New Product Development - Undergraduate Placement Opportunity

Charlie Bighams; Greater London; On-site; GBP 19,000 - 23,000; Full time

Job summary

Charlie Bighams invites a one-year placement to support the New Food Development (NFD) team from concept briefs to process handover, while also assisting with EFD activities. You will contribute across the development process in a fast-paced environment at Park Royal, London.

The role offers hands-on experience in food development, trials, and documentation, helping you learn project management in a real production setting.

Qualifications

• Working towards a food related degree.
• Experience of project management and managing timelines.

Responsibilities

• Support NFD and EFD teams from concept to launch.
• Test and validate dishes for food safety and quality.
• Prepare for scale-up trials and material assessments in production kitchens.
• Organise product samples for internal presentations, external testing, photoshoots and other submissions.
• Assist with change management and general team activities.
• Support the kitchen team during annual leave.

Skills

Project management

Attention to detail

Education

Food related degree (in progress)

Job description

The following content displays a map of the jobs location - Park Royal, London NW10

Job Reference charliebighams/TP/19158/553

Number of Positions:

1

Contract Type:

Fixed Term

Competitive Salary + Benefits

Working Hours:

40

Location:

Park Royal, London NW10

Closing Date:

30/11/2026

Job Category:

New Food Development

Region / Division:

Park Royal; London

Job Introduction

Are you passionate about food and eager to gain hands-on experience in the world of New ProductDevelopment? We have an exciting one-year placement opportunity where you will play a vital role in supporting our dynamic New Food Development (NFD) team from concept brief to process handover, while also contributing to various aspects of the new food development process. This role offers a unique chance to learn and grow in a fast-paced, innovative environment.

We are looking for student placement t o assist the NFD and EFD (New and Existing Food Development) teams throughout the food development process from concept to launch, as well as supporting team on general activities and requirements

Main Responsibilities

Key accountabilities:

• Supporting the NFD and EFD team in first class concept development through to trials, launch and post-launch stages.
• Test and validate our dishes to ensure our food safety and quality are met
• Support in preparation for, and running of, scale up trials and raw material assessments in the production kitchen.
• Prepare and organise product samples for internal presentations, external testing, photoshoots and other product submissions
• Lead support for all general NFD/EFD team activities including change management
• Support the kitchen team when the Kitchen Assistant is on annual leave

Key responsibilities:

FIRST CLASS CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

• Support the preparation of internal food tastings. Take notes and actions, ensure attendance and share outputs with necessary teams.
• Prepare product benchmarks and conduct tastings to assess all relevant food concepts to ensure we are always developing best in class food.
• Conduct raw material assessments against the specification at concept and trial stages to ensure we are selecting the best quality ingredients.
• Own the documentation of food tastings through shelf-life assessments from fresh / frozen and champion the quality standards our consumers will expect at each stage of the product life.
• Drive the generation of cooking instructions for new dishes in accordance with our food safety and quality criteria.
• Complete online research for benchmarking exercises, creating relevant tools to show the results, keeping benchmarking database up to date.

THE CUSTOMER

• Support customer meetings to prepare food and take notes where required.

NEW AND EXISTING FOOD DEVELOPMENT

• Attend the weekly NFD and Process meetings.
• Lead all support activities to the Process Technologists in planning, preparing and conducting scale up trials in the production kitchen.
• Drive the successful completion of all product testing and sample submissions at trial stage.
• Support the NFD & EFD team with sample preparation and organisation in the production kitchen and development kitchen.
• Ensure product sample submissions are completed on time with the required documentation for testing, customer submissions and photoshoots etc.
• Support with the completion of trial paperwork, QAS, Keycards, Labels and Handover documentation
• Assist the NFD/EFD team in raising and processing change forms for any changes to recipes or ingredients.
• Support on the running of process trials where given, working alongside process technologists to plan, and execute trial against agreed objectives.

PRODUCT QUALITY

• Own quality improvement projects where given and drive the planning, investigation and execution of improvement initiatives in collaboration with the Process Technologists, Technical and Operations teams.
• Attend taste panel & positive release meetings to drive Bigham’s quality culture
• Support the NFD/EFD team in completing 4, 8 & 12 week post launch review documentation.
• Support the maintenance and training of our QAS product standards to ensure these are always up to date and well understood by the site teams.
• Lead the management of Keycards keeping the Keycard Register and filing of Keycards up to date, print Keycards where required and ensuring all issued Keycards are signed off by key stakeholders.

The Ideal Candidate

Qualifications and Experience

• Working towards a food related degree
• Experience of project management and managing timelines

Key Skills

• Highly organised, able to manage and prioritise multiple tasks
• Focused with excellent attention to detail