NPD Chef

Location: Derby

Working Hours: Monday - Friday, Core Hours

Salary: Highly Competitive + Excellent Benefits Package + Career Development Opportunities

About Us

Join 2 Sisters Food Group, one of the UK's largest food manufacturers, with an annual turnover exceeding £3 billion and approximately 13,000 employees across 16 sites. We have a strong presence in poultry, chilled, and bakery food categories, supplying some of the UK's leading retailers and foodservice customers including Aldi, Asda, Co-op, KFC, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco, and Waitrose.

About the Role

We are seeking a passionate and talented NPD Chef to join our UK Poultry Central NPD team. This is an exciting opportunity for a chef with experience in food manufacturing, or a strong culinary professional looking to transition into the world of product development.

Working closely with the NPD Manager and wider development team, you will play a key role in delivering culinary excellence for a major customer account. This is a hands-on role where you'll spend the majority of your time in the kitchen, recreating and refining product samples, supporting customer presentations, and helping bring product briefs to life in a fast-paced and dynamic category.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and refine food products in line with customer briefs and requirements

• Prepare and present high-quality product samples for internal and customer reviews

• Support customer presentations, showcasing products and culinary expertise

• Translate customer requirements into commercially viable food solutions

• Conduct recipe development, benchmarking, and product evaluations

• Support factory trials and product launches where required

About You

You are a skilled chef with strong culinary foundations and a genuine passion for food. Whether you already have experience within food manufacturing or are looking to make the move from a professional kitchen into product development, you will be excited by the opportunity to work on customer-led projects within a large-scale food business.

You thrive in a fast-paced environment, enjoy working collaboratively, and take pride in delivering exceptional food quality. Most importantly, you're someone who can cook to a high standard and bring creativity, energy, and attention to detail to every project.

Key Skills & Experience

• Experience as a Chef, ideally within high-quality restaurant, hotel, contract catering, or food manufacturing environments

• Previous food manufacturing experience would be advantageous

• Knowledge of product development processes or an interest in pursuing a career within NPD

• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, customer-focused environment

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills

• Organised with excellent attention to detail

• Flexible, proactive, and capable of managing multiple projects simultaneously

Benefits

• 33 days annual leave inclusive of bank holidays

• Company pension scheme with Legal & General or NEST pension

• Death in service benefit (subject to eligibility)

• Company sick pay (after qualifying period)

• Refer a Friend Scheme

• Health Assured Employee Assistance Programme and Grocery Aid

• Boparan Restaurant Group discount with 50% discount for friends and family

• Cycle2Work Scheme

Why Join Us?

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a highly respected NPD team within one of the UK's leading food manufacturers. You'll work on exciting customer projects, gain exposure to major retail accounts, and play an integral role in developing products within a fast-moving poultry category. If you're a hands-on chef looking to take the next step in your career and make an impact within food development, we'd love to hear from you.