Product Development Technologist

Job Title: Product Development Technologist

Reporting to: Head of Food & Brand

In a nutshell……

Founded in 1998 on Cornhill in London, Crussh was London’s original juice, smoothie and healthy food-to-go retailer. Now with stores across London and a UK wide product supply business, we continue to be a constant innovator in the healthy food market, and we’re looking for a creative product developer who wants to help spread our passion for healthy food!

This is a central role within the business, reporting to the Head of Food & Brand and you will be involved in every aspect of Crussh’s product development cycle, from initial idea recipe development, to factory trials, calculating nutritional’s, product costings, writing pack copies and ingredient decs through to the marketing communication from seasonal advertising campaigns & photoshoots to social content creation, website updates and maintaining the product bible & allergen guides.

We are a small, hands-on head office team, and to excel in this role, you will have a passion for healthy food & living a healthy lifestyle and will be able to inspire our customers to live the same way. An Instagram account full of foodie pics is a plus!

Salary: c. £25,000 - £32,000, depending on experience + Benefits

Benefits include: Free healthy lunch, juice & coffee every day (when you’re working in/ visiting a Crussh store), flexible working location (our central production kitchen is in Barking, which you’ll need to visit once or twice a week and we have an office in Liverpool Street, but otherwise you have freedom to work from home or a Crussh store), access to Employee Wellbeing Platform - LifeWorks, and of course some annual staff parties!

The role will involve:

Product development:

• Coming up with on trend recipe ideas and translating these into food to go products in line with product briefs.
• Hands on kitchen work to develop new products as well as upgrades to existing recipes/ raw material changes.
• Plan, organize and attend factory trials, supporting with factory paperwork generation, following agreed processes & standards.
• Completing theoretical nutritional’s on FMS software
• Generating ingredient decs and writing finished product specifications.
• Supporting with BRC technical paperwork
• Champion food- maintain product quality and regularly benchmark products.
• Update product ingredients, allergens, nutrition on the product bible, website & allergen guide.
• Artwork checking and sign off with technical.
• Management and updates of products & pricing on external delivery platforms such as Deliveroo and Spoonfed (office catering site)

Marketing

• Support on seasonal food campaigns, including idea generation, communication approach, food photography shoots, digital & social activation and full campaign implementation
• Support the creation of campaign briefing documents & store updates for each seasonal launch
• Maintain and monitor competitor pricing tracker

Digital:

• Sole ownership of social media strategy & content creation across all social platforms, generating all photography & copy
• Management of Crussh website (wordpress), including new food launches, newsletters, blog posts and adhoc updates

Necessary skills:

• Food related degree
• Great communication skills, both written & verbal
• Good organisational skills & the ability to multitask
• Excellent copywriting skills and attention to detail
• Experience managing social platforms with a good understanding on content strategy, social media regulations & paid for social
• Preferably experience within a food related business.
• Experience of project management
• Able to work independently & as part of a team
• A creative problem solver, happy suggesting new ideas, brainstorming & new ways to make them happen
• Experience of working in a small team with a ‘hands on’ approach
• Proficient ability in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, social media scheduling
• 3-4 years’ relevant experience
• ‘Can do’ attitude & positive approach
• A passion for food, healthy eating & a healthy lifestyle

Desirable skills:

• Wordpress & website management
• Knowledge of digital advertising
• Knowledge of basic nutrition a real benefit!
• Educated to degree level