The Role
Reporting to the NPD & Innovation Manager, you will be responsible for the end-to-end development of new and exciting food products - ensuring each concept is not only innovative but commercially in line with product briefs and market insights.
You’ll liaise closely with customers, presenting ideas and developing solid working relationships. You’ll be able to assimilate customer feedback and work with internal teams to adapt and enhance products quickly and effectively to ensure all new products meet both customer expectations and production capabilities.
This is a broad role where you will be hands on in the innovation kitchen as well as working with factory teams to scale and launch your products in the factory, taking ownership of all stages in the product lifecycle. You’ll also collaborate with cross-functional teams across operations, procurement, technical, and commercial to ensure product success.
We are seeking an ambitious, creative and hands on Product Developer / NPD Technologist who can jump into this fast-paced, customer focused role and add some foodie sparkle to the team. You’ll relish the chance to be involved in every facet of NPD and EPD. Ideally you will have a food degree too and have experience within food manufacturing, for brand or retail own-brand products.
You will have an amazing understanding of food trends, ingredients, and seasonality which you can use to revamp recipes as well as conjure up new delights. Experience within the chilled food sector is preferred and you will need to have good knowledge of the NPD process, recipe development, critical path management, presentations and creating commercially viable products.
You must have excellent communication and organisation skills coupled with the ability and enthusiasm to learn quickly and get started on new projects.
If you have a real passion for food and thrive on the hustle and bustle of a busy environment with lots of customer contact, then this could be the role for you!