NPD MANAGER

Product Development vacancy based Surrey.

Salary to 45k plus car or car allowance plus excellent benefits.

Responsible For:

Lead Developer for functionality and recipe development.

Responsible for converting product development into a

customer specific product strategy.

Launch of all products/ranges on time, to critical path and with maximum

impact.

 

Purpose:

 

To develop new products or improve existing products so that the business

can meet customers' needs more effectively.

 

Key duties

 

Formulate, direct & deliver commercial product development across category, building development pipelines and including working with

commercial and technical team members to ensure projects are completed

to agreed dates, conforming to customer requirements.

Identify commercial product opportunities with own area of responsibility,

including costs and agreeing timescales.

Keep up to date with market intelligence & customer insight.

Keep up to with trends in functionality ingredients and trends.

Deliver all products in line with brand values & quality aspirations of company

and retail partners.

Set quality standards through continual benchmarking and challenging

standards to maintain clear differences in quality ensuring our products are

“best in class” by tier.

Managing NPD projects to ensure efficient and timely completion of tasks.

Manage effective handover of projects at stage 3 of the development

process, to the technical team. All relevant information collated to ensure

smooth transition of the project.

Ensure we deliver against divisional commercial targets.

Continually monitor performance of new product development in the market

place and agree appropriate action with commercial team.

Continue to develop a direct & positive relationship with all internal &

external teams. Ensure appropriate communication internally, with retail

partners and across manufacturing sites.

Keep up to date with technological changes in the food industry and identify

opportunities for packaging & product development.

Produce samples for internal & customer presentations, working hands-on in

the kitchen whenever necessary, but also understanding manufacturing sites

capabilities.

Source new raw materials in line with preferred supplier & purchasing

strategy, aligning with centre of excellence requirements.

Monitor market place for potential prospective suppliers.

Line managers – to include performance management, coaching and

completion of agreed development plan with each member of the team.

 

Values and

behaviors:

 

Resourcefulness – Treating money as if it’s our own

Innovation – Continuously creating innovative solutions

Expertise – Gaining and sharing knowledge

Business KPIs Complaint reduction

Service level and wastage

Sales, profit and Cost Management

Process Adherence

Continuous professional development

 

Person Specification

Qualifications Food based degree.

Experience Experience in retail or FMCG product development role.

Experience in working within the FMCG sector.

Proven ability to negotiate effectively in reactive and flexible

situations.

Experience in process review and process improvement.

Key Skills and Knowledge Ability to work across multiple retailer customers and deliver projects

simultaneously.

Work with a determination to achieve challenging and innovating

product ranges that provide us a point of difference verse our

competitors.

Passionate and knowledgeable about food.

Exceptionally well developed interpersonal skills and ability to

communicate persuasively by addressing the needs and interests of

others.

Excellent communication skills both verbal and written including

strong influencing skills. Capable ‘stand-up’ presenter.

Energetic, outward-going and good at managing both internal and

external relationships.

Ability to devise and implement solutions in order to generate sales.

Make high quality decisions at pace.

Ability to create a clear plan for themselves to deliver short to

medium term business priorities.

Strong commercial acumen and analytical skills.

Strong organisational and planning skills.

Basic understanding of UK and European regulation and legislation.

Personal Qualities Able to work independently and without close direction.

Willing to take the initiative with people. Good listener.