Continuous Improvement Technologist
(Food Manufacturing - Start-up environment)
Location: Nottingham
Recruiter: The Collective Network
You know those roles where you're hired to "drive improvement" but you spend most of your day chasing signatures, updating documents no one reads, and trying to convince Ops that CAPA isn't a new brand of bottled water?
Yeah.
This isn't one of those.
I'm working with a young food business that's growing fast - the kind that still has that let's-build-it-properly-from-day-one energy, rather than the we've-always-done-it-this-way mindset you find in, well… most places.
They make a fresh product (can't say what, but it's not sausage rolls so that narrows it down a bit). It's personalised, high quality, and people genuinely love it. The factory is busy, ambitious, and full of people who care about what they're making - partly because the product has a clear purpose, partly because bad batches are very, very obvious.
Right now, they need a Continuous Improvement Technologist. Someone who knows their way around a production floor, understands why metal detectors fail at the worst times, and doesn't break into a cold sweat when someone says "oxidation testing."
What you'll actually be doing
(Not the job-spec fantasy version.)
Running the daily QA checks: metal detection, checkweighers, GMP walkdowns… the real stuff that keeps the site honest.
Keeping the right data, not 900 versions of the wrong spreadsheet.
Verification work, stability/oxidation testing, dealing with labs, and occasionally explaining to people why "it looks fine" is not a scientific argument.
Leading RCAs and CAPA - and actually fixing things, not documenting them into oblivion.
Supporting trials and launches with proper sampling plans and reports that make sense.
Working across Technical, NPD, and Ops to help this place scale without losing its standards.
Who you are
Someone who likes being in the factory, not just near it.
You've probably got a Food Science/Tech degree, 3 years in QA/NPD/Ops, and you enjoy solving problems more than creating PowerPoints about them.
Excel is your friend. Specs don't scare you.
And you like the idea of influencing how a business grows, not just keeping it compliant.
Why bother?
Because this is the stage where your work actually matters.
Your improvements won't disappear into a corporate abyss - people will see them, use them, and build on them.
It's rare in food manufacturing, but it exists here.
If you want to find out more (and yes, I'll actually tell you what they make on the call), drop me a message or apply.
- The Collective Network
