NPD Technologist (Food Sector) in Spalding

Salary: Competitive salary

Working hours: Full time, permanent

Location: Office based/Spalding centre, Lincolnshire

Benefits: Great team culture and ethos, company events, workplace pension scheme, 25 days holidays plus bank holidays, free on-site car parking.

Freeworld Foods are recruiting for an experienced NPD Technologist – calling all foodies with flair and passion. This is a fantastic opportunity to join a soon to be BRC accredited multi £million turnover business for an experienced, entrepreneurial, professional who is looking for their next career step.

The NPD Technologist role is integral to the Freeworld Foods product development process, combining enthusiasm, creativity, technical knowledge, and collaboration, ensuring products are developed so they are compliant with food safety regulations, internal NPD procedures, are commercially viable, on-brand, and on time! Travelling to Spain once a month, this role will work collaboratively alongside the UK & Spanish commercial teams to analyse the market, manage the development process from product concept through to launch. Critical paths and customer interactions will need to be managed effectively to ensure the successful launch of both new and existing food products.

Main Duties:

• Assist the Director – Technical & Development / Senior Commercial Manager in the end-to-end development of products in response to customer or internal branded NPD & EPD briefs.
• Generate, communicate and control critical path timelines to deliver projects on schedule.
• Ensure that the launch processes are kept on track to achieve launch date.
• Prepare product samples and customer submission forms to a high standard for customer sampling and customer visits (internal and external) as directed by the commercial team.
• Coordinate pre-production trials and assess manufactured products writing up an assessment report against key criteria, to achieve product approval/sign-off.
• Highlight and co-ordinate improvement plans or actions required prior to launch.
• Assist the Specification Technologist in managing product testing in accordance with schedule - arrange products for testing with external laboratories, complete organoleptic evaluation, and nutritional analysis.
• Assist in developing, validating and launching new food products and processes ensuring compliance with food safety regulations, legislation, quality standards and internal NPD processes.
• Manage and undertake retail benchmarking exercises and market reviews in accordance with schedule.
• Monitor and highlight any trends and maintain detailed category knowledge, provide management reports and monitor performance.
• Coordinate with suppliers on new product development opportunities and present opportunities to Director – Technical & Development / Senior Commercial Manager.
• Assist the Specification Technologist in the completion of all online specifications for retail customers, create, review, and approve finished product specifications, generate and sign off artwork for the business and maintain and review all customer specifications in accordance with schedule.
• Represent the NPD team in front of key customers and suppliers, enhancing business relationships.
• Ensure the NPD Kitchen and storage areas are maintained to a high standard of cleanliness and stock is replenished as required.

About You Experience & Qualifications:

• Degree in Food Science, Food Chemistry or a related discipline desired.
• 2+ years’ experience in end-to-end NPD, ideally within food Retail / Manufacturing & Foodservice sectors.
• Confident managing projects from scoping through to implementation and launch.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to work directly with customers and translate technical requirements.
• Comfortable running trials, supporting scale-up and working cross-functionally across Technical, Quality, Commercial & Supply Chain teams.
• Curious, proactive, and passionate about innovation, sustainability and continuous improvement.

Behaviours:

• Creative with a strong sense of creativity is essential for developing innovative products and solutions.
• Solid technical knowledge with a good understanding of food science, ingredients and consumer trends is crucial for success in this role.
• Excellent communication skills are necessary for collaborating with various teams and presenting ideas to stakeholders.
• Must possess strong analytical and problem-solving skills to address challenges that arise during product development.
• Able to think outside the box!
• Hands on pragmatic individual who takes on responsibility & accountability to get the job done.
• Attention to detail and brings “right first time” mindset.
• An individual who is keen and has the desire to learn.
• Ability to work alone and with others to achieve team and business objectives.
• Ability to multi-task and work on several projects at any one time.
• Living our values day to day.

Our Values:

• Caring for our team.
• Passionate and Fun.
• Inclusive, considerate and flexible.
• Commitment to our customers.