Product Development Manager - Food Industry

Are you a strategic thinker with a passion for innovation and people leadership? At Natures Way Foods, we’re on a mission to deliver consumer-first innovation that drives growth—for our customers, our categories, and our business. We're looking for a Product Development Manager to lead the charge.

In this pivotal role, you’ll not only manage and inspire a talented team, but also play a key part in shaping our product pipeline—driving NPD and EPD initiatives grounded in robust category and consumer insight. You'll lead projects through our gated development process, working cross-functionally to bring winning products from concept to launch, delivering real impact on sales, profit, and market share.

What you get from us:

• Base salary of £50,000 - £60,000 dependent on experience
• Employer matched pension up to 5%
• Health cash plan
• Flexible benefits including corporate gym discounts, shopping discounts, enhanced maternity & paternity policy and many more
• Access to online GP & life assurance

Key responsibilities:

• Act as the main customer contact, building strong relationships and ensuring clear, consistent communication across internal and external stakeholders
• Own the delivery of all development projects within your remit, ensuring alignment with customer strategy and NWF objectives
• Lead cross-functional engagement throughout the gated development process, ensuring clear accountability and timely progress
• Develop products in line with customer briefs, collaborating with Product Developers and Chefs while meeting technical and sourcing requirements
• Ensure on-time product launches that meet customer expectations for quality and cost, while achieving NWF margin targets
• Manage NPD/EPD projects end-to-end, owning the customer critical path and ensuring smooth delivery
• Support the Development Controller in delivering a rolling 3-year development plan for your area
• Lead and develop a high-performing team, setting clear goals, motivating talent, and driving continuous improvement
• Drive responsible innovation, supporting customer and NWF goals to reduce calories, fat, salt, and plastic
• Oversee quality benchmarking, identifying and addressing any decline in NWF product standards

Requirements:

• Extensive experience leading development projects
• Degree level education (desirable if in food)
• Ability to juggle multiple, highly complex projects at a time
• Passionate Foodie, with proven track record of successful innovation, preferably within Retail landscape
• Excellent influencing and onboarding skills. Ability to make good relationships quickly, both internally and externally
• Extensive knowledge of UK retailer development gate processes
• Experience in Fresh or Chilled Categories. Experience managing top 4 retailers preferable
• Full time role, with minimum expectation to be in the office at NWF 4 days per week

Nature’s Way Foods is the leading manufacturer of prepared salads, coleslaw and “food-to-go” for supermarkets, and as such we work closely with farmers across Europe. But there’s lots more to us than the products we make. Our culture is inclusive, and our people are diverse spanning 39 different languages. We operate four manufacturing facilities capable of producing over 326m units per year. It is an exciting time to join Nature’s Way Foods as we are growing rapidly and there are genuine opportunities to progress within the organisation.

Interested? Click apply, submitting an up-to-date CV. We look forward to hearing from you.

At Nature's Way Food, we believe that diversity and inclusion are key to driving innovation and achieving excellence. We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to reach their full potential. We are dedicated to building a diverse team that reflects the communities we serve and the world we live in. Join us in our mission to create a more inclusive and fairer world. Together, we can become best at fresh.