Jobs in Ashford

About working in Ashford

Ashford is a town of around 80,000 people in the south of Kent. Its position on High Speed 1 and the M20 has brought in distribution, food logistics and customs operations on a larger scale than the town's size alone would suggest. Live vacancies lean towards warehousing, HGV and supply-chain roles, NHS and care work, and the office and retail jobs typical of a growing commuter town.

The largest single employer is the William Harvey Hospital in Willesborough, part of the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, which employs around 9,300 staff across its east Kent sites. The hospital generates clinical, nursing, admin and support vacancies on an ongoing basis. Brakes, owned by Sysco GB, runs its head office from Enterprise House on Eureka Business Park off Junction 9, which produces a regular stream of buyer, finance and supply-chain roles. Orbital Park in Sevington, by Junctions 10 and 10a, holds warehouse, trade-counter and motor-trade units, with tenants including Screwfix, Halfords and Euro Car Parts. The Sevington Inland Border Facility sits alongside it and has run customs and port-health checks around the clock since the post-Brexit border controls came in. Much of the logistics work is filled through recruitment agencies, of which Ashford has several, and for HGV and warehouse shifts that route is often the fastest.

Transport is central to the town's labour market. Ashford International is on HS1, with Southeastern Javelin services reaching London St Pancras in 36 to 38 minutes, so a share of residents commute to London. The Eurostar stop has been suspended since March 2020, so the station currently runs domestic services only, with no confirmed date for international trains to return. The M20 runs along the edge of the town, with Junctions 9, 10 and 10a all feeding it. On postcodes: TN23 covers the town centre, Stanhope and Great Chart; TN24 takes in Willesborough and Sevington; TN25 reaches the eastern villages and Finberry.