NPD Assistant

NPD Assistant

Stevenage

Up to £30,000

This is a hands-on NPD role.

Not a "help with market research and occasionally look at a spreadsheet" role. You'll be in the kitchen making samples, reformulating recipes that don't quite work yet, and then standing in during a pre-production trial hoping the thing that worked on a small scale still works at full scale. It doesn't always.

The business works across a range of products, all ambient stable.. If you want to be working with a company that right at the front of the all the trends in the industry, this one would be for you.

You'll report to the Technical Manager, but you won't be sat in Technical's shadow. You're expected to interpret a customer brief properly, work out what's commercially and technically realistic, and then actually deliver it. That means chasing suppliers for specs and certification, arranging micro and nutritional testing when it's needed, and handing a finished product over to Production in a state where they can actually run with it, not just receiving a recipe and a shrug.

There's customer contact too. Sample visits, requests that land with no notice, deadlines that don't move just because the trial didn't go to plan first time. If you want a role where nothing changes week to week, this isn't it.

What they need from you: proper NPD experience, a solid handle on product development, and the ability to manage your own workload without someone stood over you. Food safety knowledge that's current, not something you did a course on five years ago and haven't thought about since.

What you get in return: a business that's actually growing, real exposure to major UK and international food service, retail and hospitality brands, and a team that will back you if you take ownership of the work. 

If that sounds like your kind of role, get in touch. No need for a polished cover letter, just send your CV and a couple of lines on why ambient NPD is your thing.