NPI New Product Innovation Technologist

NPI New Product Innovation / Beverage Development Lead / Beverage NPD Lead

Location: Stourport-on-Severn

Salary: Competitive

My client is a major cider-led beverage manufacturer with sites across the UK. The business is continuing to expand beyond traditional cider into new and emerging beverage categories and is now looking to strengthen its Development team by recruiting a NPI New Product Innovation / Beverage Development Innovation Lead.

The Role

Reporting to the Group Beverage Development Controller, you will lead the development of high-quality, great-value beverages from initial concept through to recipe bank, with a particular focus on developing new alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and emerging categories.

You will work closely with Commercial, Marketing, NPD, Technical, Procurement and Manufacturing teams, as well as customers, to identify opportunities and turn innovative beverage concepts into commercially viable products.

Key Responsibilities

• Research and present alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage market trends, including attending trade shows.
• Develop new beverages across emerging innovation categories.
• Build and maintain a pipeline of “Blue Sky” alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage concepts.
• Lead customer-facing innovation days and present new concepts across the wider business.
• Prepare and develop laboratory samples for internal and external customers.
• Work with Manufacturing to establish effective production methods for new-category beverages.
• Support the NPD process, owning the beverage development aspects of assigned projects.
• Work closely with Commercial, Marketing and NPD teams to identify proactive development opportunities.
• Liaise with Procurement to identify quality, cost-effective ingredients.
• Ensure recipes meet customer, supplier and regulatory requirements.
• Work with Technical and Compliance teams on food safety risk assessments.
• Participate in sensory panels with Quality teams and customers.
• Ensure innovation samples and development work are delivered to agreed timescales.

Experience Required

We are looking for someone with experience in beverage development, ideally with knowledge of soft drinks and/or non-cider beverages and their manufacturing processes.

The role would suit someone who has:

• Experience developing alcoholic and/or non-alcoholic beverages.
• A good understanding of beverage manufacturing and scale-up.
• Experience working in a customer-facing development role, ideally with retailer exposure.
• Strong commercial awareness and an ability to identify emerging beverage trends.
• The creativity to develop new concepts alongside the technical understanding to turn them into viable products.

Commutable Locations

The Stourport-on-Severn site is commutable from Kidderminster, Bewdley, Worcester, Droitwich, Bromsgrove, Stourbridge, Cleobury Mortimer, Kingswinford, Brierley Hill, Halesowen and surrounding areas.

Alternative Job Titles

• Beverage Innovation Lead
• Beverage Development Lead
• Beverage NPD Lead
• Beverage NPD Manager
• New Product Development Manager - Beverages
• Beverage Product Development Manager
• Product Development Manager - Beverages
• Beverage Innovation Manager
• Innovation Manager - Beverages
• NPD Manager - Drinks
• NPI New product Innovation
• Drinks Development Manager
• Beverage Technologist
• Senior Beverage Technologist

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