Senior NPD Technologist

Zest Food Jobs; Slough; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

Zest is exclusively partnering with a growing, well-established food manufacturer in London to find a Senior NPD Technologist to take ownership of the NPD pipeline.

This project-management role requires coordinating technical, commercial, operations, purchasing, production and quality teams, running tasting panels, and guiding products from concept to factory launch. You will mentor junior NPD colleagues and ensure deadlines are met.

Qualifications

• Proven experience running NPD projects through development.
• Strong organisational and coordination skills with multiple stakeholders.
• Factory experience is essential for this role.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive NPD pipeline from concept to factory launch.
• Coordinate technical, commercial, operations, purchasing, production and quality teams to meet deadlines.
• Plan and run tasting panels and translate feedback into decisions.
• Manage customer samples end to end and keep product data current.
• Review artwork before printing and flag risks early.

Skills

NPD project management

Cross-functional coordination

Stakeholder management

Factory experience

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.