Product Development Coordinator (Hybrid) in City of London

WELCOME TO KFC, HOME OF THE REAL ONES. Now, we’re proud to serve 1000+ communities across the UK and Ireland, bringing the grit, pride and iconic reputation that we started with, all those years ago.

Across the Restaurant Support Centre (RSC), we come to work to be ourselves, and to make something of ourselves. We want to see our potential go that little bit further, as part of one of the world’s most iconic brands.

Well, you support our restaurants — and we’ll support you every step of the way. Our KFC Marketing team is a 50-strong crew of bold thinkers, culture shapers, creative doers and BELIEVERS - from Brand and Digital to Strategy, Food Quality, Innovation, Corporate Comms & Community. We’re here to keep KFC at the heart of culture across the UK & Ireland, blending our iconic roots with fresh, fearless ideas that connect with real people.

The Kwench By KFC Beverage Innovation Lead will create the drinks that make Kwench By KFC famous. This role is 100% dedicated to Kwench - KFC UK & Ireland's beverage business - and owns the innovation pipeline end-to-end: from cultural insight and concept, through formulation and product development, to launch-ready drinks that our restaurant teams can execute brilliantly at scale.

Kwench By KFC is one of KFC's boldest growth bets: building beverages into a second business - a destination, not an add-on - that wins new occasions and takes share from the QSR drinks category. We don't yet have a deep beverage development capability in-house - that's exactly why this role exists. You'll be building the beverage menu vision, pipeline, the supplier relationships and the ways of working largely from scratch, with the backing of an iconic brand and a leadership team that has named beverages a strategic growth engine.

We're not looking for line extensions and safe seasonal syrups. We want bold drinks innovation that gets people talking, filming and queuing - refreshers, functional and low-sugar innovation, premium seasonal drops - drinks with the cultural energy of a streetwear launch and the operational discipline of a QSR at scale.

This is a rare hybrid. You're a genuine beverage specialist - a technical product developer who has actually formulated, developed and launched drinks - but you're also a brand thinker with real conceptual creative ability.

• Beverage Innovation & Product Development

• Own the Kwench innovation pipeline: build and manage a rolling 12-24 month roadmap of new drinks, seasonal drops and platform extensions.
• Lead technical product development end-to-end - concepting, formulation, sensory optimisation, nutritional and HFSS compliance, costing and specification.
• Develop across the full Kwench architecture: core refreshers, functional and low-sugar options, premium and seasonal innovation.
• Run structured testing and learning loops - sensory panels, in-restaurant trials, rapid iteration - so we scale winners fast and kill weak ideas faster.
• Be the team's eyes and ears on culture: track what's trending on social, in specialty coffee, bubble tea, functional drinks and beyond - and translate it into Kwench-able ideas.
• Shape drink concepts with genuine brand thinking: names, stories, serves and visual moments designed to be shared, not just consumed.
• Partner with the Kwench Venture Lead and brand teams to build launches that create buzz and drive customers to KFC specifically for Kwench.
• Work with suppliers and supply chain to source ingredients, develop specifications and secure capacity - building the partner ecosystem Kwench needs.
• Balance creativity with commercial reality: engineer drinks that hit margin targets, minimise complexity and hold quality at volume.
• Own product quality post-launch - monitoring execution, gathering feedback and continuously improving the range.

Proven beverage product development expertise - this is critical. You have hands-on experience formulating and developing drinks (e.g. cold beverages, refreshers, coffee, tea, functional or soft drinks) and have taken products from concept to commercial launch.

A portfolio of launched drinks innovation you can point to, with evidence of commercial impact and, ideally, cultural buzz.

Strong conceptual and brand-thinking ability - you develop products as ideas and stories, not just recipes.

Experience working with suppliers, supply chain and operations to operationalise products at scale - ideally in QSR, coffee, food-to-go or FMCG environments.

Working knowledge of UK food and drink regulation, including nutrition and HFSS considerations.

Experience in high-frequency beverage environments - coffee chains, bubble tea, juice or functional drinks brands - where drinks are the destination.

Food science, nutrition or related technical qualification.

You're a beverage specialist with a creative soul. You can talk brix levels and flavour systems in the morning and pitch a drink concept with a name, a story and a TikTok moment in the afternoon.

You love the craft of product development - the iterations, the tastings, the tenth version that finally nails it.

You take pride in ideas that work in the real world - drinks a 17-year-old team member can make perfectly in 60 seconds during a Saturday rush.