NPD Concept Developer in Oldham

Park Cakes is a £280 million business which supplies cake and desserts to service the own brands of major retailers, with three sites based in the North West at Heywood, Oldham and Bolton. Our products include high-end celebration cake products, slab cakes and mainstream desserts, primarily supplying Marks & Spencer's along with other major retailers. We are a profitable business with a clear commercial strategy, a flair for NPD, and strong relationships with our customers and suppliers through our energy, style, commitment to partner relationships, and quality.

We currently have a vacancy to work as a Concept Developer in our established NPD Department. The role would suit either a graduate in a Food science discipline or someone with Food Concept Development experience at the start of their career.

• Develop and design products to meet the brief in line with market benchmarks, inspiration, and commercial aspirations.
• Brief and source raw materials in line with raw material sourcing policies and work closely with the Packaging Innovation Manager to create packaging fit for purpose.
• Develop products in line with the stage and gate processes and procedures.
• Support the Concept Manager to ensure all paperwork is completed accurately and timely throughout the development process.
• Organise organoleptic assessment of products throughout the development process.
• Provide product information such as dimensions, weight, handling requirements, shelf life, factory processes if known, volumes, and launch dates.
• Attend customer submissions and support the Concept Manager with customer updates and regular meetings, building and maintaining relationships with key customer contacts.
• Check stock of packaging samples to present products in the correct packaging at feasibility and customer submissions and organise with the Packaging Manager when required.
• Work closely with Technologists to set their daily workplan with regular check-ins on performance and PDPs.
• Collaborate with our commercial, operations, technical, and purchasing teams to remove roadblocks and ensure concepts are repeatable, sustainable, and scalable.
• Complete, understand, and present benchmarking for existing and new products at internal and customer presentations.
• Attend factory trial sign-off panels to ensure production quality matches the kitchen quality signed off by the customer.
• Review the accuracy of all recipes inputted into our systems to ensure they meet cost, weight, and nutritional requirements.
• Manage critical path timelines, escalating and mitigating incomplete tasks and risks to prevent delays in product approval and launch.

• Educated to degree level or equivalent with food and/or baking specialism or equivalent knowledge gained through on-the-job training.
• Ideally some work experience in a busy NPD environment and experience of a similar role demonstrating proficiency in all elements of product development.
• Excellent attention to detail and ideally knowledge and experience of costing recipes.
• Able to demonstrate analytical skills and the ability to produce and review costings.

Hours: Typically 8.30am - 5pm Monday to Thursday and 8.30am to 4pm on a Friday, but flexibility across shifts is required for trials.

Package: Competitive package - please provide details of your current package when you apply, plus benefits including a contributory pension scheme and retailer discount scheme.

To Apply: Please press the 'Apply' button, and shortlisted candidates will be contacted by Park Cakes within 28 days.