Are you ready to reimagine your career and become our next future leader? At The Compleat Food Group, our IGNITE Graduate Leadership Programme is open to anyone with the drive, passion, and potential to grow, whether you’re a recent graduate or have recently completed a degree apprenticeship. If you’re motivated, curious, and eager to make a difference, this is your opportunity to ignite your potential and spark lasting success.
Joining us, you will become a part of a fast-growing, innovative business, filled with people who love food and want to make an impact. You’ll get to work as part of one of the UK’s leading chilled food organisations and join our mission to create great quality, tasty and affordable food, that people love to eat.
Our Ignite programme offers a 2 or 3-year development experience, tailored to your chosen pathway. You’ll rotate across different areas of our business, gaining hands-on experience, building diverse skills, and exploring your leadership journey in an exciting and supportive environment. Each rotation is designed to challenge, inspire, and prepare you to lead with confidence.
Our IGNITE programme offers:
Business Understanding: Gain a well-rounded understanding of our business by working with multiple teams and sites helping to expand your knowledge and leadership abilities.
Continuous Learning: Gain a recognised qualification to help you further your skills and knowledge, paid for by us!
Personalised Support Network: You will get access to ongoing support from mentors, buddies, and our careers team, ensuring you are supported and empowered throughout your journey.
Tailored Leadership Skills Development: Participate in a comprehensive skill-building programme designed to strengthen leadership qualities such as decision-making, communication, innovation and leadership.
Collaborative Group Projects: Contribute to impactful projects that drive real change in our business, helping you make a positive difference from start to finish.
Access to Senior Leaders: Connect directly with our senior leadership team and board members, learning from experienced professionals while expanding your network.
Lifelong Learning Opportunities: Embrace continuous learning through practical experiences, mentorship, workshops, and ongoing development tailored to your growth.
At The Compleat Food Group, we believe in rewarding our people with more than just a competitive salary. Our benefits package is designed to support your wellbeing, lifestyle, and personal growth, helping you feel valued every step of the way. Here’s what you can enjoy as part of our team:
We want to hear from people of all backgrounds with a passion and desire to make an impact. If you’re motivated to grow and help shape our future, we want to hear from you.
At The Compleat Food Group, we’ve designed our recruitment process to give everyone the opportunity to shine. We want people of all backgrounds to apply and to get to know the real you, your values, your potential and how you can make a difference with us. Here’s what to expect at every stage of the journey:
This first step is all about you giving us a glimpse of who you are. Your application is your chance to introduce yourself, demonstrate why you’re excited to join us and tell us what you can bring to the programme. We’re interested in understanding your potential and how you align with our values of Courage, Customer First, Pace, Integrity, One Compleat, and Quality.
What We’re Looking For: A snapshot of your skills, experiences, and achievements. We want to see your enthusiasm for the role and our business and to get a sense of how you reflect our values.
After reviewing your application, you will be invited to a first stage phone interview. This will be an informal conversation, for us to connect directly with you, discuss your application in more detail, and learn more about your motivations for joining the programme. It’s also your chance to ask questions and find out more about the role and our company.
What We’re Looking For: Your enthusiasm and understanding of the programme. We want to see how your experiences align with our values and understand your passion for growth.
We know that paper applications don’t always show the full picture, so our online interview helps us to get to know the real you. We want to learn more about your personality, motivations, and how you think. You’ll answer a series of questions on video that help us see your potential beyond your CV.
What We’re Looking For: How you bring our values to life. We want to see an insight into you, your personality and what makes you fantastically unique. Most importantly, we want to know what you can bring to our future!
Tips for Success:
The final stage of our process is an engaging full day assessment centre held in person – we have had feedback that it’s also fun! The dates for this will be shared with you early on in the process to ensure you are able to attend if successful in previous stages. It’s designed to be a two-way experience — a chance for you to get to know us while we get to know you better. You’ll take part in a range of activities, including:
A Short Presentation: Learn more about The Compleat Food Group, our culture, and the role you’ve applied for.
Group Exercises: Work collaboratively to solve challenges, showing teamwork and creative thinking.
Strengths-Based Interview: A one-to-one interview focused on your natural talents, motivations, and how you align with our values.
Get To Know Us: You’ll also have the opportunity to meet our team, including current colleagues and past graduates, so you can ask questions and hear firsthand about their experiences.
Remember: This isn’t about competing against others — we’re interested in how you work together and how you bring your unique strengths to the table.
Once the process is complete, our careers team will be in touch to share the outcome and any next steps.
If you have any questions at all about our Ignite Leadership Programme or our recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with careers@compleatfood.com
Engineering Graduate 2021
Stephen joined the group as a production operative as a part-time job during his holidays whilst studying at University. He saw our advert for the Graduate Scheme and thought it sounded perfect to experience different areas of a business whilst he entered into the world of work.
Manufacturing Operations Graduate 2021
Danny Jagger joined our first group graduate programme in September 2021, where he started within operations spending time in production observing the lines, products, people and processes. He then began attending meetings and working with the planning and engineering departments to get a basic understanding of how it all worked.
The Compleat Food Group – GRADUATE SCHEME (Supply Chain/Manufacturing) Commencing September 2025 Reimagine Your Career with our IGNITE Graduate Leadership Scheme Are you ready to step into a career that…
