NPD Technician

Avara Foods; Wednesbury; On-site; GBP 21,000 - 27,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

31 Days Holiday

Pension

Life Insurance

Wellbeing resources

Job summary

Avara Foods is seeking an NPD Technician to support the New Product Development team across Dudley and Wednesbury sites. You will help drive food product innovation from concept to launch while ensuring safe, compliant kitchen and factory areas.

The role requires hands‑on cooking, ingredient handling, and strong organisational skills. A full UK driving licence and 2+ years in food are preferred; opportunities for development and travel are available.

Qualifications

• Clear and confident verbal and written communication.
• Excellent time management and a logical, adaptable approach to tasks.
• Self-motivated and able to take initiative and ownership of responsibilities.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, especially Excel and email communication.
• Minimum 2 years’ experience in the food industry (e.g. home economics or kitchen-based roles).
• A full UK driving licence (manual & automatic, with business insurance).

Responsibilities

• NPD Area Management: Ensure the development areas are safe, clean, well-organised, and stocked with ingredients and consumables.
• Equipment Maintenance: Monitor and manage equipment servicing, calibration, and risk assessments on a regular schedule.
• Sample Preparation: Produce high-quality samples for customer submissions, internal innovation sessions, benchmarking, and presentations.
• Product & Data Support: Support technologists with organoleptic tasting assessments, cooking validations, nutrition samples, and data uploading.
• Ingredient Management: Source, collect, and store ingredients according to allergen procedures across sites.
• Audit & Compliance: Support internal audits to meet pass standards.
• Presentation Support: Assist with customer and supplier presentations and travel as required.
• Collaboration: Build relationships across Wednesbury, Dudley, and other sites.
• General NPD Support: Help Development Technologists and wider NPD team.

Skills

Verbal and written communication

Time management

Initiative

Microsoft Excel

UK driving licence

Tools

SharePoint

Recipe Professor

Microsoft Excel

Job description

About The Role

Are you passionate about working with ingredients, hands‑on cooking, and creating samples—and ready for a new challenge in your NPD or kitchen career?

Are you passionate about working with ingredients, hands‑on cooking, and creating samples—and ready for a new challenge in your NPD or kitchen career?

As an inclusive, forward‑thinking business, we take pride in our approach to New Product Development across Avara Foods and are looking for a highly competent and motivated NPD Assistant to join our New Product Development Team, based at our Dudley and Wednesbury Site.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a true "foodie", who loves cooking and working with ingredients with an organised and logical approach to their tasks.

Purpose Of The Role

As an NPD Technician, you will support the New Product Development (NPD) team at Avara across both Dudley and Wednesbury sites. You’ll be involved in a wide range of activities that help drive food product innovation from early concept through to successful launch, while ensuring the NPD kitchens and NPD factory areas operate efficiently, safely, and to high food safety standards.

Key Responsibilities

• NPD Area Management: Ensure the development areas are safe, clean, well‑organized, and stocked with ingredients and consumables.
• Equipment Maintenance: Monitor and manage equipment servicing, calibration, and risk assessments on a regular schedule.
• Sample Preparation: Produce high‑quality samples for customer submissions, internal innovation sessions, benchmarking, and presentations.
• Product & Data Support: Supporting the technologists with organoleptic tasting assessments, complete cooking validations, preparation of nutrition samples, requesting supplier samples, supporting during factory trials, uploading of NPD information onto the Avara recipe system/SharePoint and measuring product attributes.
• Ingredient Management: Source, collect, and store ingredients according to allergen control procedures, including trips to factories, restaurants, or local suppliers
• Audit & Compliance: Support internal audits of the NPD areas to ensure minimum pass standards are consistently met.
• Presentation Support: Assist with customer and supplier presentations and be willing to travel as required.
• Collaboration: Build productive working relationships across departments at Wednesbury, Dudley, and other Avara sites.
• General NPD Support: Provide hands‑on help wherever needed to support the Development Technologists and wider NPD team.

What We're Looking For

Essential Skills & Experience

• Clear and confident verbal and written communication skills.
• Excellent time management and a logical, adaptable approach to tasks.
• Self‑motivated and able to take initiative and ownership of your responsibilities.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, especially Excel and email communication.
• Minimum 2 years’ experience in the food industry (e.g. home economics or kitchen‑based roles).
• A full UK driving licence (manual & automatic, with business insurance).

Desirable Skills & Qualifications

• Strong organisation, administrative, and presentation skills.
• High attention to detail.
• Basic Food Hygiene & Manual Handling certification.
• A passion for food, ingredients, and development.
• Familiarity with systems such as SharePoint and Recipe Professor.

A Little About Us

Avara Foods is one of the UK’s largest food businesses, supplying chicken and turkey to the nation’s most popular supermarkets and restaurants. We are a fully integrated business controlling the whole product supply chain, which include feed mills, farms, hatcheries and factories with associated transport and logistics functions that employ more than 7000 people. This is achieved by investing in people, utilising the latest technology and being uncompromising in our commitment to high quality and food standards.

What’s in it for you?

Benefits

As a Development Technician you will enjoy a secure, supportive and progressive working environment, where your contribution and achievements will be recognised and rewarded. We offer comprehensive training as well as continuous development as you build your career with us. You can also look forward to benefits that amongst other things include the following:

• 31 Days Holiday
• 4% Pension
• Life Insurance
• Various lifestyle benefits, including wellbeing resources

We are committed to being an equal opportunities employer.