LCJ
Oldham, Lancashire
Apr 23, 2026
Full time
Technical Assistant - Oldham Park Cakes is a c 250 million business which supplies cake and desserts to service the own brands of major retailers, there are three sites based in the North West at Heywood, Oldham and Bolton. Our products include, high end celebration cake products, slab cakes and mainstream desserts, we mostly supply Marks & Spencer's although we also supply other major retailers. An exciting but challenging position has arisen, which would be ideal for someone looking for career progression. This is a Hands on, Systems & factory facing role which you will be accountable for working towards achieving technical KPI's and objectives, day to day managament of the Food Safety and QMS plan whilst developing longer term continuous improvement plans that will deliver results. The successful candidate will be the Technical assistant reporting to the QMS & HACCP manager whilst working closely alongside your technical colleagues such as area QAs, Operations, NPD, Hygiene & Engineering functions to succeed and deliver a safe and fantastic quality product. Example of Duties: Updating Procedures in line with Customer COPs, Legislation & Audit NCs Closing out Internal Audit NCs and including multi-functional departments where required- ensuring effective close out is completed and challenged where reoccurring Creating & Maintaining HACCP Flows for all finished products & ensuring these are verified annually Creating & Maintaining HACCP Steps considering all risks including helping to Verify & Validate CCP steps Creating and Maintaining Risk Assessments Assisting with continuous improvement projects onsite where required Maintaining Group & Site documents Performing Gap Analysis on customer standards and planning implementation across site with the QMS & HACCP Manager Reviewing existing documentation periodically via internal audit Ensuring understanding of new procedures are challenged and understood i.e. QA's, FTM's Identifying where site is not complying and develop a robust plan to ensure compliance in conjunction with necessary team/site members Helping arrange and write up store reports Ensuring maintenance and communication of auto-coding systems is fully implemented Ideally you will have: Candidate to be qualified either in a Food related science or Environmental related science degree or equivalent, or be able to demonstrate extensive experience within the food industry of 6+ years in a manufacturing environment producing own label products into retail Bakery experienced preferred but not essential if other areas of expertise are strong Experience with interpreting technical standards such as BRC, M&S & JS Experience of unannounced visits with auditor facing communication and presenting Skills required to investigate and create robust reports that determines Root cause and preventative action which is openly challenged by the customer. Time management skills and prioritisation to enable workload to be completed and KPI's strictly adhered to Positive outlook and willing to bounce ideas off your colleagues including other Factory Technical Managers and QMS & HACCP Manager within your office Ability to manage and effectively communicate across all levels of seniority within the business Full, clean driving license required as occasional travel will be necessary Hours: 39 hours per week, Monday-Thursday 8am-4:30pm and Friday 8:00am till 3:30pm, some flexibility is required. Package: Salary up to 32,500 per annum, 25 days holiday a year and 8 statutory holiday, Money purchase pension scheme with statutory contribution of salary , Discount scheme operating across several online and high street retailers, Please note we are unable to provide Visa Sponsorship for this role. To Apply: Please press the 'apply' button and shortlisted candidates will be contacted by Park Cakes within 28 days. Thank you for your interest in the role. This may be of interest to people looking for the following: NPD Assistant, Technical Assistant, Graduate, Food Science, NPD Technologist New Product Development Technologist Quality Assistant, Quality Control QC Technician FMCG Food Drinks Beverages Manufacturing Manchester Oldham Bolton Lancashire Warrington Wigan
