Position: Product Development ManagerLocation: United Kingdom – Remote
This role leads the technical and people agenda for product formulation within a nutrition-focused manufacturing environment. You will be accountable for turning product concepts into scalable, compliant, and commercially viable nutritional premixes and sports nutrition products. Acting as a bridge between technical, commercial, and operational teams, you will ensure formulation excellence from early-stage design through to successful market launch.
In addition to managing and developing the formulation function, you will establish strong systems, embed best practices, and continuously improve how products are designed, validated, and delivered.
Key Areas of Responsibility
Leadership, Strategy & Capability
You will set the direction for the formulation function, ensuring it supports wider business objectives such as innovation pipeline delivery, category expansion, margin performance, and customer satisfaction. This includes: Building, leading, and motivating multidisciplinary formulation and product development teams
Developing future leaders through coaching, mentoring, and succession planning
Managing departmental budgets, headcount planning, and capability investment
Ensuring strong technical knowledge across premix blends and individual ingredients to support internal and customer-facing technical queries Formulation & Product Design
You will have overall accountability for the technical quality and performance of formulations across nutritional premixes and sports nutrition products, including: Leading the development of vitamin and mineral blends, functional ingredient systems, and sports nutrition formats across powder, RTM, and RTD applications
Ensuring formulations are grounded in scientific evidence, balancing efficacy, stability, bioavailability, sensory performance, and cost efficiency
Overseeing pilot-scale trials, shelf-life studies, and formulation validation
Approving specifications and ensuring formulation documentation meets internal and regulatory standards
Monitoring ingredient innovation and regulatory change to ensure compliant and competitive formulations
Supporting raw material changes, alternative sourcing strategies, and supplier approvals to manage risk and cost Customer & Commercial Collaboration
This role works closely with customer-facing teams to ensure technical solutions align with commercial objectives and customer expectations: Translating customer briefs into robust technical and formulation requirements
Contributing to technical proposals, cost modelling, and feasibility assessments
Supporting customer launches through technical input, troubleshooting, and post-launch optimisation
Promoting a structured “right-first-time” approach by ensuring clear scoping before development begins
Providing technical guidance to commercial, quality, customer service, and production teams
Acting as a key user and advocate for product data and formulation systems, driving improvements in efficiency and usability Systems, Data & Continuous Improvement
You will strengthen how formulation work is governed, measured, and improved across the organisation by: Developing and maintaining clear SOPs, formulation standards, and technical documentation
Implementing performance metrics and dashboards to track efficiency, effectiveness, and return on investment
Driving continuous improvement initiatives to simplify processes and reduce complexity Experience & Background
We’re looking for someone who brings both technical depth and leadership capability: Degree-level qualification (BSc or MSc) in Food Science, Nutrition, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Pharmacology, or Chemical/Process Engineering
Extensive experience within food, nutrition, or supplement manufacturing environments
Proven people leadership experience, including cross-functional collaboration
Hands-on expertise in nutritional premix formulation and sports nutrition products
Strong understanding of powder processing technologies and formulation challenges
Demonstrated ability to develop scientifically sound formulations with strong sensory performance
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