Beverage Innovation Lead NPD

Beverage Innovation Lead | Drinks NPD & Product Development West Midlands | £46,000–£50,000 + Benefits

Hybrid Working

Ballantine Recruitment is supporting an established UK drinks manufacturer with the appointment of a Beverage Development – Innovation Lead.

This is a rare opportunity to take real ownership of the front end of innovation — spotting the next opportunity, shaping the concept, developing the recipe and helping turn ideas into future commercial ranges.

You’ll lead a small development team and work closely with Commercial, Marketing, NPD, Technical and Procurement, with genuine exposure to customers, category strategy and future product direction.

What you’ll be doing

• Lead proactive beverage innovation from concept through to recipe bank

• Identify emerging trends, whitespace and new category opportunities

• Develop and formulate new alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages

• Build a strong blue-sky innovation pipeline

• Lead customer-facing innovation sessions and present new concepts

• Create and prepare samples for internal and external customers

• Work with manufacturing teams to shape the best route to production

• Influence ingredient selection, quality, cost and technical feasibility

• Support recipe, regulatory and food-safety compliance

• Lead and develop a small team of Developers and Technicians

What we’re looking for

• 5+ years’ beverage development experience

• Background across soft drinks, RTDs, spirits, flavoured water, juice, mixers or wider beverage categories

• Strong formulation and product development capability

• Proven front-end innovation and concept-development experience

• Strong customer-facing experience, ideally with major retailers

• Commercial awareness and the ability to turn trends into viable products

• Confidence presenting ideas and influencing stakeholders

• Food Science / Product Development qualification or equivalent experience

Why this role stands out

This isn’t a role where you simply pick up briefs and push them through a process.

It’s for someone who enjoys creating the pipeline, challenging the category and bringing new ideas to customers before they ask for them.

You’ll have the opportunity to influence what the business develops next and help shape a more proactive innovation agenda.

Package

• £46,000–£50,000

• 25 days’ holiday

• Pension

• Employee discounts

• Flexible / hybrid working

• Some UK and European travel

If you’re an experienced beverage developer who wants more ownership of the idea, concept and innovation agenda, we would be keen to speak with you