Contract Type:

Location:

Industry:

25-Nov-2025

Job Title: NPD Lead – Food

Location: Melbourne (with regular travel to regional sites)

Work Type: Full-time

Reporting To: Head of Technical / R&D

Team: 1 direct report initially (growing to 2)

About the Role

An exciting opportunity exists for an experienced and hands-on NPD Lead to take ownership of product development within the Food category. You will be responsible for managing projects end-to-end—from concept and bench development through to factory scale-up and full commercialisation. You’ll also support, mentor, and guide junior team members, ensuring high standards of product quality, documentation, and technical excellence.

This is a leadership role suited to someone with deep food product development experience, ideally across bakery, confectionery, and other related categories. Factory scale-up experience is essential.

Key Responsibilities

Product Development & Commercialisation

• Lead and manage all NPD projects within the Food category from brief through to commercial launch.
• Take a hands-on approach in scaling products from bench to production.
• Conduct and coordinate product tastings with the project team.
• Ensure efficient and effective processes are documented within internal systems in line with NPD procedures.

Project Management

• Execute and manage all project documentation to a high standard.
• Maintain project statuses in internal systems and run weekly cross-functional project meetings.
• Manage the full lifecycle of each assigned project, including planning, execution, reporting, and stakeholder updates.

Laboratory & Technical Management

• Oversee all aspects of laboratory operations, ensuring cleanliness, safety, and compliance.
• Maintain raw material inventory and lab resources.
• Implement and uphold guidelines relating to hygiene, HACCP, food safety, occupational safety, and environmental protection.

Customer-Facing Responsibilities

• Prepare and deliver customer workshops, capability presentations, and innovation sessions.
• Provide technical support to internal and external customers, including on-site visits.
• Conduct market research to support NPD projects and presentations.
• Collaborate with purchasing and account managers to source new ingredients when required.

Team Leadership & Collaboration

• Mentor and support other food team members, monitoring and guiding project progress.
• Support interstate technical team members as required.
• Engage in ongoing professional development and foster continuous learning within the technical team.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Contribute to proactive internal innovation projects set by the department head.
• Drive improvements in processes, formulation practices, and documentation standards across the team.

About You

To be successful in this role, you will possess:

• Extensive food product development experience (minimum 10 years preferred).
• Strong background in bakery and/or confectionery; additional experience across savoury, premixes, hydrocolloids, and aseptic filling highly valued.
• Proven factory scale-up experience is essential.
• Ability to work hands-on in the lab, lead projects, and mentor other team members.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills.
• A proactive, solutions-focused approach with strong attention to detail.
• Willingness to travel regularly (approximately once per month) to regional manufacturing sites.