About the Role:
Who are we, and what do we do?
You may not have heard of us, but theres a good chance youve enjoyed our products. Avara Foods is one of the UKs leading food businesses, supplying chicken and turkey to the countrys major supermarkets and well:known restaurants.
We own and manage our entire supply chain, from farms to factory and all the way to the customer door : meaning we have careers that cover a whole range of functions. We have major processing sites across England and Wales, and an agricultural network of over 350 farms, spanning from North Yorkshire to the South Coast and Wales.
About the Role:
Are you the innovative type with a proactive and naturally creative nature? Are you looking for a new challenge in your NPD career?
As an inclusive, forward:thinking business, we take pride in our approach to New Product Development across Avara Foods and are looking for a highly competent and motivated Development Technologist to join our NPDTeam, based at our Dudley or Herefordsite.
This is a fantastic opportunity for a self:focused foodie, with a logical approach to their tasks and a customer focused mind.
What will you be doing as a Development Technologist at Avara?
As an NPD Technologist you will support the NPD Development Product Manager in developing and delivering upon NPD initiatives for your business unit area. You will report directly to the New Product Development Manager, and work closely with cross functional teams such as Technical, Operations, Commercial, Planning and Procurement teams to identify requirements and plan schedules of work for product delivery.
Travel to suppliers, customers and Avara manufacturing sites will be required on a weekly basis.
Working hours are Monday to Friday 08.30 : 17.00
What will your key responsibilities as a Development Technologist include?
Category and Market Knowledge: Have an awareness of the retail and food service markets and current products / ranges in your area.
Support internal and external benchmarking sessions.
Complete product information sheets for all competitor products as required.
Manage the NPD Programme: Develop products to agreed customer briefs and present for internal and customer approval.
Work with suppliers to develop products to customer briefs.
Use Point 74 Recipe Professor system through development programmes to agreed procedure.
Support customer presentations ensuring all required documentation has been completed.
Attend Business Unit NPD Meetings as required.
Ensure all development activity is completed in line with NPD Procedures and Processes and information is correctly and accurately recorded.
Deliver the Launch Programme: Work in conjunction with technical and operations to organise and execute production trials and manage subsequent shelf:life assessments, organoleptic testing, cooking instruction verification, and nutritional sample analysis.
Occasional weekend working will be required to complete Organoleptic Assessments.
Use production trials to generate information to validate the product costing.
Liaise with the site:based Operations and Technical teams to plan the Product launch.
Manage launches to ensure the product complies with the specification and meets the agreed quality parameters.
What youll need to be successful:
Experience in developing and launching new products with retail and food service customers.
Experience of working within product development in an FMCG environment.
Managing critical paths and coordinating internal departments to ensure successful product launches.
Knowledge of the functional characteristics of food ingredients.
Have a thorough understanding of the product development process from concept through to launch with previous experience of adherence to Retailers NPD systems.
Able to work under your own initiative.
Computer literate.
Methodical approach, able to ascertain clear requirements