NPD Manager

NPD Manager

Support Office - Watford

Contract: Full time
Salary: Competitive

NPD Manager
Location: Watford (2 Days) & London (1 Day) – Hybrid
Contract: Full-Time | Permanent

Bring your passion for sweet treats and innovation to the brand that’s built on joy. At Krispy Kreme, we’re on a mission to be the most loved sweet treat brand and our iconic, melt-in-the-mouth doughnuts are at the heart of that. Now, we’re looking for a bold, creative, and commercially savvy NPD Manager to lead new product development and deliver doughlicious innovation that excites our customers and elevates our brand.
We don’t just make doughnuts we create moments of joy. You’ll join a passionate, supportive, and fast-moving team that lives for innovation, creativity and delivering irresistible experiences. We blend the best of retail and FMCG, giving you the unique opportunity to shape a brand that spans in-store magic and grocery shelf impact.

The Opportunity:
As NPD Manager, you’ll take the lead in developing irresistible food and drink experiences, think innovative limited time campaigns, evolving our core range, and crafting exciting new formats for both our retail and grocery channels. From trend spotting to concept development and full-scale commercial launch, you’ll drive the full innovation lifecycle with energy, creativity, and precision.
You’ll collaborate closely with our Product Developer, Brand Team, Supply Chain, Commercial, and Operations teams to bring ideas to life, on time, on budget, and always on brand.
This is your chance to work with iconic products, an ambitious team, and a brand that dares to do things differently.

Key Duties & Responsibilities:
• Lead the end-to-end NPD process for food and drink innovation LTOs (limited time only), EPDs and core range evolution
• Shape and deliver our annual product innovation calendar, in line with trends and consumer insights
• Head up our Food & Drink meeting, driving collaboration and visibility across the business
• Work closely with cross-functional teams to bring products from concept to commercial launch
• Deliver exciting, customer-centric NPD while ensuring COGs, operational feasibility and quality standards
• Keep your finger on the pulse. Tracking food trends, technologies and evolving customer needs
• Mentor and develop a high-performing Product Developer, fostering creativity and excellence
• Own the creative development kitchen and ensure gold standard product showings

What we’re looking for:
• 7+ years of experience in NPD, culinary development or food innovation. Preferably in bakery, sweet treats, FMCG or QSR
• Academic background in Culinary Arts or Food Science, or equivalent hands-on experience
• A true foodie who lives and breathes flavour, creativity, and new product experiences
• A project manager at heart who is organised, commercially aware, and confident managing complexity at speed
• Collaborative, influential, and confident working across teams to deliver excellence
• Someone who thrives in a fast-paced, hands-on environment, where no two days are the same
• Experience leading innovation from concept to launch, with a track record of delighting customers

What we offer:
• A competitive salary + a 10% bonus
• 25 days’ holiday + bank hols (with the option to buy 5 more) & Sabbatical options
• Hybrid working (3 office / 2 home)
• Bupa private healthcare + wellbeing support via our employee assistance programs
• Access to a variety of discounts & vouchers for everyday spending, days out, travel, entertainment, shopping and more!
• 5% pension contribution (with 3% employer match)
• Free Doughnuts when you’re in the office & 50% off doughnuts + 30% off drinks in-store

#LI-SF1

About Krispy Kreme:

Our People: We embrace diversity within our teams, so whether you're a foodie, drink lover, sport enthusiast, gym bunny, movie buff, history geek, gamer, music fan, book worm, none of the above or all the above, you'll find a friend here!

Our Doughnuts: We're famous for our amazing doughnuts, but did you know that every Krispy Kreme doughnut is handmade, decorated and delivered fresh daily by one of our awesome team members?

Culture: Our culture is created through our leadership mix, of which there are a dozen (naturally!): Check out our careers page for more information on our Krispy Kreme Culture

Love our planet: Our beautiful, natural world gives us our sugar, cocoa, eggs, milk, coffee, and so much more. Protecting and preserving it is vitally important to us. So, we're constantly working to reduce our environmental impact and become more sustainable in all we do. Check out our Social Responsibility page for more information.

Doughnut Wait apply today!

Opening Hours

Mon
09:00 - 17:30

Tue
09:00 - 17:30

Wed
09:00 - 17:30

Thu
09:00 - 17:30

Fri
09:00 - 17:30

Sat
-

Sun
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