NPD Senior Technologist

Years.com - More Years Together; Nottingham; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A dog food innovation company in Nottingham seeks a Senior Product Developer Technologist to drive new and existing product development. The successful candidate will balance creativity with technical precision, ensuring every product enhances the brand. Requirements include 3-5+ years in food product development and strong project management skills. Competitive benefits package includes extensive healthcare, learning budgets, and employee events. Join our mission to revolutionize pet care!

Benefits

Health care cover including full cancer coverage

Annual learning and development budget

Wellbeing budget

Working abroad opportunities

Team events

Employee discounts

Casual dress

Unused holiday sell-back

Qualifications

• 3-5+ years experience in food product development.
• Strong technical skills with a track record of successful launches.
• Experience in the Pet Food industry is ideal, but adjacent sectors are valuable.

Responsibilities

• Lead product innovation and manage New Product Development projects.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams for product launches.
• Conduct market research to inform product development.
• Design and run tests to ensure product quality.
• Maintain compliance and accuracy in product specifications.
• Explore new opportunities in ingredients and processes.
• Troubleshoot challenges effectively and inspire teams.

Skills

Project Management

Food Product Development

Technical Skills

Collaboration

Job description

Join Our Pack

From a bold idea to revolutionising dog food, Years has grown into a fast‑scaling business dedicated to helping dogs live longer, healthier lives.

In just 3 years, we've built a great start up business, serving thousands of happy customers, all while striving to achieve our mission.

Our goal? To give dog owners a better, fresher, and healthier way to feed their pets. We provide human cut, personalised meals designed to support each dog's unique needs, delivered straight to their door - no preservatives, no compromises, just real nutrition.

You can find our customers across the UK, with future ambitions to scale internationally and continue transforming how people care for their dogs.

Your Mission

As a Senior Product Developer Technologist at Years, you'll help expand our direct‑to‑consumer range by leading both New Product Development (NPD) and Existing Product Development (EPD) projects.

The NPD team's mission is to create bold, exciting products while ensuring our existing lines stay best‑in‑class - balancing creativity with technical excellence. You'll turn ambitious ideas into commercially viable products and drive improvements across the current range to strengthen our portfolio and meet evolving customer needs. The challenge lies in delivering technical precision while embracing innovation, ensuring every product that launches; or evolves enhances the Years brand.

Your focus will be split between hands‑on development work; in the test kitchen and factory floor and strategic problem‑solving, finding technical solutions to complex challenges. You'll act as Technical Project Lead, owning critical paths end‑to‑end for both in house manufactured and white label suppliers through pulling together Production, Marketing, Finance, Design, Customer Service, and external suppliers. This role demands a blend of ownership, initiative, and collaborative leadership, managing direct product lines across NPD and EPD with a proactive, solutions‑driven approach.

Key Responsibilities

• Spot trends and shape the future - dive into market research to uncover customer cravings, emerging trends, and competitor moves, fuelling bold product innovation that push the boundaries of our industry
• Make the magic happen - lead cross‑functional squads from Marketing, Procurement, Production, and Regulatory to turn ideas into ready‑to‑launch products
• Create recipes worth raving about - develop new formulations that hit the sweet spot between functionality, cost‑efficiency, and top‑tier nutrition
• Put products to the test - design and run sensory panels, shelf‑life tests, and compliance checks to ensure every launch is a winner
• Own the technical detail - keep product specs sharp, accurate, and fully compliant, leaving no stone unturned, ensuring projects are up to date with all the latest information
• Lead from the kitchen to the factory floor - coordinate trials, tweak processes, and champion technical excellence from first blend to final product
• Chase the next big thing - explore new ingredients, technologies, and white‑label opportunities to keep us ahead of the curve (and the competition)
• Solve the unsolvable - troubleshoot challenges fast and smart, keeping every project moving and every team inspired

Requirements

You’ll have significant experience (3 - 5+ years) in food product development, with strong technical skills and a track record of delivering successful launches from concept to launch. Ideally, you’ll have worked with Added Value Meats, Thermal Processing or the Pet Food industry but adjacent food sectors are also valuable.

You’re a strong project manager who can juggle multiple projects while maintaining precision on technical detail, confidently navigating the challenges of an ever‑growing factory and product line.

Collaboration comes naturally to you, building strong relationships across Procurement, Operations, Marketing, and more. You balance sharp execution with strategic thinking to help us work smarter, deliver better products, and drive innovation.

Above all, you bring a growth mindset, resilience, and a proactive, solutions‑focused approach to every project you touch.

Benefits

What’s In It For You? Years Benefits

• Extensive health care cover including full cancer coverage and a choice of hospitals or consultants (AXA top package)
• Annual £250.00 Learning & Development budget for courses, books or other self‑learn activities
• Annual £100.00 Wellbeing budget
• Up to 2 weeks working abroad per year (selected roles)
• Monthly recognition through our Yappa of The Month programme
• 1 Volunteer day per year - dog themed or not: it's your choice!
• Subsidised employee groups - from five a side to padel there's loads to get involved in or the chance to start up your own group
• Quarterly subsidised team events from Axe throwing, crazy golf to cocktail making
• Exclusive discounts on Years and Years treats for yourself and friends/family
• Lunch & Learn programme - from dog first aid to financial savviness we've got sessions planned to cover all kinds of topics
• Casual dress
• Your birthday off or different day if it falls on a non‑working day
• Ability to sell any unused holiday back to Years at the end of the Holiday Year (maximum 1 working week)