Technical Development Manager - Fresh Produce
Where innovation meets impeccable quality.
Do you speak fluent retailer? Can you balance crop plans, costs, complaints and customer love ?
If you're a natural relationship-builder with a sharp technical mind and a passion for produce, this is your chance to join a business that's growing fast, thinking big, and delivering excellence from field to fork.
What You'll Be Doing
You'll be the beating technical heart between customers and suppliers, making sure products are safe, legal, ethical and always retailer-ready. Expect to:
Be the first point of contact for customer technical managers
Translate customer requirements into clear actions for internal teams and suppliers
Own technical queries, complaints, rejections and audits - driving root cause fixes that stick
Lead spec development, artwork projects and customer-specific initiatives
Build and deliver robust supplier development plans across crop quality, safety, legality, integrity and ethical standards
Support NPD/EPD with clear technical direction and commercial awareness
Use data, trends and insights to identify improvement and cost-saving opportunities
Help simplify specs, streamline processes and unlock end-to-end efficiencies
Make an Impact
In this role, you'll drive profitability and growth, ensuring:
Technical decisions align with costed goods and margin expectations
Quality and operational teams optimise product usage
Customer strategies land smoothly, including NPD, EPD and QIPs
Performance is reported clearly, confidently and on time
Collaborate, Influence, Deliver
You'll work closely with:
Commercial, Procurement, Supply Chain & Quality teams
Site Technical Manager & Head of Technical
Suppliers and growers
Retailer technical managers across key UK customers
You'll also support internal audits, BRC compliance, ethical/sustainability initiatives - and the business across the UK and overseas.
What You Bring
Strong communicator with a collaborative mindset
Analytical, detail-driven and solutions-focused
Confident presenting, influencing and negotiating
Excellent organisational skills
Ability to build trust and long-lasting relationships
Experience in a customer-facing technical role - ideally fresh or prepared produce
A "win-win" mentality: balancing customer needs with business goals
Why Join ?
You'll play a pivotal role in shaping supplier performance and customer satisfaction, It's technical. It's commercial. It's developmental. It's produce - but with impact.
For further information, please contact Luan at MorePeople on (phone number removed)