Supply Chain Manager - Maternity Cover

Job Title: Supply Chain Manager

Location: Watford WD24 7RY, hybrid

Salary: Competitive salary DOE

Job Type: Full Time, Fixed term [12 months —from October 26]

Vegetarian Express specialise in delivering plant-based ingredients, ideas and inspiration to chefs across the UK for eating out of home. With the astronomical rise in popularity of plant-based, vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian diets, we're uniquely placed in foodservice to meet this demand — and we're growing fast.

Nationally we supply more than 4,000 skilled chefs from customers such as Compass, Baxterstorey and CH&Co, as well as a huge range of independent operators and events including the Chelsea Flower Show, Wimbledon and Wembley Stadium. We're proud to be a certified B Corporation — part of a growing number of progressive businesses who believe in the power of business to do good and are doing something about it.

The role:

We're looking for an experienced Supply Chain Manager to join us on a fixed-term contract covering maternity leave (12 months, from October 2026), owning end-to-end supply chain performance including demand planning, stock health, inbound logistics and supplier performance. You'll manage supplier forecasting, develop our forecasting tools and ways of working that our Supply Chain Planner and wider team deliver against day to day, working closely with Procurement and Operations.

This is a line management role with responsibility for our Supply Chain Planner and reportable to our Purchasing and Supply Chain Director.

You'll also play a part in an important period of operational change for the business as we continue to scale, so experience supporting teams through change is a real advantage.

What you'll be doing:

• Line-managing and developing our Supply Chain Planner — setting objectives, reviewing performance, building capability
• Owning availability, stock health and wastage targets, and the plan to hit them
• Acting as escalation point for supply issues needing cross-functional or supplier-level resolution
• Owning supplier delivery performance strategy alongside our Procurement Manager
• Setting inventory strategy — stock holding, MOQ negotiations, stock day targets
• Driving continuous improvement in forecasting, planning tools and process automation
• Representing supply chain in wider business planning during a period of change

What we're looking for:

• 4+ years' experience leading a supply chain function, ideally within food
• Previous line management experience with a proven track record of developing others
• Strong stakeholder management and cross-function matrix working
• Comfortable managing a complex product range, at pace, through change
• Strong analytical skills; intermediate Excel essential
• Confident communicator, able to influence and lead at all levels

What's in it for you:

• Competitive basic salary, dependent on experience
• 25 days holiday plus public holidays (option to purchase up to 3 additional days)
• Cash health plan (money back for dentist, opticians, physio and more)
• Life assurance (4x salary)
• Staff discount on all products
• Pension (3% employer, 5% employee)
• Hybrid working — office days to flex around business needs
• 40 hours per week, Monday to Friday

Candidates with experience of: Senior Supply Chain Officer, Supply Chain Co-ordinator, Supply Chain Planner, Buying Project Manager, Purchasing Manager, Supply Chain Team Leader, Supply Chain Supervisor may also be considered for this role.