NPD Lead: 15-Month Maternity Cover, Additional Products

Butternut Box; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday

Paws days off

Learning & development budget

Employee product discount

Job summary

Butternut Box is seeking a Product Development Manager for Additional Products in the UK, based in London or Doncaster. The role is a 15‑month maternity cover within the Product Development team, owning the range from concept to launch and post‑launch performance, while collaborating across departments to deliver high‑impact products.

You will shape the roadmap, lead reformulations, and partner with manufacturers to deliver new opportunities aligned with brand, nutrition and regulatory

Qualifications

• 8+ years’ experience in technical product development, innovation or R&D, ideally in food/FMCG/pet or regulated consumer category.
• Hands-on technical depth: taking products from concept through formulation, specification, testing and launch.
• Strong experience with third‑party manufacturers and suppliers to develop formulations and bring products into production.
• Experience across food and non-food products is a plus, exposure to pet category is beneficial.
• A technical product owner who translates customer/brand needs into viable products with evidence-based decisions.
• A product thinker who balances proposition, quality, feasibility and customer value.
• Evidence-led with testing (sensory, palatability, stability, shelf-life, analytics) guiding decisions.
• Technically rigorous in formulations, documentation and manufacturing.
• Commercially minded with focus on cost, quality and value for customers.
• A driver of excellence: results-driven, organized and able to manage multiple workstreams.
• A collaborative influencer who communicates clearly across teams and seniority levels.
• A people developer with mentoring responsibility.

Responsibilities

• Shape the long-term roadmap for Additional Products and gifting across brands.
• Identify and develop new product opportunities through market, customer and competitor insight.
• Lead reformulations and decide on products that no longer meet their goals.
• Partner with third‑party manufacturers to identify, develop and launch new opportunities.
• Own product development from concept to specification, testing, launch and post‑launch review.
• Develop recipes, specifications and nutritional targets with manufacturing teams.
• Lead factory trials, resolve technical issues and scale products for launch.
• Define testing requirements to prove product performance and substantiate claims.
• Own claims substantiation end-to-end and ensure regulatory compliance.
• Lead product launches and equip customer-facing teams for GTM with post-launch learnings.
• Maintain product briefs, specs and supporting docs to a high standard.
• Collaborate with Projects team to improve product pipeline efficiency.
• Manage the Additional Products team and stakeholders to deliver roadmaps on time.

Skills

Technical product development

NPD leadership

Vendor management

Regulated category experience

Product thinking

Evidence-led decision making

Cross-functional collaboration

Project management

Agile decision making

People development

Job description

Butternut Box is seeking a Product Development Manager for Additional Products in the UK, based in London or Doncaster. The role is a 15‑month maternity cover within the Product Development team, owning the range from concept to launch and post‑launch performance, while collaborating across departments to deliver high‑impact products.

You will shape the roadmap, lead reformulations, and partner with manufacturers to deliver new opportunities aligned with brand, nutrition and regulatory