New Product Development Manager

Manchester Area | Food Manufacturing | Permanent

Are you an NPD leader who knows how to turn a great dessert concept into a commercially successful launch?

We’re recruiting an NPD Manager for an established food manufacturer in the Manchester area, leading product development within the desserts category .

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who can combine creativity with strong commercial and operational thinking, managing the journey from customer brief and kitchen concept through factory trials, scale-up and successful launch.

The Role

• Lead the NPD function across the desserts category
• Manage projects from concept through to launch
• Lead, coach and develop the NPD team
• Work directly with major UK retail customers
• Translate customer briefs and market trends into commercially viable products
• Lead recipe development, benchmarking and product presentations
• Oversee factory trials, scale-up and product handover
• Partner with Technical, Operations, Commercial, Procurement and Process teams
• Drive innovation while balancing quality, cost, manufacturability and margin
• Identify opportunities for renovation, value engineering and category growth

What We're Looking For

You will ideally have:

• NPD/Product Development experience within food category
• Experience managing or developing an NPD team
• Strong concept-to-launch experience
• Customer-facing exposure with UK retailers
• Experience taking products from development kitchen into factory production
• Strong commercial awareness around costing, margin and value engineering
• The confidence to challenge, influence and work cross-functionally
• A practical, creative and delivery-focused leadership style

Why Consider It?

This is an opportunity to take genuine ownership of NPD within a fast-moving category, influence the innovation pipeline and work closely with both customers and the wider manufacturing operation.

If you understand that successful NPD isn't just about creating a great product it's about creating something the customer wants, the factory can make and the business can make money from I'd like to speak with you.

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