Development Project Manager

Finsbury Food Group; Hamilton; On-site; GBP 52,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Enhanced Pension Scheme

Free Employee Assistance Programme

Retail discounts

Refer a Friend Scheme

Learning & Development opportunities

Job summary

Lightbody’s of Hamilton is seeking a Development Launch Manager to lead EPD and NPD projects across the Hamilton site, shaping clear critical paths and ensuring milestones are met.

You will coordinate Development, Operations, Technical and Supply Chain teams, manage governance, stage-gate processes (P74) and deliver launches on time and to quality standards.

Qualifications

• Strong project management and organisational skills.
• Experience coordinating cross-functional teams and driving accountability across multiple stakeholders.
• Proactive and solutions-focused, with ability to identify risks and escalate where required.
• Excellent communication, facilitation and attention to detail across stakeholders.
• Experience governing stage-gate processes and approvals.

Responsibilities

• Own PM governance of EPD and NPD projects with clear critical paths.
• Manage multiple projects and drive progress to milestones and sign-offs.
• Coordinate activity with Development, Operations, Technical, Supply Chain, Procurement, Commercial and Senior Management.
• Maintain accurate project information, critical paths and governance records.
• Lead project reviews and provide clear updates to stakeholders.

Skills

Project management

Cross-functional coordination

Stakeholder management

Governance experience

Problem solving

Communication skills

On-time delivery

Manufacturing knowledge

NPD / launch

Stage-gate systems

Lean Six Sigma

PM software tools

Multi-site experience

Tools

P74

ERP systems

PM software

Job description

Lightbodies of Hamilton Ltd, 73 Bothwell Road, Hamilton, United Kingdom, United Kingdom

73 Bothwell Rd, Hamilton ML3 0DW, UK

Job Description

Development Project Manager

Location: Lightbody’s of Hamilton, Hamilton(on site)

Shift: Monday – Friday

We have an exciting opportunity for a Development Project Manager to join our team and play a key role in managing the delivery of all our development projects across our Hamilton site.

Finsbury Food Group is one of the UK’s leading speciality bakery manufacturers. We continually raise quality, innovation, and operational standards while building long-term, trusted relationships across retail, foodservice, and brand partnerships. Our portfolio spans a wide range of bakery categories—from market-leading retailer own-brand products to beloved licensed and branded ranges—produced across our nationwide network of bakeries.

As a Development Launch Manager, you'll be at the heart of our innovation pipeline, working across Development, Operations, Technical, Supply Chain, Commercial and Senior Management teams to ensure EPD and NPD projects are delivered successfully. You'll manage multiple projects at different stages, maintaining clear critical paths and driving the timely completion of key milestones, actions, approvals and sign-offs.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys bringing people together, creating structure and maintaining momentum across complex projects. You'll proactively identify risks, challenge where required, and work with stakeholders across the business to ensure projects remain on track, governance requirements are met, and launches are delivered successfully.

This is what you’ll actually do!

As a Development Launch Manager, you'll take ownership of the project management and governance of EPD and NPD projects, ensuring each project has a clear and achievable critical path from development through to launch. You'll manage multiple projects simultaneously, driving progress against key milestones, actions, dependencies, approvals and sign-offs.

Working closely with Development, Operations, Technical, Supply Chain, Procurement, Commercial and Senior Management teams, you'll ensure projects remain aligned to agreed timelines and governance requirements. You'll coordinate project activity, maintain visibility of progress, and proactively identify and resolve risks, issues and barriers to delivery.

A key part of the role will be owning the product management system (P74), ensuring projects progress through all stage gates with the appropriate approvals, documentation and stakeholder alignment. You'll be confident challenging where necessary, driving accountability and managing expectations, while escalating issues appropriately to support timely decision-making.

You'll also be responsible for maintaining accurate project information, critical paths and governance records, leading project reviews and providing clear updates to stakeholders. Through effective coordination and communication, you'll help ensure actions are completed and projects remain on track.

With a high volume of projects running at any one time, strong organisation and prioritisation skills are essential. You'll be comfortable balancing competing priorities while maintaining oversight of the innovation pipeline and ensuring products are launched on time, to the required quality standards and in line with business objectives.

Ideally this is you!

• Strong project management, critical path planning and organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects and competing priorities.
• Experience coordinating cross-functional teams and driving accountability across multiple stakeholders.
• Strong influencing and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to challenge constructively and manage expectations at all levels.
• Experience managing project governance, stage-gate processes, approvals and sign-offs.
• Proactive and solutions-focused, with the ability to identify risks, remove barriers and escalate issues where required.
• Excellent communication, facilitation and attention to detail, with the ability to maintain accurate project information and systems.
• Proven track record of delivering projects to agreed timelines, quality standards and business objectives.
• Good understanding of manufacturing, supply chain and commercial processes within an FMCG, food manufacturing or similar environment.
• Experience of managing NPD, innovation or product launch projects.
• Experience working with stage-gate or Recipe management systems such as P74.
• Lean, Six Sigma or Continuous Improvement training.
• Experience using project portfolio management, planning or ERP systems.
• Experience working within a multi-site manufacturing environment.

What’s in it for you?

• Enhanced Maternity & Paternity Leave to allow quality time with your new arrival!
• Enhanced Pension Scheme for our employees
• Free Employee Assistance Programme (open to colleagues and their families)
• Retail discounts accessible via our Benefits Hub platform!
• Refer a Friend Scheme (up to £300 per referral – T&C’s dependent)
• Employee Recognition Awards Extensive Learning & Learning & Development opportunities (including opportunities for sponsored professional memberships and our own in-house development course!)
• An opportunity to be part of a fantastic, growing organisation. Head over to our LinkedIn page to find out more!

Our vision is to be the leading specialty bakery group in the UK, and we want the best people in place to achieve this. Our continued success is built entirely on the talented people who work here, so employee development is important to us because everyone is a valued member of the team, and we want every individual to have the skills and capabilities to achieve both your own personal goals and our business goals. We want good people to join our company, to help our company continue to go from strength to strength.