Operational Excellence Manager (Opex Manager)

We're excited to offer an excellent opportunity for an experienced Operational Excellence Manager to join our team in Nottingham and play a key role in driving continuous improvement across the business.About The Compleat Food GroupAt The Compleat Food Group, we're proud to be a food business built on purpose and passion. Formed in 2021, we're on a mission to create Food to Feel Good - great quality, tasty and affordable food that people love to eat.Location: NottinghamWorking Hours: Monday - Thursday: 8:30am - 5pm & Friday: 8:30am - 4pmSalary: £65,000 per annumJob Purpose:We are looking for a highly motivated professional to drive the identification and quantification of the improvement agenda in collaboration with the site leadership team, ensuring maximum focus and return on key strategic challenges. You will act as a leading change agent within the business, identifying and closing gaps in operational efficiency, capacity utilisation, wastage, quality, and safety against approved targets. A key part of the role is embedding an Operational Excellence (OpEx) culture across the site by coaching, facilitating, and developing colleagues at all levels, contributing to ongoing OpEx delivery. Key Duties, Responsibilities & Accountabilities:

• Lead the diagnostic cycle to define the annual 'bottom up' Operational Excellence budget
• To collaborate with manufacturing colleagues to identify improvement opportunities, utilising data analysis, process observations and industry best practices and implementing flight plans to delivery.
• Provide analytic support to enable an understanding of Current state, baseline performance and capture existing issues.
• Implement principles of project governance and administration, including reporting on progress to plan and reporting of benefits delivery
• Collaboratively support and lead multi skilled/cross functional teams
• Use industry knowledge, product and equipment knowledge, project management experience and relationships across the organisation to enable successful delivery of complex/challenging projects.
• Collate data and present in an understandable format to be able to deliver required change
• Coaching and developing of Compleat Food colleagues from management to shop floor
• Develop and upskill colleagues in lean manufacturing principles, tools and techniques
• Facilitate, coach and support the effective deployment of a tiered Performance Management system at site level

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Formal qualification in an OpEx methodology such as but not limited to Lean Six sigma, Lean, TPS
• Bachelor's degree or qualification in a vocational or specialised field short of a degree level (HNC/HND) or Apprenticeship
• Minimum 5 years of work experience, preferably in manufacturing environments
• Proven experience of implementing and leading teams in delivery of continuous improvement projects and embedding an OpEx culture with quantifiable business impact
• Experience of coaching, developing, facilitating and leading teams
• Strong financial acumen including the ability to accurately value the monetary impact of initiatives
• Formal Lean/Lean Six sigma, Continuous Improvement/ OpEx methodology knowledge
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to analyse complex data and communicate findings
• Resilience and perseverance to establish an OpEx culture
• Experience of seeking and identifying cost opportunities, improving efficiencies, improving safety and quality capability, generating innovative/creative solutions
• Proven leadership skills and business acumen and the ability to work with different functions within the organisation.

Why Join Us?At The Compleat Food Group, we believe our people are the heart of our success. That's why we offer a wide range of benefits designed to support your lifestyle, wellbeing and career growth:

• Salary Sacrifice Schemes - including Electric Vehicles, Home & Tech, Cycle to Work, and SMART Pension
• 33 days' annual leave (including bank holidays) with the option to purchase extra at certain times of the year
• Access to enhanced retail discounts online and in-store
• 24/7 access to GroceryAid for free financial, emotional, and practical support
• Physical Wellbeing Hub - free on-demand exercise programmes, online classes and multiple gym discounts
• Free diet & nutrition advice with access to thousands of meal plans and healthy recipes
• Financial wellbeing tools - including mortgage calculators, budgeting tools, and financial aid
• Access to a personalised online learning platform (LMS)
• 2 paid volunteering days per year to give back to causes that matter to you
• Employee networks & support groups - including LGBTQIA+, Health and Wellbeing, Neuro Diversity and many more
• New baby gift for new parents

What You Should Know About How We RecruitAt The Compleat Food Group, we believe great teams are built on difference. We create an inclusive, respectful environment where everyone feels safe, supported, and are able to be themselves at work.We're proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to Fairness, Equity, Inclusivity, and Respect. If you need a reasonable adjustment at any stage of our recruitment process, just let us know, we'll support you - confidentially and with care.We hire the best people for our roles, not the same people. Whoever you are, wherever you're from, we focus on what you do and the impact you could make in our business.You'll also find benefits that support people at every life stage, plus active internal networks - including LGBTQIA+, and Neurodiversity.REF-