Technical Support

M&S Food is changing, and fast! We are undergoing one of the biggest transformations in retailing today to build a bigger, better, fresher food business.

From Percy Pig to the freshest M&S Select Farms produce, we grow, source, and develop our own products to give our customers family-ready food that's unbeatable on flavour and innovation.

We need motivated people who are ready to bring their whole self to work and give it their all in a fast-paced team committed to being the best. After all, this is not just food… This is M&S Food.

This is a role which is key to the M&S Produce team. As M&S develops how we source our produce from around the world we need to change how we gather and handle our key Due diligence information. This role will encompass the development of the process to gather, handle and improve our technical compliance encompassing all aspects such as traceability, pesticide controls, ethical and environmental standards and key quality metrics. They will work closely with the Agronomy team and growers to deliver great governance in the most efficient way.

This role will be key to shaping the delivery of the best produce sourcing programme for great governance and pick of the crop quality and points of difference all year round.

We are looking for someone who has experience in governance and compliance in the food industry, ideally with produce industry experience. They need to have excellent communication skills and a consistent track record of delivering data analysis and improvements to systems and processes.

Key accountabilities and measures

• Develop, support and champion the Produce sourcing technical governance and associated processes.
• Maintain a robust and up to date quality management system
• Ability to collect and interpret data from multiple sources, identify trends and present in a meaningful, clear & concise fashion, to drive improvement.
• Identify key partners and in turn communicate effectively and be able to build and establish strong working relationships.
• Work with the produce agronomy team and other partners to identify areas of challenge and develop proactive long term solutions.
• Work proactively with the agronomists and grower / supply base to develop understanding and sound governance from across grower and supply base, identifying gaps, providing training and guidance and supporting resolution where required.
• Conduct internal reviews to check policies and procedures are being properly implemented and work with the Produce agronomy team to develop an action plan to handle any non-compliance with the urgency required.
• Work collaboratively with the central governance teams to ensure produce is delivering against the wider food technical requirements.
• Work collaboratively and proactively with any systems providers to deliver clear requirements against a contract ( as appropriate ) and drive continual improvement.
• Carry out reviews and consider how risks can be reduced; develop internal policy and keep documents up to date and retained according to
• Proactively identify and develop opportunities to continuously improve system functionality and process efficiencies
• Creating new and innovative ways of doing things to demonstrate flexibility, open-mindedness and adaptability to changing business and regulatory environment.

Key Skills

• Experience of working in food governance and compliance, ideally in produce sourcing.
• Ability to collect, analyse, interpret and present technical information from multiple sources in a clear, meaningful and concise fashion.
• Ability to use logic and reasoning to identify solutions to problems.
• Proven track record of developing and inspiring change and improvements to processes and systems.
• Experience of creating policy documentation to enable consistent delivery of governance systems.
• Experience of identifying areas for improvement and associated action plans that are aligned with business objectives to drive efficiency and enhanced governance.
• Ability to pick up, understand and interpret complex systems
• Advanced working knowledge of Excel, Power point, Microsoft Teams and Power BI.
• Excellent people and communication skills and ability to influence at all level.
• Ability to work with team and other partners to identify solutions and plans to overcome complex problems and challenges.
• Ability to develop and manage relationships effectively internally and externally and use those relationships to deliver against business objectives
• Flexibility, open-mindedness and adaptability to find solutions to challenges in a rapidly changing business and regulatory environment.
• Structured and organised with excellent time management skills.
• Ability to remain calm under pressure
• Ability to produce and present effective presentations and training sessions

M&S is ready to push boundaries to lead the retail industry into a greener, speedier, more inspiring digital era. That’s why we’re revolutionising how we work and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. There’s never been a better time to be part of our team. Marks & Spencer aims to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make an immediate impact.

We are committed to an active Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunities Policy, which starts with our recruitment and selection process, and we are happy to talk flexible working.

If you consider yourself to require reasonable adjustments to any part of our recruitment process, we invite you to share those requirements with us when completing your application. We will make every effort to ensure your needs are met to provide a fair and transparent process of assessment.