NPI Leader - Dairy Innovation & Launch

Kinisla; Coleraine; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days annual leave

Matched pension scheme

Benefits platform discounts

Employee Assistance Policy

Job summary

Kinisla, a leading dairy nutrition business, seeks an experienced NPI Manager to lead the New Product Introduction team in delivering launches, transfers, and packaging changes across our dairy foods portfolio. You will drive governance, ownership, and cross-functional collaboration to ensure successful scale-up and on-time factory implementations.

You will coach the team, manage risks, and align with R&D, Regulatory, Quality, and Operations to deliver robust, compliant product introductions

Qualifications

• 5+ years relevant experience in NPI, process development, or product implementation within food manufacturing.
• Ability to set direction, delegate, coach, and intervene when oversight is required.
• Degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Dairy Science, Engineering or related discipline.
• Strong understanding of food manufacturing processes, scale-up, validation and readiness.
• Knowledge of food safety regulations, allergen management and product specs.
• Excellent governance, communication, and stakeholder management.
• Project management certification (PM) or Lean Six Sigma beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and empower the NPI team to deliver multiple commercialisation and process implementation projects from product handover to scale-up and launch.
• Set priorities, delegate ownership, plans, milestones, resources and launch-readiness criteria.
• Build capability to coordinate multidisciplinary internal and external stakeholders.
• Plan and execute pilot plant work, factory trials and commercial start-ups with validated process parameters.
• Ensure robust audit-ready handovers to Operations and Technical teams with evidence of capability and validation.
• Evaluate raw material and packaging specs and deliver packaging changes meeting requirements.
• Maintain governance over stage-gate reviews and risk management for timely decisions.
• Lead relationships with suppliers, packaging partners, and contract manufacturers when required.

Skills

NPI leadership

Project management

Cross-functional leadership

Food manufacturing

Quality systems

Education

Food Science degree

Job description

Kinisla, a leading dairy nutrition business, seeks an experienced NPI Manager to lead the New Product Introduction team in delivering launches, transfers, and packaging changes across our dairy foods portfolio. You will drive governance, ownership, and cross-functional collaboration to ensure successful scale-up and on-time factory implementations.

You will coach the team, manage risks, and align with R&D, Regulatory, Quality, and Operations to deliver robust, compliant product introductions