NPD Placement Student

Stateside Foods Ltd; Westhoughton; On-site; GBP 20,000 - 26,000; Full time

Job summary

Stateside Foods Ltd in the United Kingdom is seeking an NPD Student to join our New Product Development team on a 12-month fixed term contract starting in June 2027. You will gain an understanding of working within an NPD department and support the function with a range of development tasks.

The role covers assisting from concept to launch, coordinating taste panels, packaging maintenance for chilled pizzas, and supporting customer submissions.

Qualifications

• Excellent communication skills are essential.
• Ability to multi-task and use initiative.
• Studying a food-related degree and holding a driving licence is required.

Responsibilities

• Assist the development process from concept to launch.
• Support NPD to ensure products meet business requirements and retailer briefs.
• Liaise with Technical Services, QA, Manufacturing, Purchasing and Commercial.
• Attend internal panels, capture key details and circulate promptly.
• Coordinate and lead regular taste panels; review the market.
• Maintain packaging folders for all chilled pizzas in the marketplace.
• Support customer submissions, prepare samples and complete paperwork.
• Attend factory trials and sign-offs as required.
• Oversee organoleptic assessments throughout product life.
• Create and assess cooking verification and validation when required.
• Research and produce a monthly trends and innovation report for customers.
• Organise a monthly innovation meal and report findings.
• Create and document 'News Flashes' for new products.

Skills

Communication skills

Multi-tasking

Initiative

Education

Food-related degree (in study)

Job description

We have a fantastic opportunity for an NPD Student to join our New Product Development team on a 12-month fixed term contract starting in June 2027.

The successful candidate will gain an understanding of working within an NPD department and support the whole function with various NPD related tasks.

An overview of the role:

• To assist with the development process from concept to launch
• To support the NPD teams ensuring that products are developed to meet with the business requirements and best suit retailer briefs
• To liaise closely with Technical Services, Quality Assurance, Manufacturing, Purchasing and Commercial as required for projects
• Attend internal panels, capture all key detail and circulate in a timely manor
• Co-ordinate and lead regular taste panels – reviewing the market
• Maintain up to date packaging folders for all chilled pizzas within the marketplace
• Support with customer submissions preparing samples and completing paperwork when required
• Attend factory trials, pre-trial and post-trial meetings and final factory sign off when required
• Manage completion of organoleptic assessment over life
• Create and assess cooking verification and validation when required
• Research and create a monthly trends and innovation report to send to our customers
• Organise a monthly innovation meal and generate a report with the findings
• Organise and document ‘News Flashes’ for new products in the market to send to our customers
• Maintenance of a product database, including all retailer products

Candidates should be studying a food related degree course and hold a drivers license.

Excellent communication skills are key with the ability to multi-task and use initiative.