Innovation & Concept Design Lead (NPD Front-End Focus)
Are you a visionary thinker with a passion for pets, nutrition, and cutting-edge product design? We're looking for an Innovation & Concept Design Lead (NPD) in pet food and treats - translating insights and trends into the next generation of products for dogs, cats, and small animals.
This is a unique opportunity to combine creativity, science, and strategy - shaping a pipeline of concepts that keep us at the forefront of pet health and wellbeing.
What You'll DoFront-End Innovation: Spot market gaps, consumer needs, and whitespace opportunities through research, trend analysis, and competitor scanning.
Concept Development: Design and present compelling product concepts (briefs, prototypes, samples) that are nutritionally aligned and market-ready.
Ingredient & Format Innovation: Explore and validate novel ingredients (functional, sustainable, alternative proteins) and formats (extruded, baked, semi-moist, artisanal).
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Marketing, NPD, Commercial, and Technical teams to bring ideas to life - from ideation through to scale-up.
Supplier Engagement: Build relationships with ingredient suppliers and technology partners to source innovative solutions.
Governance & Process: Own the stage-gate process from idea generation to handover, ensuring projects are feasible, compliant, and aligned with strategic goals.
Future Technology: Identify and champion emerging technologies that keep us ahead of the curve in pet food innovation.
3+ years' experience in product development or innovation (pet food or FMCG preferred).
Strong grasp of regulations (FEDIAF, DEFRA, EU feed regulations).
Creative thinker with concept storytelling and visualisation skills.
Experience with semi-moist, baked, extruded, or multi-format technologies.
Excellent project management and stakeholder engagement skills.
Passion for pets and advancing pet health through nutrition.
Desirable:
Degree in Food Science, Animal Nutrition, NPD
Supplier or contract manufacturer experience.
Knowledge of sustainability certifications (MSC, MarinTrust).
Familiarity with premium/prescription or functional pet products.
For futher information, please contact Luan at MorePeople on
JBRP1_UKTJ