Operations & Supply Chain Director

Operations and Supply Chain Director

Location: Cockburnspath
Salary: Competitive + Benefits

Are you an experienced supply chain leader who thrives on balancing strategic thinking with operational excellence?

Elevation Recruitment Group are delighted to be working on a retained basis with a leading fresh produce business to recruit an Operations and Supply Chain Director. This is a pivotal leadership appointment, offering the opportunity to shape end-to-end supply chain strategy, build strong supplier partnerships and drive continuous improvement across planning, procurement, logistics and operations.

Working closely with the Managing Director and wider leadership team, you'll ensure the business delivers the right products, at the right time, at the right cost, while building a resilient and sustainable supply chain that supports future growth.

In return, you'll receive a competitive package including:

• A car allowance
• Relocation support payment
• Private Bupa healthcare for you and your partner
• Up to 7% matched pension contribution
• Performance-related bonus of up to 10% of salary, based on achieving budgeted profit before tax
• 33 days' holiday, inclusive of bank and public holidays (approximately nine public holidays in Scotland)

This is a broad leadership role where you'll take ownership of the entire supply chain function, with the core focus on, and expertise in ‘sales and operations planning (S&OP)’. Your influence will be from ‘seed to shelf’ and you will need to be able to facilitate co-operation from all the teams that are involved in that process, whether they work for you directly or not. The aim is to reduce some of the current silos we have between teams and this will include changing the reporting lines of some teams into this role. Ultimately there will be teams that you need to involve in planning processes that will not report to you.

You'll develop robust planning processes, lead strategic grow versus buy decisions, strengthen relationships with growers and suppliers, and ensure operational excellence across packing and distribution. You'll also drive cost and yield optimisation, manage risk and develop a high-performing, collaborative supply chain function.

As you demonstrate mastery of this, and possibly from August 2027 (when Summer Crops become very stable in supply and demand terms), then we aim to extend the remit so that the role becomes responsible for the majority of the operation including suppliers, packhouse operations, engineering and logistics. These roles will report to the MD and other leadership functions until the core planning processes are firmly embedded.

Key responsibilities of the role include:

• Lead the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process to balance demand, supply and inventory. This is the core part of the role.
• Develop supply strategies that optimise grow versus buy decisions.
• Drive collaboration across growers, packing operations, logistics and internal stakeholders.
• Identify and implement opportunities to improve processes, systems and overall supply chain performance.
• Manage budgets, monitor KPIs and deliver cost-saving initiatives.
• Develop resilient supply chain strategies that minimise risk and support long-term growth.
• Lead, coach and develop teams while fostering a collaborative, high-performance culture.
• Manage supplier relationships, procurement activity and commercial negotiations. This will be via delegation to a senior manager.

We're looking for an experienced supply chain leader with a collaborative style who can unite teams across the extended supply chain with the support of the MD. The addition of operational responsibilities would suit individuals with strong planning skillsets and who have ambitions to propel an exciting business forwards in a broad operations role.

You'll bring:

• Significant senior leadership experience within short shelf life food supply chains
• This experience must include leadership of large production teams and have demonstrated evidence of success in delivering operational excellence.
• Strong knowledge of leading Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) is key and you will need to demonstrate that you created or evolved processes, not just executed them.
• Experience managing both strategic supplier relationships and dynamic spot procurement will be beneficial
• Strong commercial and financial acumen with experience managing budgets and KPIs.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence across multiple business functions.
• Experience leading change and developing high-performing teams.
• A continuous improvement mindset with a focus on long-term business performance.

If you're looking for a senior leadership role where you can make a lasting impact, we'd love to hear from you.

ESG Drysdale are working in exclusive partnership with Elevation recruitment group for the recruitment of this position. All third party applicants will be sent to and become the property of Elevation recruitment group.