Food Lead (M&S)
Greencore
Remote-friendly
Location: Northampton
Why Greencore?
Following the combination with Bakkavor in January 2026, we're one of the UK's leading creators of convenience food, driven by a simple purpose: to make every day taste better.
As a vibrant and fast-moving business, we're proud to employ over 28,000 talented colleagues across 36 manufacturing sites and 21 distribution depots in the UK and the US. Together, we bring delicious food to life. Our products cover every meal occasion from breakfast through to dinner and dessert, with lunch and snacking in between. In FY25, our shared passion helped us achieve combined revenues of approximately £4bn.
Our extensive direct to store (DTS) network, with 17 depots across the UK, allows us to deliver fresh and frozen food both our own and from trusted partners to thousands of stores every day, ensuring consumers enjoy the very best, whenever and wherever they shop.
We have a unique opportunity for an innovative and commercially minded Food Lead to inspire and lead a talented team, delivering an exciting pipeline of products that consumers love across one of our most strategic customer partnerships. This is an opportunity to shape the future of our innovation pipeline by combining strategic leadership, customer collaboration and culinary innovation in a fast-paced, dynamic environment where your ideas will drive growth and make a lasting impact.
Role Purpose
Lead the Product Development team across M&S Food For Now portfolio, delivering both the customer and business food strategy to drive profitable growth for Greencore and its customers while building strong, collaborative customer partnerships. Deliver a pipeline of new and improved Food For Now products that meet key performance indicators, align with the Greencore food strategy, and respond to evolving consumer and market trends.
Key Accountabilities
- Lead the Product Development team for the M&S Food For Now portfolio, delivering innovative, high-quality products that align with customer and business strategies.
- Build strong customer partnerships, translating insight and market trends into commercially successful product pipelines.
- Develop and coach a high-performing team, fostering collaboration, capability and continuous improvement.
- Drive the end-to-end product development process, ensuring successful launches, adherence to quality standards and achievement of business KPIs.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Commercial, Operations, Technical and Category to deliver customer and portfolio objectives.
- Champion culinary excellence and innovation, keeping food at the heart of decision-making and identifying future category opportunities.
- Manage development resources and budgets effectively, ensuring priorities are delivered efficiently and within agreed targets.
- Promote a culture of safety, sustainability, inclusion and data governance, ensuring compliance with Greencore policies and standards.
Knowledge, Skills & Experience
- Degree qualified in Food Science, Consumer Science or a related discipline, or equivalent industry experience.
- Proven experience leading product development within a fast-paced food manufacturing environment, ideally across Meals or Chilled Convenience.
- Passionate about food, innovation and delivering commercially successful products.
- Experience building strong customer relationships and translating consumer insights into winning product propositions.
- Demonstrated ability to lead, develop and inspire high-performing teams.
- Strong project management, problem-solving and decision-making skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to influence at all levels.
- Commercially aware, with a focus on quality, continuous improvement and delivering business results.
What You'll Get in Return
- Competitive salary and job-related benefits
- Holidays
- Enhanced parental leave and menopause policies
- Access to a full Wellbeing Centre platform
- Exclusive Greencore employee discount platform
- Greencore Qualifications
- Company share save scheme
- Life insurance up to 4x salary
- Competitive matched pension contributions
Ready to make an impact? Apply now and help us make every day taste better.
We reserve the right to close the advert ahead of the specified closing date.
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