dedicated Gluten free site ‘Gluten Freedom’ and ou