Senior New Product Development Manager
Kepak Group, United Kingdom
Job Description
We are pleased to be recruiting for a Senior Development Technologist to work in our busy factory in the Merthyr Tydfil site.
This is a full time, permanent position working 8.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday on a salary of 36,000 to 42,000 per annum depending on experience.
Job Purpose/Primary Objective:
Supporting the New Product Development and Innovation Manager in setting the NPD agenda and leading the development team to support the delivery of development activity across the NPD and Innovation function at Kepak. Working on projects from concept to launch in Merthyr, launching new products with confidence whilst adhering to the Kepak NPD processes ensuring technical and quality standards area achieved and demonstrating efficient ways of working. You will help lead internal and external projects and facilitate successful scale up in the factory to meet both the customer and businesses expectations, whilst satisfying all relevant technical and operational criteria in line with a critical path.
Key Responsibilities:
Responsibilities associated with this role include, but are not limited to the following:
- Development of new products in tandem with culinary team to meet a product brief across Private Label products in the portfolio in line with relevant trends.
- To support the Senior NPD manager in developing successful NPD, EPD and BlueSky concepts at Kepak Red Meat, championing project management, building great cross functional relationships across the wider business through a highly collaborative way of working and being a key driver of our Passion for Food value. Including working closely with key suppliers leveraging capabilities.
- Development of new products to meet product briefs for food service and retail and, when required, to take the initiative for ongoing research into EPD seeking to optimize new product quality, cost, and nutritional profile, owning the briefs.
- Managing critical paths through Wrike, keeping all relevant functions up to date on progress, escalating issues where relevant.
- Working closely with operations, technical and purchasing to ensure all potential future changes are managed appropriately (e.g. onboarding of contingency suppliers, technical transfers of current ingredients, shelf life extensions etc.
- Leading and facilitating factory trials to ensure optimization of product and process to improve manufacturing in line with the Kepak NPD process.
- Where relevant initiating competitor reviews and building a portfolio of competitor information having a good grasp of comparable products.
- Responsible for the management growth and development of direct reports.
Requirements
Skills, Knowledge and Experience:
- Meat Experience is Essential
- Food technology/science related qualification
- 4+ years’ experience in NPD
- Confident with Retailer submissions
- Commercially aware with a good grasp of consumer trends and the retail landscape.
- Experience working in matrix style structures requiring alignment to multiple functions.
Personal Attributes:
- A passion for food.
- Good Organisation and time management skills and the ability to priorities your work load to meet deadlines is essential
- Diligent with a keen eye for detail
- Excellent Organisational Skills and a flexible approach to workload
- Excellent Time Management amp; Communication skills
- Confident with Microsoft office, Teams, Wrike (advantageous)
- Full Driving License is essential
Reporting Relationship:
- Reports to NPD amp; Innovation Manager; The role is to support the delivery of the Kepak Red Meat NPD agenda whilst working with the broader Group NPD team on projects where appropriate aligned to the wider business strategy.
- The role will have line management responsibility for 1 or 2 direct reports.
Please note, whilst we do our best to contact all candidates, due to the high number of applications we receive this is not always possible. If you have not heard anything from us within 14 days of applying - then unfortunately you have not been successful. Please keep an eye on our website for more opportunities.