Position: Senior Product Development Manager
Role Overview
At Simply Lunch, we are all about improving lives through delicious food.
We are seeking a talented and proactive Senior Product Development Manager to join our NPD team during an exciting period of expansion. As the Senior Product Development Manager, you will play a pivotal role in driving our company’s growth by bringing into the market delicious products to improve people’s life.
You will be responsible for setting up the NPD function and maintaining and improving the product development strategy aligning with our brand, vision and goals.
You will be the central point of contact for all internal departments involved in the execution of the critical path, and of our external customers. Sharing in-depth knowledge of the food‑to‑go market, you will be able to fulfil the brief’s requirement to the highest level of expectations.
Our Commitment
Our commitment to delicious food and our local communities has been central to our South London business since it was founded in 1979. Today, we are as committed as ever to creating high‑quality hand‑crafted products, made to improve lives and protect our beautiful planet.
All our food is handmade at our facility in South London with the same care, love and admiration that we’ve shown since day one.
Our talented team fuels the success at Simply Lunch, combining expertise and passion to craft products that improve lives through delicious food.
Values
- People First
- Customer Focused
- Stronger Together
- Accountable and Drive Excellence
- Do The Right Thing
Key Responsibilities
- Take ownership of maintaining, developing and constantly improving the product development critical path.
- Lead projects through all the gates, liaising with internal and external stakeholders.
- Prepare and present key documents across all stages of the critical path, leading key handover meetings.
- Assure an agile approach in managing the projects and show the ability to adjust to changes and challenges along the way, while still meeting required deadlines.
- Guide, advise and monitor the NPD team, managing their workload and ensuring performance meets required standards, while acknowledging and meeting their needs in line with the company’s performance management system.
- Drive a performance culture.
- Build trust and strong relationships with the customers.
- Support the chefs in translating brief(s) into outstanding products, in line with internal operations and commercial efficiency requirements and the food‑to‑go market scenario.
- Have a hands‑on approach, being willing to spread a mutually supportive attitude across the NPD team, where all tasks are shared when intense workload requires so.
- Maintain an in‑depth knowledge of the food‑to‑go market and trends to ensure the company range and proposals are always best in class.
- Run regular benchmarking activity and gap analysis to assure the company’s products fill any gap against competitors.
- Build and continually improve knowledge of company products, ingredients and production processes to assure the most efficient management of product development and the most knowledgeable assistance to our customers.
Qualifications
- Proven experience successfully managing food products development projects, ideally in the food‑to‑go category.
- Strong understanding of all food manufacturing departments’ requirements.
- Proven experience in team and department management.
- Proven experience of filling a customer‑facing role, ideally in the food‑to‑go category.
Key Competencies
- Effective communication skills at all levels and adept at building relationships.
- Process‑driven: can introduce, improve and develop the critical path.
- Food‑to‑Go knowledge: able to monitor and analyse market trends.
- Independent thinking: able to act and make decisions independently.
- Project management: able to identify key efficient actions in managing projects and act accordingly, meeting deadlines.
- Problem solving: able to spot problems quickly and find suitable solutions.
- Adaptability: can adapt to changing circumstances with ease.
- Persuasiveness: able to influence and persuade others into new ways of thinking or acting and can generate support for new ideas.
- Team management: managing NPD team workload and performance as the most senior member in charge.
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