Contract: 10 weeks – Interim
Day Rate: £400–£450 per day + expenses
Start: ASAP

The Opportunity

We’re looking for an experienced Interim Product Development Manager to join a fast-paced chilled food manufacturing business in London for an initial 10-week assignment.

This is a hands-on role for an accomplished food product development professional who can hit the ground running, quickly understand the business and its customers, and provide immediate support across the development function.

You’ll be joining at an important time for the business, helping to drive development projects forward and ensuring products move successfully from concept through to launch.

If you’re an experienced NPD / Product Development Manager who thrives in a fast-moving food manufacturing environment and enjoys making an immediate impact, this could be an excellent interim assignment.

Role Overview

Working closely with the wider commercial, technical, operations and development teams, you’ll take ownership of key product development activity and help maintain momentum across the NPD pipeline.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Managing product development projects from concept through to factory launch

• Driving NPD projects against agreed timelines and customer requirements

• Developing and refining chilled food products to deliver against commercial, quality and operational objectives

• Organising and leading product trials, factory trials and launch activity

• Working closely with Operations and Technical teams to ensure products are scalable, achievable and launch-ready

• Supporting product benchmarking, recipe development and product optimisation

• Managing multiple projects and priorities within a fast-paced manufacturing environment

• Building strong relationships with internal stakeholders and, where required, customers and suppliers

• Identifying potential development or launch issues early and taking a practical, solutions-focused approach to resolving them

• Bringing structure, pace and clear communication to the development process

Skills & Experience

We’re keen to speak with experienced Product Development / NPD professionals from the food manufacturing sector, ideally with strong exposure to chilled products.

You’ll need to be comfortable stepping into an interim assignment and adding value from day one.

Ideally, you’ll bring:

• Significant NPD / Product Development experience within food manufacturing

• Previous experience within chilled food or another fast-paced, short-shelf-life category

• A strong understanding of the end-to-end development process, from concept and kitchen development through to factory trials and launch

• Experience working cross-functionally with Technical, Operations, Commercial, Procurement and other key stakeholders

• Strong project management and organisational skills

• The confidence to manage multiple projects and deadlines simultaneously

• A practical, hands-on approach and the ability to solve problems quickly

• Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills

• The ability to quickly understand a new business, its products and its processes

Most importantly, you’ll be someone who is comfortable operating in an interim environment, able to quickly assess what needs to be done, establish priorities and get things moving.

This is an immediate requirement, so we're particularly interested in speaking with candidates who are available now or at very short notice.

???? London
???? Chilled Food Manufacturing
???? Initial 10-week contract
???? £400–£450 per day + expenses
? ASAP start

If you’re an experienced Product Development or NPD Manager looking for your next interim assignment, we’d love to hear from you.

Equally, if you know someone within your network who could be a great fit, please feel free to share the opportunity with them.