Senior NPD Technologist

Senior NPD Technologist - Own Label

What if your ideas could end up on shelves and in fridges across the UK? This is a chance to join a growing Development Team within a successful brand, where you will help launch and evaluate new and existing own label products and shape what the portfolio looks like next.

Zest is recruiting a Senior NPD Technologist to support the NPD Manager from first concept through to scale-up. Working closely with cross-functional teams, you will help turn cutting-edge product ideas into high-quality products that are ready to launch, with a particular focus on supporting concept creation, building your raw material and packaging knowledge and developing your formulation expertise across multiple categories.

Day to day, you will support development projects from Gate 0 to Gate 2, coordinate the production and delivery of kitchen samples and work with existing suppliers on new ingredients within agreed parameters. You will bring a scientific understanding of recipe formulation, the role of each ingredient and the impact of process and work with Process Development to find opportunities for process improvement. You will also support customer presentations, customer lunches and displays, review the market and benchmark competitor products to spot trends and opportunities and win stakeholder buy-in for new ideas so the business can be first to market. To keep projects on track, you will help build the critical path, keep development documentation accurate and transfer kitchen-approved recipes into customer packs so the move from concept to scale-up is consistent.

You will bring a food qualification or previous food manufacturing experience in NPD, with at least one year of post-graduate experience in a food process NPD role. You will be comfortable managing several development projects at once to deadline, solving problems with a hands-on approach and presenting ideas and data clearly to both technical and non-technical colleagues. Knowledge of relevant legislation and food industry standards such as HACCP is desirable. You will be detail-oriented, adaptable, resilient and self-driven, with good IT skills across Microsoft and database systems. A driving licence is essential, as the role involves travel between sites, suppliers and customers.

The role is full time, 40 hours per week, Monday to Friday.

• competitive holiday allowance
• a non-contributory pension
• life cover
• a healthcare cash back plan
• a cycle to work scheme
• staff product discounts
• preferential rates with partners
• genuine learning and development opportunities

Please note: sponsorship is not available for this role

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