Assistant General Manager

The Opportunity - Assistant General Manager

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About the role:

We are seeking an ambitious and driven Assistant General Manager to join our Organic Abattoir and Food Manufacturing Facility. This is a key leadership position supporting the General Manager in the safe, efficient, and compliant operation of a multi-species processing facility, covering slaughter, butchery, processing, and value-added food production.

This role has been designed as a development pathway to General Manager, providing the successful candidate with broad operational exposure, commercial responsibility, and leadership experience across all aspects of the business.

You will play a vital role in driving performance, maintaining the highest standards of food safety, animal welfare, quality, and health & safety, while supporting the development of a high-performing team and ensuring operational excellence throughout the site.

What does this role involve day to day?

As Assistant General Manager, you will work closely with the General Manager and wider leadership team to ensure the smooth running of the facility. Responsibilities will include:

•Supporting the leadership of all site operations across slaughter, butchery, processing, and manufacturing.

•Deputising for the General Manager when required, taking responsibility for operational performance across the site.

•Monitoring production performance, throughput, yields, labour efficiency, and operational costs.

•Leading daily production meetings and contributing to performance reviews and continuous improvement initiatives.

•Ensuring compliance with all relevant food safety, regulatory, and animal welfare standards, including HACCP, FSA requirements, and WATOK legislation.

•Maintaining audit readiness and supporting external audits, inspections, and regulatory visits.

•Promoting best practice in livestock handling and ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare are consistently achieved.

•Supporting the delivery of a positive health and safety culture through training, risk assessments, incident investigations, and safe working practices.

•Analysing operational and financial performance data to identify trends, improve efficiencies, and support effective decision-making.

•Working closely with production, hygiene, quality assurance, engineering, logistics, procurement, sales, and HR teams to achieve business objectives.

•Supporting maintenance and engineering activities to maximise equipment reliability and minimise downtime.

•Coaching, mentoring, and developing colleagues, helping to build future capability across the business.

•Contributing to forecasting, production planning, livestock scheduling, and continuous site improvement projects.

This will be suited to you if...

•Previous experience within an abattoir, meat processing, food manufacturing, or similar operational environment.

•Strong supervisory, middle management, or operational leadership experience.

•A good understanding of food safety standards, quality systems, and regulatory compliance.

•Knowledge of animal welfare requirements and best practice within livestock processing environments.

•Commercial awareness and the ability to understand financial performance, budgets, and operational costs.

•Experience analysing data, identifying trends, and implementing improvements to enhance performance.

•Strong people leadership skills with the ability to motivate, influence, and develop teams.

•Excellent organisational, communication, and problem-solving abilities.

•A proactive approach and the confidence to make decisions in a dynamic environment.

•The ambition and capability to progress into a future General Manager position.

Desirable qualifications and experience include:

•Food Science, Agriculture, Operations Management, or related qualifications.

•HACCP, IOSH, or NEBOSH certifications.

•Experience supporting external audits and certification standards such as BRCGS, SALSA, or Organic accreditation.

 What’s in it for you?

This is your chance to join a company that values expertise not only in rewards but also in real employee care. At JCB you don’t just get a competitive salary, 33 days’ holiday and access to our company pension—you can also use our onsite gym, in-house doctor, dentist and visiting optician. We have an ULEV car scheme available for our employees too. Then there’s the JCB Rewards Hub, which gives you discounts with high street retailers. Feel like biking to work? There’s our Cycle to Work Scheme.

We value diversity and welcome applications from candidates from all backgrounds.

We’re committed to ensuring our recruitment process is fair and inclusive. If you face any accessibility challenges with your online application and require additional support, you have the option of speaking to a member of our Recruitment Team who can support you to complete an application in an alternative format. If you would benefit from this support, please email recruitment@jcb.com, and a member of the team will be in touch.

Recruitment Agencies: JCB does not accept any speculative approaches to present candidates for advertised vacancies.