Senior NPD Technologist

Zest; Devon and Torbay; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 52,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive holiday allowance

Non-contributory pension

Life cover

Healthcare cashback plan

Cycle to work scheme

Staff product discounts

Preferential partner rates

Learning and development opportunities

Job summary

Zest is seeking a Senior NPD Technologist to support the NPD Manager from concept to scale-up. You will work with cross-functional teams to turn ideas into ready-to-launch products and build expertise across ingredients, packaging, and formulation.

You will handle multiple development projects, manage timelines, and transfer kitchen recipes into customer packs for smooth handovers. A driving licence and travel between sites are required.

Qualifications

• Degree in food science or related field and/or post-graduate NPD experience.
• Proven ability to manage multiple projects to deadlines and present data clearly.

Responsibilities

• Support NPD from concept through scale-up and customer packs.
• Coordinate production of kitchen samples and supplier collaboration.

Skills

NPD experience

Project coordination

Cross-functional teamwork

IT literacy

Education

Food science degree or related

Tools

Microsoft Office

Database systems

Job description

Senior NPD Technologist - Own Label

What if your ideas could end up on shelves and in fridges across the UK? This is a chance to join a growing Development Team within a successful brand, where you will help launch and evaluate new and existing own label products and shape what the portfolio looks like next.

Zest is recruiting a Senior NPD Technologist to support the NPD Manager from first concept through to scale-up. Working closely with cross-functional teams, you will help turn cutting-edge product ideas into high-quality products that are ready to launch, with a particular focus on supporting concept creation, building your raw material and packaging knowledge and developing your formulation expertise across multiple categories.

Day to day, you will support development projects from Gate 0 to Gate 2, coordinate the production and delivery of kitchen samples and work with existing suppliers on new ingredients within agreed parameters. You will bring a scientific understanding of recipe formulation, the role of each ingredient and the impact of process and work with Process Development to find opportunities for process improvement. You will also support customer presentations, customer lunches and displays, review the market and benchmark competitor products to spot trends and opportunities and win stakeholder buy-in for new ideas so the business can be first to market. To keep projects on track, you will help build the critical path, keep development documentation accurate and transfer kitchen-approved recipes into customer packs so the move from concept to scale-up is consistent.

You will bring a food qualification or previous food manufacturing experience in NPD, with at least one year of post-graduate experience in a food process NPD role. You will be comfortable managing several development projects at once to deadline, solving problems with a hands-on approach and presenting ideas and data clearly to both technical and non-technical colleagues. Knowledge of relevant legislation and food industry standards such as HACCP is desirable. You will be detail-oriented, adaptable, resilient and self-driven, with good IT skills across Microsoft and database systems. A driving licence is essential, as the role involves travel between sites, suppliers and customers.

The role is full time, 40 hours per week, Monday to Friday.

• competitive holiday allowance
• a non-contributory pension
• life cover
• a healthcare cash back plan
• a cycle to work scheme
• staff product discounts
• preferential rates with partners
• genuine learning and development opportunities

Please note: sponsorship is not available for this role