NPD Technologist

Position: NPD Technologist (Permanent)
G  Recruitment Ltd are working exclusively in partnership with a highly progressive food manufacturing / import business, recruiting for an experienced NPD Technologist who has worked on NPD / EPD within the food retail space, working with the Big 4 retailers, bringing out new innovative food product lines.

In this key new product development & existing product development role, you will closely with the internal teams, as well as suppliers & retail customers, to deliver innovative food products that meet demand / current trends.

It would be beneficial if you were experienced within frozen food product lines, but other food lines would suffice such as fresh produce, chilled, ambient, RTC, RTE, value added etc.

As the NPD Technologist you must be strong in critical path (CCP's) & stage gate processes / project management, ensuring all products are developed in line with the current food safety regulations & in line with the food companies internal NPD procedures, delivering product offerings that are commercially viable, on-brand & delivered on time in full, to the quality of standard desired by the end using customer.

European travel is involved in this role (on average x1 time per month, approx. 2-5 days at a time), as it works closely with both the UK & European operations / commercial teams analysing the market, managing the product development process (from product concept through to launch), as well as ensuring customer interactions are managed effectively & ensuring that there is a successful product launch.

Duties:

* End-to-end development of products in response to customer or internal branded NPD & EPD briefs, driven by market trends.

* Manage control critical path (CCP) timelines to deliver projects OTIF.

* Prepare product samples & customer submission forms to a high standard for customer sampling & customer visits.

* Coordinate & assess pre-production trials, reporting on them.

* Put together improvement plans & actions required prior to new product launches (if any amendments are needed).

* Assist the Specification Technologist in managing product testing (organoleptic evaluation & nutritional analysis).

* Develop, validate & launching new food products & processes ensuring they comply with food safety regulations, legislation, quality standards & internal NPD processes.

* Carry out retail benchmarking exercises & market reviews, monitoring & highlighting any trends, maintaining detailed category knowledge, plus monitoring performance & producing management reports

* Coordinate with suppliers on NPD opportunities, presenting the opportunities to the Technical Director

* Assist the Specification Technologist in the completion of all online specifications for retail customers (inc. the sign off for all artwork & labelling)

* Professionally represent the NPD team in front of key customers & suppliers, ensuring strong long term business partnerships are achieved / maintained.

Attributes:

* Ideally Degree qualified in a food related subject matter (food science or other) or time served in a comparable role

* Creative & innovative mindset with the vision to bring to the open market new innovative products & solutions, that are enticing to the public.

* Strong technical knowledge inc. food science, ingredients & consumer / market trends

* Excellent professional communication skills, able to communicate at Director / Senior Exec levels.

* Strong with CCP's & stage gate processes

* Online retail specification portals experience