Group Specifications & Regulatory Manager

County Durham Permanent Excellent + benefits Ref: 419379

The company

Our client is an established, international food manufacturing group with a proud heritage and a strong reputation for quality, innovation and customer service.

The business operates through shared values centred on trust, passion, courage and openness. Safety and food quality are fundamental to its culture, supported by a clear commitment to customer centricity and continuous improvement.

As the organisation continues to develop, it is investing in the systems, processes and technical capability needed to support sustainable growth. This creates an exciting opportunity to join a collaborative senior leadership team and make a visible impact across the wider group.

The role

This is a senior opportunity for an accomplished food industry professional to lead a multi-site specification function, shape regulatory best practice and support continued business growth. You will combine strategic leadership with technical expertise, ensuring specifications and product labelling meet the highest standards of safety, legality, quality and authenticity.

As Group Specification & Regulatory Manager, you will lead the UK retail and international specification teams, ensuring the accurate creation and ongoing maintenance of finished product specifications, labels and supporting documentation.

You will establish a high-performing, appropriately structured team with the skills, training and systems required to meet customer, legislative and internal standards. Managing departmental priorities and performance, you will ensure key projects, specifications and artwork activities are completed accurately and on time.

Key responsibilities will include:

Leading, developing and motivating specification colleagues working across multiple sites
Managing team structure, recruitment, training, performance and resource planning
Overseeing departmental workloads, priorities and performance measures
Ensuring product specifications and labels remain accurate, compliant and aligned with current formulations
Establishing efficient systems for gathering technical information from manufacturing sites and supporting functions
Supporting commercial growth through the timely delivery of sample specifications, label verification and new product integration
Building strong technical relationships with major retailers and key customer accounts
Participating in customer technical reviews and driving continuous improvement
Ensuring customer portals, alerts, notifications and enquiries are managed effectively
Monitoring legislative and customer changes, communicating their impact and implementing focused compliance plans
Developing robust change-control processes that provide clear visibility to internal and external stakeholders
Improving specification-building processes to increase efficiency, accuracy and compliance
Supporting certification documentation for requirements such as Halal, Kosher and Organic
Maintaining accurate technical, development and regulatory records

This is a highly influential position with responsibility for setting the specification agenda and embedding consistent standards across the group.

The candidate

We are looking for an experienced specification and regulatory leader with a strong food manufacturing background and the credibility to operate with senior internal stakeholders, manufacturing sites, major retailers and key customers.

You are likely to offer:

A degree-level qualification in food labelling or a relevant equivalent discipline
Extensive experience within a food industry technical or quality function with specific experience in specification creation, writing and maintenance
A recognised external food labelling qualification covering UK and EU legislation
Proven experience of leading, developing and motivating multi-site teams
Detailed knowledge of major UK retailer requirements and specification portals
Experience working directly with retail customers and managing technical accounts
A thorough understanding of food labelling, regulatory compliance and change control
Strong written and verbal communication skills
The confidence to influence stakeholders, facilitate change and challenge constructively
Excellent organisation and attention to detail
A proactive, resilient and solution-focused approach
Fluent written and spoken English is essential. German or Italian language capability would be a distinct advantage.

This role would suit a commercially aware technical leader who can balance strategic direction with operational delivery. If you are passionate about developing people, improving systems and delivering exceptional standards of regulatory compliance, we would be delighted to hear from you.