Product Development Manager

Job Title: Product Development Manager

Location: Hemel Hempstead (Hybrid)

Job Length: Permanent

Working Hours: Monday – Friday (Full Time)

Competitive Salary with extensive benefits:

• Monthly product allowance – alcoholic & non-alcoholic options available 
• Private Medical options
• Life Assurance 
• Company bonus scheme
• Access to 24/7 GP services
• Enhanced pension contribution
• Generous holiday (inc bank holidays)
• Access to a range of high street discounts

Carlsberg Britvic is the largest multi-beverage supplier in the UK and is home to some of the most iconic and popular beers & soft drinks, including Carlsberg Danish Pilsner, 1664, Poretti and Brooklyn to ale favourites such as Hobgoblin and Wainwright. For soft drinks, Carlsberg Britvic’s brands include J2O, Robinsons, Tango and London Essence along with the licence rights to the Pepsi portfolio in the UK including Pepsi MAX, 7UP, Lipton Ice Tea and Rockstar Energy.

With a strong national footprint, the Carlsberg Britvic business includes 5 production facilities and 16 logistics depot’s servicing customers up and down the UK. As these two historical businesses have come together, the one common goal remains, and that is ensuring our people succeed.  

About the Role:

As a Product Development Manager working in our GB Innovation Product Development team, you will be responsible for innovating against our brands and for flawless delivery of new and exciting liquids from concept creations to implementation at factories.

You will be responsible and accountable for the successful delivery of the liquid workstream of projects as well as leading project management activities.

You will also be leading products scale up and implementation in our Supply Chain, so a taste for factory trials and chemical process development is required.

You will ensure robust technical expertise is applied with rigor to gain competitive advantage and ensure liquid solutions are delivered right first time.

Our passion is for developing superior products that consumers drink and love, best in class packaging and impeccable delivery of projects, while fostering a culture of growth where everyone can be their best and own self.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the liquid development of new soft drink products from concept to commercialisation
• Influence the product innovation pipeline using trends & external partnership
• Project manage technical workstreams where multi-disciplinary teams are involved, ensuring all project work is compliant with the Britvic technical processes and legal requirements related to soft drinks
• Provide technical liquid expertise and coaching to support the product development technologists, factories and supply chain teams ensuring project objectives are met on time in full.
• Build effective collaborative partnerships with Marketing, Supply Chain and Suppliers to enable project delivery of key business objectives.
• Use strong technical knowledge, leadership and influence to enable cross-functional teams meet project objectives, innovative development, technical direction, options and solutions which support the delivery of new products and execution of Britvic’s strategy with pace.
• Provide direction & leadership to project teams across all levels of the business
• Create testing plans and reports to share with the wider technical team, rolling out appropriate training where needed, ensuring knowledge grows within the team.
• Develop and maintain accurate liquid specifications and methodologies, ensuring that they are statistically validated, legal and intellectual property is protected
• Understand the risk profile of the liquid solution and actively manage the associated liquid and processing risks and mitigation actions
• Implement and contribute to the liquid development strategy
• Establish external relationships in order to maximise competitive advantage
• Maintain an excellent knowledge of liquid development, novel ingredients, new technologies, trends and competitors and packaging whilst keeping abreast of new technologies.
• Embrace a learning and development plan to further your skills and capabilities to enhance your experience, facilitating progression.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience Required:

• Experience working within FMCG technical departments leading delivery of technical projects as part of a cross functional team is essential.
• Technical liquid development and project leadership experience with track record of delivering results is essential
• Liquid knowledge of ingredients, formulations and sensory is essential
• Liquid processing knowledge is essential
• Experience of working with manufacturing departments and process scale up from Lab - Pilot Plant – final site is essential
• Accomplished IT Skills using Microsoft suite of programs (including MS Project) are essential
• Well-developed interpersonal skills, specifically relationship building, facilitation, written / verbal communication are essential
• Ability to interpret sensory and consumer research data and use this to guide product design is desired.
• Strong leadership skills are essential
• Previous management or coaching experience is desirable
• Relevant product development experience is essential

Qualifications:

• Honours or Degree equivalent in relevant science discipline (e.g. Chemical Engineering, Food science, chemistry)
• Project Management qualifications

Interested in finding out more? Apply today and a member of the recruitment team will be in touch!

Application Process:

We read applications continuously, and vacancies may be filled anytime, so please apply as early as possible.

We look forward to receiving your application.

This is an exciting time to join our newly formed business – with their incredible individual history’s, innovation of products and some of the UK’s most iconic brands, Carlsberg Britvic strives to deliver the best service to our customers and consumers. We aim to make a difference, bringing together two diverse companies, our global reach enables opportunity, growth and a chance to work with some fantastic people.