Junior Product Developer
£26,000 – £34,000 plus benefits (Work Level 6B)
Manchester City Centre, in this role you’ll work in a hybrid way splitting your time between home, the office and supplier sites as required (find out more about our hybrid working policy at colleagues.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy). 

Permanent role and a 12-month fixed term contract available

We’re looking for a Junior Product Developer to join us and help us deliver Co-op’s amazing own brand products. In this role, you’ll have the opportunity to work on both existing and new product development, owning and running tenders, and collaborating with our suppliers and internal teams. It’ll be up to you to help us create and enhance our products, making sure they taste great, meet customer needs, and always live up to the highest quality standards. 

You’ll have the chance to work in our impressive development kitchens, developing your skills and gaining valuable experience as you go. If you’re a great communicator with a passion for food, we can offer you an amazing opportunity to do just that with a business that always puts people at the heart of its strategy. 

What you’ll do 

• Use your food expertise and passion to create clear development briefs, always considering the commercial implications throughout development to maximise value for our customers
• Support tenders from a development perspective
• Review market and customer data to make sure we’re focused on the biggest opportunities
• Carry out competitor market reviews and store visits across the country as well as visiting manufacturing sites across the UK
• Regularly review product quality and taste test products to make sure they meet our standards
• Work collaboratively with other functions to make sure products meet expectations
• Monitor and keep track of products throughout the critical path up to launch, supporting the communication of key product information and launch activity
• Build relationships and work collaboratively with both internal teams and external suppliers to make sure products launch successfully

This role will suit people who have

• A real passion for food with experience in food product or process development
• Great organisational skills, with the confidence to manage projects and work autonomously 
• Customer focus combined with commercial awareness
• Great communication skills with a talent for building positive relationships both internally and externally 
• A logical approach to solving problems and the ability to use data to back up decision-making

Why Co-op? 

If you have the skills that we need, we can offer you a competitive salary and great benefits package which includes 30% off Co-op branded products in our food stores (as well as other discounts on Co-op products and services).

• An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance)
• 28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays 
• A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
• Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
• Coaching and training to support your career development
• Wagestream app – giving you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn

At Co-op, we’re proud to do things a different way. As one of the world’s largest co-operatives, owned by millions of members, community is at the heart of what we do. Since our Co-op was founded in 1844, we’ve had a clear social purpose, and everything we do as a business helps to build a fairer world for our members, customers, colleagues, and communities. 

Building a diverse environment

We’re actively building diverse teams and we welcome applications from everyone. If you have a disability, we can make reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process according to your needs. We're also part of the Disability Confident scheme, meaning we'll always offer an interview to disabled candidates who apply through the scheme if they meet the minimum criteria for a job.

We'll ask whether you’d like to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme when you apply.

If we invite you to take part in the recruitment process for any of our jobs, we’ll ask you if you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to participate.

You can find out more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process.

You can find out more about the Disability Confident scheme and all our commitments to diversity and inclusion at colleagues.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion-and-wellbeing

As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes between 45-60 minutes. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.