Job Introduction
At Bigham’s, we’re proud to make delicious food with real ingredients, crafted with care – and to do that, we rely on robust systems and smooth operations behind the scenes. As a 24/7 food manufacturing business, our technology infrastructure plays a critical role in keeping things moving safely, efficiently, and to the highest quality standards.
Reporting to the Programme and Change Manager, you’ll be part of a function that champions smart solutions, agile thinking, and seamless collaboration across our 24/7 operations. This is a great opportunity to make a real impact in a business that values innovation, quality, and people.
Join likeminded people at Bigham’s—proudly ranked 19th in the UK’s Best Workplaces - Large Companies—where a supportive culture, meaningful work, and passionate people come together.
About the role
We’re looking for a Project Manager to join our IT team and lead the delivery of key business-critical projects, with a strong focus on process/capability improvement (including deploying new systems).
This position can be based in either our Wells (Somerset) or Park Royal (London) office.
This role plays a critical part in driving efficiency, compliance, and innovation through structured project delivery. Working cross-functionally with operations, finance, supply chain, planning and technical teams, you will understand and document business needs, drive change, and ensure that new systems are embedded successfully on time, within scope, and to budget.
You’ll play a vital role in shaping the tools and technologies that keep our kitchens running smoothly and our teams working efficiently. From implementing new systems to improving existing processes, your work will directly support our ability to scale, innovate, and consistently deliver exceptional products to our customers. This is a chance to make a real difference in a fast-paced, food-loving business that values smart thinking, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Role Responsibility
- Lead the full project lifecycle, from initiation and planning through delivery, monitoring, and closure, ensuring all project objectives are met within scope, time, and budget constraints.
- Define clear project scope, goals, and deliverables in collaboration with stakeholders, ensuring alignment with business priorities and operational needs.
- Work closely with business stakeholders to gather, document, and validate detailed business requirements, ensuring proposed solutions address real operational needs and are fit for purpose.
- Develop and maintain comprehensive project plans, including timelines, milestones, resource plans, budgets, and risk registers. Adapt plans as needed to accommodate changing business conditions or priorities.
- Identify, assess, and manage risks and issues, ensuring proactive mitigation strategies are in place to avoid disruption to operations or delivery delays.
- Influence and motivate stakeholders across departments to prioritise and deliver critical tasks, even when faced with competing demands and limited availability (e.g., IT, Operations, Production, Supply Chain, Technical, and Finance), promoting collaboration and ensuring accountability across departments.
- Facilitate effective communication across all levels of the business, providing regular project updates, progress reports, and status dashboards to stakeholders and leadership teams.
- Work closely with IT teams to support system architecture design, configuration, integration, and data migration activities.
- Oversee user acceptance testing (UAT) and training programmes to ensure systems are fit for purpose, users are confident, and implementation is successful.
- Champion continuous improvement by capturing lessons learned post-project and feeding back recommendations into future project planning and governance frameworks.
- Support the Programme and Change Manager in developing project governance, standardising documentation, and embedding best practices across the business
The Ideal Candidate
Essentials:
- Proven track record of end-to-end project delivery, demonstrating the ability to manage multiple complex initiatives in fast-paced, operationally critical settings.
- Hands-on experience in the successful implementation of operational systems, such as ERP, WMS (Warehouse Management Systems), Commercial Forecasting tool or other production-supporting technologies.
- Strong experience in gathering, documenting, and validating business requirements, working closely with stakeholders across departments to ensure project solutions align with real operational needs and strategic goals.
- Proven experience in managing projects involving data governance, quality, migration, or integration, in particular ensuring coherent and complete data from ERP, WMS, Forecasting tools into a data warehouse environment
- Experience leading cross-functional teams—ensuring alignment, accountability, and timely decision-making.
- Strong background in managing third-party vendors and system integrators, from procurement through to delivery and support.
Desirable:
- Previous experience working in a 24/7 manufacturing environment, with an understanding of the unique challenges and operational demands of round-the-clock production.
- Knowledge of change management principles and experience supporting organisational change, user adoption, and training during system rollouts or business transformation initiatives
- Experience reporting to senior leadership or steering committees, with the ability to translate technical information into clear, strategic updates
- Skills
- Strong business analysis skills, including requirements elicitation, process mapping (e.g. Visio), and solution evaluation.
- Demonstrated ability to deliver projects on time, within scope, and on budget, including effective management of project risks, scope changes, and stakeholder expectations throughout the project lifecycle.
- Advanced knowledge of project management methodologies, with the ability to apply the right framework depending on project size, complexity, and business culture.
- Proficient in the use of project management and collaboration tools, including Microsoft Project and similar platforms, to support scheduling, tracking, reporting, and team coordination.
- Knowledge of change management principles.
- Attributes
- Demonstrates strong influencing and assertive communication skills to drive outcomes, gain buy-in from stakeholders and navigate resistance while maintaining positive working relationships Self-motivated and able to own and manage workload with minimal supervision – a proven self-starter.
- Excellent organizational and time management skills, with the ability to manage the detail of multiple workstreams and prioritise your time accordingly to deliver project objectives within the expected timeframes.
- Clear and confident communicator—able to simplify complex ideas for diverse audiences.
- Influential and collaborative, with a proactive approach to stakeholder engagement.
- Resilient and adaptable in a fast-paced, change-driven environment.
- Analytical mindset with strong problem-solving skills and a focus on continuous improvement.
- Is used to working in a high workload environment and can readily prioritise issues and escalate if required.
- The successful candidate needs to be personable, helpful, engaged with a “can do” attitude.
- General knowledge and experience of business IT systems, such as MS Office, and a willingness to develop your knowledge.
- Positively work with your colleagues to share knowledge and support each other to achieve common goals and service delivery.
- Help to create a respectful, inclusive workplace which embraces and values diversity.