Retail Category Technical Manager

Asda · Asda House

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Competitive salary plus benefits

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We have an exciting opportunity for a Category Technical Manager to join our Fresh Core Chilled, Bakery & Counters team.

At Asda, we're committed to becoming Britain's most trusted retailer, and this role plays a critical part in helping us achieve that ambition. You'll be responsible for ensuring our own-brand products consistently meet the highest standards of food safety, legality, quality and responsible sourcing, while supporting innovation and delivering great products for our customers.

Working closely with suppliers and cross-functional teams, you'll protect and enhance the Asda brand, drive continuous improvement across the supply base, and ensure robust due diligence and compliance standards are maintained across your category portfolio.

This is a fantastic opportunity to influence product quality from concept to customer, working across a dynamic and fast-paced area of the business.

What You'll Be Responsible For

Supplier & Technical Leadership

• Lead and support our supplier partners to deliver safe, legal and consistently high-quality products for our customers.
• Act as the technical lead for your category areas, supporting the Lead Technical Manager in delivering the business strategy and driving technical innovation.
• Champion Asda's technical standards both internally and externally, ensuring products consistently meet our quality and compliance expectations.
• Develop and implement quality improvement plans with suppliers to drive product excellence and customer satisfaction.
• Build strong relationships across the supply base, driving continuous improvement and proactively managing quality and compliance issues.
• Use your category and supplier knowledge to identify opportunities, mitigate risks and add value to the wider business.
• Conduct strategic supplier risk assessments and support category plans through effective technical governance.

Risk, Due Diligence & Incident Management

• Lead the management of product incidents in line with Asda's incident management processes.
• Participate in the technical on-call rota, including occasional weekend support where required.
• Drive investigations into customer complaints and dissatisfaction, working collaboratively with suppliers and internal stakeholders to implement effective corrective actions.
• Use horizon scanning, emerging industry trends and risk intelligence to anticipate future challenges and strengthen category resilience.
• Support continuous enhancement of technical frameworks that protect customers and uphold the Asda brand.

Innovation & Business Delivery

• Support the delivery of Asda's trade plans and own-brand innovation pipeline.
• Partner with Trading and Customer Planning teams to bring innovative, customer-focused products to market.
• Lead the technical delivery of new product development projects, ensuring products launch safely, legally and on time.
• Manage and influence critical paths to support successful product launches.
• Deliver agreed business objectives while balancing customer, quality, compliance and commercial priorities.

Systems, Compliance & Governance

• Ensure all active supplier sites and associated product specifications are accurately maintained within Asda's due diligence systems.
• Verify that all required compliance, ethical sourcing and responsible sourcing documentation is in place and actively managed.
• Support the development and implementation of policies, standards and processes relevant to your category areas.
• Monitor and manage key technical performance measures, including:
  • Product specifications
  • Audit compliance
  • Withdrawals and recalls
  • Customer complaints
  • Supply chain mapping
• Support the delivery and ongoing development of Asda's audit framework, using risk-based decision making to drive improvements.
• Ensure supplier visits, audits and assessments are completed to a consistently high standard and supported by documented risk assessments.

People & Leadership

• Continuously develop your own capability while supporting the growth of the wider technical team.
• Provide coaching, guidance and knowledge sharing to colleagues and stakeholders.
• Line manage and develop direct reports where applicable.
• Support effective supplier engagement through conferences, training programmes and collaborative improvement initiatives.
• Act as a role model for Asda's values, promoting a positive, inclusive and high-performing culture.

Let's Find Out About You

You'll be an experienced Technical Manager with a passion for food quality, safety and innovation, and a strong track record of delivering results in a retail, FMCG or food manufacturing environment.

You'll bring:

• Proven experience managing complex food categories and supplier networks.
• Strong technical expertise in food safety, quality management and regulatory compliance.
• A degree, or equivalent qualification, in a food-related, scientific or relevant technical discipline.
• Knowledge of manufacturing environments and industry standards, including BRCGS and HACCP.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to build credibility at all levels.
• Commercial awareness and a strong understanding of customer needs.
• The ability to prioritise effectively and adapt in a fast-paced and evolving environment.
• A track record of making sound decisions and delivering measurable results.
• Experience building strong, sustainable and mutually beneficial supplier relationships.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate across multiple teams and functions.
• A proactive mindset focused on innovation, continuous improvement and problem solving.
• The confidence to challenge constructively and drive positive change where required.

Why Asda?

At Asda, you'll have the opportunity to shape the quality and safety of products enjoyed by millions of customers. You'll work with passionate colleagues, industry-leading suppliers and a business committed to delivering great value without compromising on quality.

If you're looking for a role where you can make a genuine impact, influence strategic decisions and help drive continuous improvement across a major retailer, we'd love to hear from you.

Everything you'll love

To ensure we balance moments where we know we need to collaborate together and the need for flexibility, Asda has a hybrid way of working with a minimum 3 days a week in one of our Home Offices. Over and above this, each area of Asda may have additional requirements which may require spending more days in the office, visiting suppliers, stores or depots.

You will also get an excellent benefits package including:

• Discretionary company bonus

• Company pension up to 7% matched

• Company Car allowance of £5,700

• 15% colleague discount in store and online

• Free access to wellbeing services such as Stream, 24/7 virtual GP, counselling, health and dental cash plans and a 24/7 employee assistance helpline, alongside discounts across a range of services and activities, from airport parking, enhanced to theme parks and cinemas.

• Asda Allies Inclusion Networks – helping colleagues to make sure everybody is included and that our differences are recognised and celebrated

• Excellent parental leave policies, including maternity & adoption leave, paternity leave, shared parental leave, neonatal care leave, and support for those doing fertility treatments.

We want all colleagues to be able to bring their best and true selves to work, every day. Simply put, we want our colleagues to be Proud to be Asda and proud to be themselves

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