Food Product Developer

We are recruiting for a Product Developer to join our team here at Harrods. Our Product Development team are tasked with developing the best new food products for our Harrods Own Label brand, specifically across our Chocolate, Confectionary and Hampers range. 

About the role

As an Product Developer, you will influence the strategy and drive the success of the Harrods Own Label range within Chocolate and Confectionary, whilst selecting from our existing products to create our Hampers range. Your main focus will be to manage the critical path and keeping various projects moving of said produce, to ensure it arrives in line with key deadlines and seasonal trade.  

You will be tasked with collating trend reports for your categories, to endorse our offering by being the best in class: this includes comp shops, attending trade shows, buying samples and testing new products from competitors to benchmark against our existing range and to influence upcoming ranges. You will also work closely with our insight team to analyse sales data to ensure the trends and newness in the external market is relevant to our customer demographic. 

In this role you will also be responsible for:

• Championing and leading the development of new and innovative products and packaging concepts to exceed business expectations and drive category plans. 
• Consistently communicating with internal and external stakeholders, ensuring the maintenance of critical paths for projects to guarantee successful product launches and that the NPD process is adhered to. 
• Creating project summaries – send out weekly reports to the team to update on progress against key stages within the gated process for all projects. Summarise new product launches to relevant stakeholders. 
• Managing the quality benchmarking process to ensure best-in-class execution and providing summary outputs to the relevant category teams. 
• Managing weekly product review forums, ensuring products and/or packaging are available for sign off.

Within this role, you will be expected to be in the office at least three days a week as in addition to domestic and overseas travel.  

About You 

The ideal candidate will have a wealth of experience within New Product Development. Whether your experience is within a large department store or standalone brand, you will be familiar with managing the critical path across your category. You will have both exceptional communication skills as well as time management skills, able to thrive in a fast moving environment, think on your feet and adapt to changing priorities. 

Being able to demonstrate industry knowledge and commercial acumen will really set the ideal candidate up for success in this exciting and creative role. By having exposure in developing pre-packaged Ambient goods, coupled with a clear passion and ambition within Chocolate and Confectionary, you will have all the tools to provide invaluable expertise as a skilled Product Developer.  

You will also:

• Be confident in building strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Have both creative flair and exceptional organisational skills. 
• Possess the ability to manage projects from inception to completion. 
• Understand our customer profile and have clear commercial awareness. 
• Be proactive, solution lead and passionate about food. 

About Us 

Already one of our most renowned departments, Buying is evolving as part of our major business-wide transformation. We keep Harrods at the forefront of luxury retail by identifying brands that match consumer tastes and supporting our journey to become the world's leading luxury retail emporium.  

Our Promise to You 

At Harrods, we believe that nothing is impossible. We drive ourselves and inspire others to always push for more and this passion to exceed is what sets us apart. We are proud to be a place where standing out means being yourself. 

In return, you'll enjoy a package that includes: eligibility for a competitive bonus, 25 days holiday, your birthday off, up to 33% Harrods discount and a 50% Business Clothing Allowance. You will also have the opportunity to join our generous pension scheme, in addition to strong long-term career potential and development support. 

Uniquely You 
At Harrods, we believe the personality and authenticity of our people sets us apart. We celebrate and invite applications from all cultures, backgrounds, tastes and experiences and are proud of our culture where people from all walks of life can grow and thrive. What makes us unique is what makes us exceptional. 

If you want to know more about our people, our culture and careers opportunities search #TogetherHarrods on LinkedIn, Facebook or follow us on Instagram, @togetherharrods