The Company
This established food business is expanding rapidly growing their retail estate and manufacturing capabilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
They have created a new role for a dedicated Senior R&D / NPD Manager to be part of the Innovation team to help strategically build their food offering – creating and launching innovative products across multiple product categories. They are specifically seeking candidates with chilled product expertise in food to go / food for now (such as salads, sandwiches, deli) gained within a manufacturing environment for the UK or European markets.
Competitive salary with bonus, relocation and accommodation allowance.
The Role
Reporting to the Food Director, you will be a key player in shaping the future of products in this broad and unique role. You will manage a team of Development Chefs, NPD Managers and Technologists, ensuring the team are developing inspirational recipes and new product ranges, getting hands on when needed. You’ll be managing the NPD process to ensure projects match commercial and profitable business strategies whilst embodying brand goals. This will include the NPD budget and resource allocation responsibilities.
You'll work on multiple projects, driving innovation initiatives, keeping up to date with new food and market trends in order to push boundaries and satisfy a plethora of diverse customer tastes. As well as this you will champion quality, challenge feasibility and factory capabilities, and ensure product consistency to develop the innovation pipeline.
You will help shape, mentor and lead a team of industry leading professionals, working cross-functionally to drive forward inspirational ideas and guarantee categories make the impact needed in the marketplace.
The Person
This role would suit a confident, creative and customer centric Senior NPD professional with a true passion for innovation and food values. You will need to be a visionary who has a full understanding of the complexity of chilled food development for the retail market.
Your experience will have covered complex ready to eat and ready to cook products, with a thorough understanding of the concept to launch process within UK food manufacturing.
You’ll have fine-tuned your culinary skills as an Innovation Manager, are super foodie and naturally inspiring. You will be highly adept at understanding global cuisine, flavours, ingredients, trends and can adapt products to suit a new culture and consumer base.
You'll need to be highly focused and driven, methodical in your approach with the commercial acumen needed to ensure the success of each category. Solid project management, organisational and influencing skills are required as you will be working cross-functionally to achieve ambitious company goals within a new market.
For this role the client is looking to consider candidates who have worked in a chilled food manufacturing environment in the UK or Europe.
This is a rare role so if you’re interested in finding out more, apply now or call Dhrutee on 0345 2600 737 or 07700 137 110 for a confidential chat.
Ref: L6919
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Due to the large number of applications our opportunities attract, it sometimes takes us time to thoroughly review and consider them all. We endeavour to respond to every application within 5 working days, however if you have not heard from us within this timeframe, we are sorry to say your application for the role has not been successful. To support you in showcasing your best self, we make sure that any necessary accommodations, whether physical or non-physical, are provided to assist you throughout the job application and interview process.
Also, please note that we are only able to accept and respond to applications from candidates with eligibility to work in the UK and those who hold valid work visas.