NPD Leader – Food Innovation & End-to-End Launch

Found Recruitment Solutions Ltd; West Midlands; On-site; GBP 59,000 - 72,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation support

Job summary

Found Recruitment Solutions Ltd is partnering with a UK food manufacturer to appoint an NPD Manager who will lead end-to-end product development from concept to launch. The role involves owning projects across high-care and low-care environments, driving scale-up, and close collaboration with Commercial, Technical, Production and Operations teams.

The successful candidate will have proven NPD experience in food manufacturing, strong project management skills and a track record of delivering

Qualifications

• Proven NPD or product development experience within food manufacturing.
• Experience within high-care and/or chilled food manufacturing.
• Degree or equivalent qualification in Food Science, Food Technology, Product Development or related discipline.
• Experience developing products for major UK retailers and/or foodservice customers.
• Experience managing projects from concept through to commercial launch.
• Hands‑on experience leading factory trials and manufacturing scale‑up.
• Strong understanding of food safety, HACCP, legislation and customer standards.
• Strong project management, communication and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead NPD projects from concept through development, validation, scale-up and launch.
• Manage multiple projects against agreed timelines and budgets.
• Develop products aligned with customer requirements, market trends and business strategy.
• Support customer presentations, innovation sessions and product pitches.
• Lead factory trials across high-care and low-care manufacturing environments.
• Manage recipe development, ingredient selection and process optimisation.
• Ensure products meet quality, cost, performance and regulatory requirements.
• Support sensory evaluation, benchmarking, reformulation and cost optimisation.
• Maintain accurate project documentation, specifications and development records.
• Support and mentor members of the NPD team.

Skills

NPD Management

Project management

Stakeholder management

Food safety/HACCP knowledge

Education

Degree in Food Science / Food Technology / Product Development or related

Job description

Found Recruitment Solutions Ltd is partnering with a UK food manufacturer to appoint an NPD Manager who will lead end-to-end product development from concept to launch. The role involves owning projects across high-care and low-care environments, driving scale-up, and close collaboration with Commercial, Technical, Production and Operations teams.

The successful candidate will have proven NPD experience in food manufacturing, strong project management skills and a track record of delivering