NPD Technologist

Are you a technically minded food professional who gets a buzz from turning a good idea into a product people love? Prolife Foods is looking for an NPD Technologist to join our Product Development team and help create, improve and deliver products across our well-known snack and food ranges.

We are a New Zealand-owned food business with a proud history in snacks and a growing presence beyond Aotearoa New Zealand, with products now represented in Australia, Singapore and Belgium. Our honey products also travel to customers around the globe. It is a hands-on, fast-moving environment where good ideas, careful thinking and practical teamwork help bring quality products to life.

About the role

Reporting to the NPD Manager, you will be part of the full product development journey. From early concepts and innovation projects through to finished products that land in our product bins or on shelf. Along the way, you will bring together technical information and costing, recipes and bills of materials, specifications, artwork and production trial requirements, making sure the details are accurate, practical and delivered on time.

Key responsibilities

• Develop new products and improve existing products in line with NPD briefs.
• Ensure product labels, artwork, representations and specifications are technically correct.
• Complete costings, recipe management, bills of materials and technical documentation accurately and on time.
• Support product trials and first production runs using best-practice processes.
• Maintain and contribute to improvements in NPD systems and documentation.
• Work collaboratively with Marketing, Production, Procurement, QA and wider business teams.
• Provide technical troubleshooting support for new and existing products, customer queries and product issues.
• Maintain strong health and safety practices and support a positive team culture.

About you

You might be someone who enjoys the mix of creativity and technical detail just as you may be comfortable working through specifications and legislation as you are collaborating with teams to solve practical product challenges. Food industry experience is important, ideally within snack foods, along with hands-on experience developing new products from concept through to finished product. You will also bring sound knowledge of New Zealand and Australian food manufacturing legislation and a relevant food-related tertiary qualification.

You’ll need to enjoy working with people across the business, building trust with different teams and bringing a calm, practical approach when priorities shift or product challenges need to be solved. We hope to have a clear communicator, a natural problem-solver and someone who can balance creativity with the discipline needed to keep product development moving.

Why join us?

This is an opportunity to contribute to a sustainable and successful New Zealand food business. Our brands are our signature of what we do. We are passionate about them and that makes us passionate about our people. We have a few benefits on offer to our employees such as gym subsidies, hot soup served through the winter, at cost products available for purchase and fun team events. Our Executive and Leadership teams will take the time to get to know you and support your career journey with the business. We are in it for the long haul, we want to bring our employees on that journey in the very best way.

Apply now

If a move to Prolife Foods and what we have on offer sounds appealing to you and your professional career, we would love to hear from you. Submit your application through this website or take a look at our vacancies at Vacancies - Prolife Foods