NPD Manager

Working Hours: Monday – Friday, 40 hours per week

Stonegate Farmers is looking for an experienced NPD Manager to lead product development within our state-of-the-art Egg Innovation Centre in Lacock, Wiltshire. This is an exciting opportunity to join one of the UK's leading food businesses and play a key role in developing innovative egg-based products for some of the country's best-known retailers, food service customers and brands.

Working across both high care and low care production environments, you'll take products from concept through to commercial launch, collaborating closely with commercial, technical and operational teams to bring innovation to life.

About the Role

As NPD Manager, you will lead the full product development lifecycle, ensuring innovative products are delivered on time, to specification and in line with customer expectations. You'll manage multiple development projects simultaneously while supporting and developing a growing NPD team.

This is a highly visible role requiring strong commercial awareness, technical expertise, project management capability and the ability to build effective relationships across the business and with customers.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead new product development projects from concept through to launch.
• Develop innovative egg-based products aligned with customer requirements, market trends and business strategy.
• Manage product trials, factory scale-ups and validation activities.
• Collaborate with commercial teams to support innovation sessions, customer presentations and product pitches.
• Coordinate recipe development, ingredient selection and process optimisation.
• Ensure all products meet food safety, quality, regulatory and customer requirements.
• Conduct sensory evaluation, benchmarking and product performance assessments.
• Support continuous improvement, reformulation and cost optimisation initiatives.
• Monitor market trends and consumer insights to identify future innovation opportunities.
• Mentor and support NPD team members while driving a culture of creativity and excellence.

What We're Looking For

• Degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Product Development or a related discipline.
• Proven experience in a food manufacturing NPD environment.
• Experience developing products for major UK retailers and/or food service customers.
• Strong project management experience from concept through to launch.
• Good understanding of HACCP, food safety and quality systems.
• Experience managing factory trials and product scale-up activities.
• Knowledge of food legislation, labelling requirements and customer standards.
• Experience with in high care, chilled food or similar manufacturing environments.
• Experience working with egg, dairy, protein or convenience food products.
• Knowledge of BRCGS standards and customer audit requirements