Head of International

About You 

Our people represent our Values to our customers; to be successful at Ashbury you will naturally be: 

Welcoming: friendly, approachable and open to new ideas, feedback and improvement 

Positive: create a positive experience for our people and our clients 

Confident: act with integrity from a strong foundation of expertise 

Simplicity: you will remove complexity and bring clarity 

Key duties and responsibilities 

Your goals: to lead a professional, approachable team who love what they do, are open to new ideas and take an honest, straight forward approach to delivering exceptional service. Surrounded and supported by Ashbury’s Technical and Regulatory specialists you will nurture the client relationship, optimise opportunities and deliver against targets.  

DELIVERABLES 

Leadership requirements: proven experience of leading and influencing compliance delivery teams, with the ability to lead regulatory strategy across international markets. Proven leadership of client accounts, with commercial awareness. 

YOUR PURPOSE 

• The purpose of the role is to provide strategic direction, leadership, and management of the International Team, ensuring that all compliance activities contribute towards Ashbury’s growth and profitability targets.  

• To build strong relationships and interface superbly across multiple functions and levels. Working cross functionally, you are responsible for compliance and commercial of the international client relationships in our portfolio. 

• The key objectives will be the delivery of our technical, regulatory and artwork services within the agreed client portfolio, setting targets and budget and taking responsibility for developing an effective strategy to achieve Business Plan objectives.  

• Ensure that best practice from a compliance and quality perspective is implemented and responsible for continuous improvement within the team.   

• This is a client facing role, providing a Senior Technical / Regulatory point of contact for key accounts.   

• The role will have direct and indirect line management responsibilities for the regulatory, commercial and client facing teams. 

COMPLIANCE AND REGULATORY SERVICE DELIVERY 

• Delivery of the service(s) to the Client or clients in your portfolio to the agreed ways of working. 

• Ensure the Advisors are competent to provide technical and regulatory advice for the relevant markets and in line with the agreed scopes of service.  

• Working with your direct reports to implement processes and adequate resourcing, ensuring continuous improvement of the services we provide. 

• Measuring quality and competency of the team identifying plans to support and develop the team through training. 

• Consult, identify and implement best practice across clients. 

• Manage appropriate resourcing to meet KPIs and business requirements 

• Ensure that any issues, challenges or non-conformances which arise are quickly and effectively resolved 

• Liaison with other teams in Ashbury to achieve effective business output. 

• Deliver, support and input to relevant strategic initiatives. 

PLANNING  

• Working with your Teams, you are responsible for the forecasting of the clients in your portfolio. 

• Ensuring any capacity risks or new project volumes are managed appropriately by your Teams with internal and external stakeholders, with potential solutions identified where appropriate. 
   

RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT 

• For the existing and potential clients in your portfolio, to ensure a contact matrix is part of the business plan and it is in place actioned and measurable.  

• To build strong relationships and interface superbly across multiple functions and levels of the key clients within the portfolio. 

• Build a client partnership mentality, always seeking to consolidate connections between the client’s business needs and Ashbury. 

• Consistently seek a seat ‘at the top table’ – having the ear and respect of your most senior client contacts. 

• Build confidence and trust within the client base to grow client advocacy. 

TEAM MANAGEMENT 

• Ensuring all Team members are clear on their roles, responsibilities, objectives and KPIs. 

• Ensure Team members roles are aligned to delivering the business plan. 

• Mentoring and coaching direct reports. Providing support as required. 

• Monitor performance of the team. 

• Managing daily, weekly, and monthly communications. 

Requirements

Skills, Education and Experience Required: 

Essential

• A Regulatory expert with a minimum 10 years of experience of working in a technical/regulatory affairs role, or in a related field in one of the following markets: Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands or Belgium 
• Fluent in English and at least one of the following: German, French, Spanish, Dutch 
• Demonstrable customer and internal stakeholder management skills
• Management of varied workload within a fast-paced environment  
• Management of people and Teams include the development of people within your team  
• Understanding of challenges and pressures bringing products to shelf and potential food safety risks 
• Ability to understand the detail of each client, but keep the topline bigger picture view. 

Desirable

• Demonstrate commercial awareness of the impact of business and client decisions. 

• Demonstrable experience of workload planning, time management and decision making. 
• Practical experience of using specification or artwork packages 

Skills, ability & knowledge 

• Degree level education 

• Qualifications in food or regulatory subject with sound technical knowledge, or able to demonstrate excellent relevant experience  

• Excellent understanding of legal requirements, challenges and consumer trends relating to product information 

• Maintain an awareness of relevant changes in the regulatory environment due to new legislation, case law, guidance 

• Experience of mentoring and coaching colleagues 

• Confident to share knowledge and experience with customers and internal colleagues.   

• High level of ability to communicate in English in written and spoken formats 

• Excellent oral, written, IT and presentation skills 

• Proactive, positive, enthusiastic – demonstrating a “can do” attitude and a keen interest in knowledge sharing. 

• Analytical, structured thinker with attention to detail but able to communicate complex issues in a concise, understandable manner. 

Benefits

• Home-based role*
• Enhanced Company Pension
• Individual and Family Private Healthcare option
• Life Insurance option
• 25 days annual leave plus public holidays as standard*
• Additional annual leave with length of service
• Option to buy additional annual leave
• Charity days and time off to support your favourite charity
• Payroll Charity giving scheme
• Cycle to Work scheme and much more!