Confectionery Innovation Intern

ZURU Edge; Auckland; On-site; NZD 20,000 - 27,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Culture for Growth

Global Opportunities

A‑Player Team

Competitive Remuneration

Fruit, coffee, and more

Job summary

ZURU Edge is seeking a hands-on intern to contribute to our Confectionery team in Auckland, New Zealand. You will help analyse competitors, identify white space for novel gummy and novelty candy ideas, and support new product launches across multiple markets.

You will gain exposure to regulatory milestones, distributor communications, and master spec maintenance, while continuously improving processes for faster go‑to‑market. A collaborative, learning‑driven mindset is essential.

Qualifications

• Studying Food Science, Food Technology, Nutrition, Chemical or Process Engineering or a related technical discipline.
• Interest in product development and cross-functional collaboration.
• Strong organisational skills and a proactive, team‑oriented attitude.

Responsibilities

• Assist Confectionery team with competitive landscape analyses across markets.
• Support launch execution, regulatory milestones, distributor communications and sample shipments.
• Maintain master spec sheets and drive documentation improvements to reduce launch friction.
• Engage in content creation and participate in learning sessions with business leaders.

Job description

Your future starts here!

ZURU's Confectionery Team

As an intern in our Confectionery team, you'll gain hands‑on experience contributing to the development of innovative confectionery products with global reach. From identifying emerging candy trends and uncovering fresh consumer insights, to collaborating with teams across Supply Chain, Regulatory, Commercial, Design and Marketing, you'll play a key role in bringing new gummy and novelty candy ideas to life. Your perspective will directly influence product innovation, while your strong organisational skills and collaborative approach will help streamline processes, strengthen feedback loops, and accelerate the journey from concept to market.

What You'll Work On

Confectionery Competitive Landscape & Category Deep Dive. Over your three months you'll build a structured analysis of our novelty, sour and aerated candy competitors across key markets — mapping pricing, pack formats, flavour ranges and retail channels to identify the white space we could be playing in. Your findings will feed directly into future new product development strategy and market prioritisation.

Launch Execution & Operations. You'll also be the operational backbone for new product launches, supporting the Product Manager across several markets at once. That means coordinating launch timelines, tracking regulatory compliance milestones, managing distributor communications and sample shipments, maintaining master spec sheets, and keeping launches on track from pre‑market planning through to go‑live. You'll own the documentation and process improvements that take friction out of every launch that follows.

You Will Also

• Be set up to win with a two-day induction to get you up to speed on everything ZURU
• Learn how our people continue to shift the needle through regular learning sessions with key business leaders
• Experience ZURU's playful side by dabbling in content creation (#dayinthelife) and attending social events
• And so much more!

Our summer internship programme will run from mid November 2026 - mid February 2027.

About You

We don't ask to see your grades. We're particularly keen to hear from students studying Food Science, Food Technology, Nutrition, Chemical or Process Engineering, or a related technical discipline. We care about sharing our internship experience with students who have a natural inclination to go above and beyond, who demonstrate grit and dedication, and most importantly, who radiate positivity and humility.

ZURU is a special place to work, and we live by our unique set of values, the ZURU DNA (you can find out more about our ZURU DNA on our careers page).

If you're excited by the opportunity to get stuck in to meaningful work and exciting projects and you have a mindset around continuous improvement and challenging the status quo then we want to hear from you!

Please note that while we don't have a formalised graduate programme, there may be opportunities to stay on post-internship depending on business needs.

About ZURU

ZURU is on a mission to disrupt across industries, challenge the status quo and catalyst change through radical innovation and automation advances. This is in play in different pillars of the company: ZURU Toys are re‑imagining what it means to play; ZURU Tech is shaping a better future by leading the next building revolution; ZURU Edge is pioneering new generation FMCG brands to better serve modern consumers.

Founded in 2003 by EY Entrepreneur of the Year and World Entrepreneur Hall of Fame brothers Nick and Mat Mowbray, ZURU has quickly grown to a team of over 5000 direct and indirect members across more than 30 international locations.

One of the largest toy companies in the world, globally recognised and award‑winning brands include Bunch O Balloons, Mini Brands, XSHOT, Rainbocorns and Smashers. Our global FMCG brands include MONDAY Haircare, Rascals, BONKERS, and Gumi Yum Surprise.

LIFE@ZURU

We recognise that ZURU's success stems from our people and you can only be at your best when you are looking after yourself. ZURU encourages all our team members to invest in their wellbeing by providing an array of benefits and tools.

What We Offer

• Culture for Growth
• Global Opportunities
• Surrounded by an A Player Team
• Competitive Remuneration
• Lots of fresh fruit, coffee, pals fridge and more

ZURU – Tomorrow Reimagined

ZURU.com