Ingredients Manager

Overview

We are looking for an experienced food professional to step into a high-impact role at an important point in apetito’s growth. This is an opportunity to shape how we optimise, manage and introduce ingredients across the business, delivering real commercial, operational and quality benefits while supporting our expansion into our new Kitchen West production facility.

For the first 12–18 months, the role will be embedded in a focused project team, identifying and driving opportunities to improve value, reduce complexity and deliver measurable business benefit without compromising the quality of our food. This will be a demanding, fast-moving phase requiring pace, resilience, strong judgement and the ability to turn opportunity into action.

As the project outputs are embedded, the focus of the role will transition into a broader Ingredients Manager remit within the development team. You will lead the introduction and management of raw materials, take line management responsibility for our Food Technologists and NPD Raw Material and Change Control Co-ordinator, and continue to strengthen the way we deliver food technology, specifications and change control support across the business.

This role is practical, delivery-focused and hands-on, requiring technical expertise, commercial awareness, project management discipline and the confidence to work through ambiguity. You will evaluate ingredients and materials, work closely with suppliers and internal teams, conduct trials, challenge existing ways of working and drive opportunities through to successful implementation.

The role offers significant scope to make a visible difference: simplifying processes, unlocking value, improving consistency, supporting innovation and helping build stronger, more sustainable ways of working for the future. To succeed, you will need a proven track record of delivering cross-functional projects within food manufacturing, balancing cost, complexity, quality and risk in a commercially thoughtful way.

Highly organised, energetic and results-focused, you will be able to build structure around complex work, prioritise the opportunities that matter most and translate ideas into measurable, sustainable business benefits.

This is a fast-paced, challenging role with business-wide influence and genuine opportunity to bring about lasting change. It will require hard work, pace and determination, but for the right person it offers the chance to help shape how apetito operates and contribute directly to our future success.

This role is based at our UK Head Office in Trowbridge Wiltshire.

Who we are

apetito is the UK’s leading food supplier to the health and social care sectors serving more than 1,300 care homes, health care and education settings.

Our meals are expertly crafted by our dieticians and chefs, and then frozen to lock in the goodness.

Wiltshire Farm Foods, our sister company, is the UK’s largest ready meal supplier cooking and delivering over 330 different delicious frozen ready meals across the UK.

Responsibilities

• Seek and enact a high-impact programme of ingredient, raw material, packaging and finished product opportunities, unlocking measurable benefits in cost, quality, consistency, operational performance and customer proposition.
• Work in close partnership with Procurement, suppliers, project teams and cross-functional stakeholders to spot opportunities, shape solutions and turn technically and commercially viable ideas into action.
• Build and manage a clear, energised opportunity pipeline, bringing structure to complex work through defined benefits, plans, timings, dependencies, risks, resource needs and governance.
• Challenge unnecessary cost, complexity, duplication and over-specification, creating space for smarter ways of working while safeguarding food safety, compliance, product quality, customer expectations and operational performance.
• Lead hands-on evaluation of ingredients, materials and finished products, using assessment, trials, technical validation and impact analysis to build confidence and drive better decisions.
• Drive approved changes through specification, change control, data, trial approval and implementation processes, ensuring great ideas are delivered accurately, efficiently and right first time.

As the role transitions after 12-18 months, you will also take on responsibility to:

• Lead the introduction of new and improved raw materials, packaging and finished goods, strengthening range propositions, improving product quality, reducing complexity and creating competitive advantage.
• Provide clear, practical leadership to the Food Technologists and NPD Raw Material and Change Control Co-ordinator, creating focus, momentum and alignment across priorities, workload, resources and projects.
• Ensure product information and specifications are delivered with accuracy, agility and compliance with relevant legislation, policies, standards and business requirements.
• Bring practical expertise and fresh thinking to broader cost optimisation, continuous improvement and business change initiatives, supporting the Head of Product & Process Development and wider development team as required.
• Take a continuous improvement approach across change control, raw material introduction, specifications and artwork delivery, strengthening the systems, processes and ways of working that support accuracy, efficiency, quality and service.

Qualifications/Personal Qualities

Essential

• Extensive experience within food manufacturing, gained in product development, ingredients, technical, quality or project management roles.
• Proven ability to identify, evaluate and deliver raw material, ingredient, packaging or product optimisation opportunities that generate measurable business benefit.
• Strong project management, prioritisation and organisational skills, with experience leading complex cross-functional projects from opportunity identification through to implementation.
• Commercially aware, with the judgement to balance cost, quality, customer expectations, operational requirements, food safety and compliance.
• Confident working with suppliers, stakeholders and cross-functional teams at all levels, with strong communication, influencing and decision-making skills.
• Practical, hands-on experience of product assessment, sensory evaluation, production trials and technical validation.
• Confident working with cost, specification, product and technical data, with strong attention to detail and a sound understanding of food legislation.
• Tenacious, flexible and resilient, with the ability to work at pace, adapt priorities and drive projects through ambiguity to successful completion.
• Capable of leading, motivating and developing a high-performing team, creating clarity, focus and momentum across priorities and workload.
• Degree level qualification in food or similar discipline or equivalent relevant experience.

Desirable

• Sound understanding of UK and EU food legislation and labelling laws

Company Benefits

• Competitive salary – accredited Living Wage employer
• 25 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays
• Option to purchase up to 5 additional days holiday per year
• Discretionary annual bonus scheme
• Pension scheme - employer matched contributions up to 4%
• Life assurance scheme worth at least 1x annual salary
• Subsidised canteen
• Free parking
• Free turkey or voucher at Christmas
• apetito perks scheme including salary sacrifice options and retail discounts

Our Values

As a family-owned business, we take great pride in being a company that makes a real difference and is dedicated to creating outstanding meals to be proud of.

We develop a range of products designed to enhance health and well-being for all our customers.

We are driven by a passion for service and dedicated to feeding some of the UK’s most vulnerable people.

We proudly support British food and farming, focusing on using the best ethical and sustainable produce in alignment with our goal to reach Net Zero by 2040.

Our ethical standards are recognised by the ETI and we are an accredited Living Wage employer.Learn more about apetito’s commitment to a more sustainable future.

We embrace inclusion, empowering individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Our commitment to making a real difference extends to customers, communities, and staff and we're on a mission to build an inclusive workplace where everyone reaches their full potential.