Quality and Food Safety Manager

Overview

Join the Leicester Site Leadership Team at the home of Walkers, one of Europe’s largest snack manufacturing sites, producing some of the nation’s best-loved brands, including Sensations, Frazzles, Chipsticks and Wotsits.

Be part of a high-performing leadership team, making a real impact at the heart of an iconic UK manufacturing operation.

Lead the Leicester quality and food safety agenda to protect consumers, safeguard product integrity and deliver consistently high-quality products. Translate PepsiCo standards, applicable legal requirements and customer expectations into effective site systems, operational controls and measurable improvement. As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, shape site strategy and business decisions, provide independent technical challenge and build shared ownership of quality and food safety across every function and shift. Ensure that production, service and cost decisions never compromise product safety or required quality standards.

Responsibilities

• Site leadership: Lead Leicester’s quality and food safety agenda as an SLT member, shaping site priorities and providing independent technical challenge.
• Standards and compliance: Maintain effective quality systems, HACCP and manufacturing standards, ensuring compliance with legal, PepsiCo and customer requirements.
• Quality improvement: Drive product consistency, audit readiness and complaint reduction through data-led problem solving and sustainable corrective actions.
• Incident management: Lead risk assessment, containment and escalation, ensuring traceability and appropriately authorised product release.
• Change and innovation: Ensure trials, launches, production transfers and site investments meet quality and food safety requirements before implementation.
• People and resources: Develop the Quality and Food Safety team, strengthen capability and ownership across all shifts, and manage departmental budgets and improvement plans.

Qualifications

• Degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Microbiology or a related discipline, or equivalent technical qualifications and substantial relevant experience.

• Level 4 HACCP qualification or equivalent, appropriate for leading the development, implementation and review of HACCP systems.

• Level 4 Food Safety Management for Manufacturing or equivalent, demonstrating managerial-level food safety knowledge