Technical Manager - Fabric - 14 month Parental Leave Cover

About the role We are on the lookout for a Technical Manager to join our Quality Fabric Team here at Tesco. You will deliver safe, legal, responsibly sourced, quality fabrics for your area always focusing on our customers and demonstrating value-led behaviour. What is in it for you We’re all about the little helps. That’s why we make sure our Tesco colleague benefits package takes care of you – both in and out of work. Click Here to find out more!

• Annual bonus scheme of up to 20% of base salary.
• Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day (plus Bank holidays).
• Private medical insurance.
• 26 weeks maternity and adoption leave (12 months service required at the qualifying date) at full pay, followed by 13 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay, we also offer 6 weeks fully paid paternity leave.
• Free 24/7 virtual GP service, Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for you and your family, free access to a range of experts to support your mental wellbeing.
• This information is a shortened summary, refer to our policies for full details.

You will be responsible for

• Lead all fabric-related activity across reporting and quality in relevant categories, ensuring products meet customer expectations and are safe, legal, responsibly and sustainably sourced.
• Assess risks in new developments (e.g. recyclability, durability, customer performance) and provide clear, commercially relevant recommendations.
• Lead textile to textile circularity work.
• Partner with regional raw material teams and suppliers to drive upstream transparency and strong mill management through defined fabric KPIs.
• Own raw material KPIs, including system governance, data accuracy, reporting and driving corrective actions where required.
• Manage fabric libraries and base approvals, ensuring consistent standards for handle, print and overall quality.
• Lead product benchmarking, analysing competitor performance and translating insights into clear actions.
• Conduct supplier and system spot checks to validate compliance and data accuracy, identifying risks and ensuring resolution.
• Work cross-functionally to support key programmes (e.g. colour empowerment) and embed consistent ways of working.
• Build and maintain strong supplier partnerships to improve quality, consistency and efficiency.
• Lead policy updates and training to ensure supplier compliance and certification requirements are maintained.
• Support and embed Connected and data-driven ways of working, ensuring accurate capture of fabric and supply chain data within systems.
• Strengthen audit trail and data integrity across raw materials, ensuring alignment between system data and physical product.
• Act in line with the Tesco Business Code of Conduct, demonstrating integrity at all times.
  

You will need

• Relevant qualifications in in textiles, with years of industry experience.
• Understanding of fibre, yarns and fabric construction, fabric dyeing, printing and finishing processes.
• Passion for product, sustainability and circularity.
• Computer literate in Microsoft Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
• Comfortable exploring existing and new databases.
• Good communication skills.
• Testing / laboratory experience.
• Experience in stakeholder and supplier management.
• Understanding of retail and customer needs.

About us You might know us as a supermarket, technology company or even for our award-winning mobile network. Truth is, we’re all of those things, and much more. Our colleagues work with one goal in mind, helping to make every day a little better for our customers, colleagues and communities all over the world. No two customers are the same, neither are our colleagues. At Tesco, we champion a balance that lets you thrive both in and out of work. Spend 60% of your week collaborating with colleagues at our office locations or local sites and the rest remotely. Whether you're just kicking off your career, juggling passions, or navigating big life events, we're here to support you. We always welcome a conversation about flexible working, so talk to us throughout your application about how we can support. We're proud to be an accredited Disability Confident Leader, where everyone’s welcome. That’s why we commit to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you need support with your application, click here for more information. And if you're interested in joining our team but don't tick every box, don't let that hold you back from applying.