NPD & Packaging Innovation Lead (Hybrid)

Gü Desserts | Certified B Corp™; Greater London, Bishop's Stortford; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Gü Desserts | Certified B Corp™ is seeking an Innovation Manager to own and drive NPD, EPD and packaging projects from concept through to launch. You’ll work with Technical, Operations and Commercial teams to turn insights into compelling product concepts and delicious experiences.

The role suits an experienced NPD professional who can manage multiple projects, balance consumer needs with feasibility, and communicate progress clearly as you champion innovative desserts that excite shoppers and

Qualifications

• Proven experience in product innovation and NPD/EPD within a food manufacturing environment, ideally with short shelf-life or chilled products.
• Strong project management skills and the ability to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
• A real sense of ownership — you take responsibility, maintain project grip and proactively drive actions through to completion.
• The ability to turn consumer, market and category insight into clear, actionable ideas.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to ask questions, seek clarity and follow through.
• Good commercial awareness and analytical capability, including experience with financial assessment and business case development.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills and the judgement to know when to move things forward independently and when to seek input, alignment or escalation.
• The ability to sell the story — creating compelling concepts and visual narratives that get people excited about an opportunity.

Responsibilities

• Lead innovation projects end-to-end, creating robust project plans, managing dependencies, actions, risks and critical decisions to keep projects moving.
• Turn insight into ideas, using consumer, market and category understanding to identify opportunities and shape compelling product concepts.
• Stay close to the market, bringing inspiration from store visits, competitor activity, category trends and wider market analysis into the innovation process.
• Bring concepts to life, developing confident concept papers, kitchen briefs, visual stories and storyboards that clearly communicate the consumer opportunity and product experience.
• Work across the business, building strong relationships with Technical, Operations, Commercial, Procurement and other key stakeholders to make sure the right people are involved at the right time.
• Test the opportunity, coordinating initial feasibility assessments and developing the commercial rationale needed to understand whether an idea can work — and what it will take to make it happen.
• Keep a firm grip on projects, proactively tracking progress, following up actions, identifying emerging issues and working with teams to find practical solutions.
• Challenge and ask questions, seeking clarity early, bringing recommendations and escalating decisions when additional support or alignment is needed.
• Lead projects through the stage-gate process, ensuring the right information, actions and criteria are in place at every stage.
• Communicate clearly, bringing together complex project information and translating it into concise updates on progress, risks, decisions and next steps.
• Help create products people love, balancing consumer desirability, technical feasibility and commercial opportunity to turn promising ideas into successful launches.

Skills

NPD/EPD

Project management

Ownership

Consumer insight

Stakeholder management

Commercial awareness

Analytical capability

Cross-functional collaboration

Storytelling

Job description

Gü Desserts | Certified B Corp™ is seeking an Innovation Manager to own and drive NPD, EPD and packaging projects from concept through to launch. You’ll work with Technical, Operations and Commercial teams to turn insights into compelling product concepts and delicious experiences.

The role suits an experienced NPD professional who can manage multiple projects, balance consumer needs with feasibility, and communicate progress clearly as you champion innovative desserts that excite shoppers and