Food Product Innovation Manager

Pilgrim's Europe; Bodmin; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Pilgrim’s Europe in Bodmin is seeking a Product Development Manager to lead NPD and EPD across key customer accounts, guiding products from concept to launch and ensuring alignment with customer expectations and regulatory requirements.

You will collaborate with Product & Innovation, Process, Culinary, Commercial and Site teams, manage multiple projects, and contribute to innovation pipelines while driving commercial viability and KPI targets.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in a Product Development role within the food manufacturing industry.
• Demonstrated success in launching food products from concept to market.
• Product costing experience and commercial awareness.
• Understanding of budgeting processes.
• Supply chain knowledge, including ingredient and packaging sourcing.
• Strong project management and organisational skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management capabilities.
• Strong analytical skills with exceptional attention to detail.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
• Passion for food innovation, consumer trends, and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

• Lead customer-focused NPD and EPD projects from concept through to launch.
• Work with customer and internal teams to identify commercially viable innovation opportunities.
• Support product ideation sessions and long-term innovation projects.
• Drive continuous product improvement initiatives to enhance quality, value, and customer satisfaction.
• Ensure all products meet customer codes of practice, legislative requirements, allergen standards, sustainability commitments, and welfare expectations.
• Identify emerging food, market, and consumer trends to inform future product development.
• Manage multiple projects and critical paths concurrently, ensuring successful delivery against agreed timelines.
• Lead products through the Concept-to-Launch gate process, ensuring transparency and accurate documentation.
• Build and maintain product information and recipes within relevant systems.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams to ensure smooth product development and launch execution.
• Provide regular updates to customers, internal stakeholders, and senior leadership teams.
• Contribute to customer growth plans and joint business objectives.
• Support product costing activities and ensure commercial viability of development projects.
• Balance innovation, quality, operational feasibility, and customer expectations.
• Deliver against key Product & Innovation functional KPIs, including NPD revenue and project conversion targets.
• Support value chain and business improvement projects.
• Coach, support, and develop team members to maximise performance and engagement.
• Conduct regular one-to-one meetings and performance discussions.
• Assist with workload planning and resource allocation across projects.
• Promote best-practice ways of working through continuous improvement and benchmarking activities.
• Foster strong cross-functional collaboration and communication.

Skills

NPD

Product development

Project management

Cross-functional collaboration

Budgeting

Supply chain knowledge

Communication

Excel/Office

Food industry knowledge

Education

Degree in Food Science/Marketing/Business

Related discipline

Tools

Excel

Word

PowerPoint

Job description

Pilgrim’s Europe in Bodmin is seeking a Product Development Manager to lead NPD and EPD across key customer accounts, guiding products from concept to launch and ensuring alignment with customer expectations and regulatory requirements.

You will collaborate with Product & Innovation, Process, Culinary, Commercial and Site teams, manage multiple projects, and contribute to innovation pipelines while driving commercial viability and KPI targets.