Group Regulatory and Specifications Manager

Group Specification & Regulatory Manager

Food Manufacturing | Hetton-Le-Hole, County Durham

An established and growing food manufacturing business is seeking an experienced Group Specification & Regulatory Manager to lead its UK and international specification teams. This is a strategic leadership role responsible for ensuring the delivery of accurate product specifications, compliant labelling, and regulatory excellence across a complex multi-site operation.

The successful candidate will play a key role in supporting business growth, maintaining customer confidence, and ensuring products meet the highest standards of food safety, quality, legality, and authenticity.

The Role

Reporting to the Development & Technical Director, you will be responsible for leading specification and regulatory activities across multiple manufacturing sites, ensuring that product specifications, artwork, and supporting documentation remain fully compliant with customer, legal, and internal requirements.

You will manage both UK and international specification teams, driving performance, developing capability, and ensuring resources are aligned to business priorities and customer expectations.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, develop and manage the Group Specification Team, including recruitment, training, performance management and team structure.
• Ensure departmental workloads, priorities, KPIs and customer requirements are delivered effectively.
• Oversee the creation, maintenance and review of finished product specifications and product labelling.
• Ensure compliance with UK and international food legislation, retailer requirements and internal quality standards.
• Support product launches through the timely provision of accurate sample specifications, artwork verification and product integration processes.
• Build and maintain strong technical relationships with key customers and major UK retailers.
• Participate in technical reviews, driving continuous improvement and customer satisfaction.
• Ensure customer enquiries, retailer portals and technical notifications are managed effectively.
• Monitor legislative and customer requirement changes and implement robust action plans to maintain compliance.
• Drive continuous improvement of specification systems, processes and change control procedures.
• Support wider technical and quality functions with certification documentation, including Halal, Kosher and Organic approvals where required.
• Maintain accurate technical records and development systems.

About You

The ideal candidate will bring significant food manufacturing technical and specification experience, combined with strong leadership capabilities and a customer-focused mindset.

Essential Requirements

• Degree-level qualification in Food Labelling, Food Science, Regulatory Affairs or a related discipline.
• Minimum 10 years' experience within a food manufacturing technical or quality environment.
• At least 5 years' experience in specification writing, maintenance and regulatory compliance.
• Strong knowledge of UK and EU food labelling legislation.
• Proven experience managing and developing teams across multiple locations.
• Experience working directly with major UK retailers and retailer specification systems/portals.
• Customer-facing experience with strong account management capabilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong influencing and stakeholder management abilities.
• Highly organised with exceptional attention to detail.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office applications.
• Solution-focused, proactive and motivated with a strong \"can-do\" attitude.

Desirable

• Additional language skills, particularly German or Italian.
• Experience supporting product certification requirements including Halal, Kosher and Organic standards.

What's on Offer?

• Opportunity to lead a high-performing specification and regulatory function within a growing food manufacturing business.
• Strategic role with significant influence across technical, quality, commercial and operational teams.
• Exposure to major UK retail customers and international markets.
• Excellent opportunities for professional development and long-term career progression.