Senior NPD Technologist

Zest Food Jobs; Greater London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Zest Food Jobs is partnering with a growing London-based food manufacturer to hire a Senior NPD Technologist who will own the NPD pipeline. You will run projects from concept through to factory launch, coordinating technical, commercial, operations, purchasing, production and quality teams to hit a shared deadline.

Plan tasting panels, gather feedback, manage customer samples, and ensure specs and data stay current.

Qualifications

• Proven experience running NPD projects through development.
• Strong organisational and coordination skills.
• Ability to manage multiple stakeholders simultaneously.
• Factory experience is essential.

Responsibilities

• Lead NPD projects from concept to factory launch.
• Coordinate technical, commercial, operations, purchasing, production and quality teams to meet deadlines.
• Plan and run tasting panels; use feedback to steer product decisions.
• Manage customer samples end-to-end and keep specs/data up to date.
• Flag risks early and help sort issues with cross-functional teams.

Skills

NPD project mgmt

Stakeholder mgmt

Organisational skills

Factory experience

Food industry knowledge

Job description

Zest is exclusively partnering with a growing, well-established food manufacturer in London to find a Senior NPD Technologist to take real ownership of their NPD pipeline. This is a project management role at heart: you'll be running products from initial concept through to factory launch, pulling together technical, commercial, operations, purchasing, production and quality teams and keeping everyone moving toward the same deadline.

You'll be the one people come to for a project update, the one chasing progress when something's stalled, and the one in the room for every factory trial and first production making sure it goes the way it's meant to. You'll plan and run tasting panels, using the feedback to steer decisions rather than just record them. You'll manage customer samples end to end, keep specifications and product data current across the systems that need them, and give artwork a final look before it goes to print. When something looks like it could become a risk, technical, commercial or otherwise, you'll flag it early and help sort it before it becomes a bigger problem. And as you get settled, you'll start bringing junior NPD colleagues along with you too.

You'll bring proven experience running NPD projects or products through development, strong organisational and coordination skills, the confidence to manage multiple stakeholders at once and a genuine interest in food and how it gets made. Factory experience is a must.

Unfortunately - sponsorship is not available for this role, all candidates must have full UK right to work and not require sponsorship now or in the future.