Job Description

Job Title

Lead Technical Manager

Location

Asda House

Employment Type

Full time

Contract Type

Permanent

Hours per Week

37.5

Salary

Competitive Salary plus benefits

Category

Compliance/Audit

Closing Date

30 September 2026

Do you want to be part of an exciting journey to accelerate Own Brand, do you want to build trust with customers and work in a fast-paced retail environment? Have you had experience working in a leadership technical role within retail or manufacturing, leading a high performing team? Then this is the role for you.

About the role

This role is responsible for driving and delivering Asda’s technical, quality and food safety standards effectively across the business units and supplier partners.

The role is pivotal in protecting the Asda brand ensuring customers trust and delivering continuous improvement across quality, safety, sustainability and supplier performance.

You will be accountable for leading a team of technical managers across several categories, supporting and coaching the teams on many topics including Incident management. You will be responsible for embedding the technical framework within the business successfully, engaging key stakeholders across Own Brand and Trading ensuing everyone is engaged and aligned and that all colleagues understand their accountabilities in relation to Food and Non Edible Grocery. The successful candidate will be able to effectively influence and shape outcomes using their expertise and creativity to drive forward business solutions.

You will be accountable for identifying both risk and opportunities for the business, staying ahead of the latest thinking and industry issues helping the business prepare for any future impacts, working closely with the Lead Technical Manager for Food Safety & Regulatory.

You will also play a critical role building powerful partnerships within the wider Own brand and Trading teams, our suppliers and beyond not only to drive and embed a Food Safety & Quality culture but to help to implement Business strategy effectively and at pace by providing solutions upfront.

To do this, you’ll develop a strong network, inspire others to embrace the journey and demonstrate a compelling business case for action. You’ll be very results focused, commercially astute , pragmatic, flexible and resilient as well as energised by change.

You’ll enjoy developing and mentoring colleagues across the business, developing talent and creating an environment for colleagues to thrive and grow.

About you

You will need a degree or equivalent in a relevant scientific area, experience of Food Manufacturing/processing knowledge and experience in leading retail or group technical/compliance teams. You will have a real passion for Food, driving change and working within a fast paced environment.

• You’ll have a strong technical track record in a retail or Food Manufacturing.
• You’ll have excellent organisational skills including the ability to identify, implement & lead change in the business through challenging, leading and influencing colleagues cross functionally.
• You’ll demonstrate that you can persevere with significant challenges, finding creative ways to overcome barriers and bounce back from set backs.
• You’ll will have an appetite for driving high standards and holding people to account, challenging the status quo.
• You’ll have built a strong network of trusting relationships and be widely respected within the industry, influencing key stakeholders and being part of wider industry groups.
• You’ll have evidence of using data effectively to identify key focus areas and to mitigate risk effectively for the business, enabling resource to be directed to the right areas
• You’ll have experience in application of HACCP, Supplier approval, auditing and quality management systems
• You’ll be an experienced line manager, committed to coaching individuals and developing talent.
• You'll enjoy working as part of a team, stepping forward to take the lead when appropriate as well as welcoming ideas from everywhere. You'll develop strong relationships across many functions, communicating confidently and representing the Technical & Quality function with high credibility.
• You’ll be a good communicator with excellent written and verbal skills, able to communicate complex subjects clearly to stakeholders

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 1.5 times colleagues' contribution (Max 15%)
• Company Car allowance of £8000
• 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