Lancashire (on-site, Monday-Friday)
£70,000 (DOE) + profit-share bonus (eligible after 2 years)
If you're the kind of nutrition leader who loves building teams, challenging "how it's always been done," and turning brilliant ideas into products pets thrive on... this one will grab you.
We're exclusively partnering with a premium pet food manufacturer known for exceptional quality, bold innovation, and a fresh-ingredient approach to dry food that's genuinely different. The business is investing heavily in facilities, people, and the next generation of pet nutrition and they're hiring a Head of Technical Nutrition to lead it.
This is a strategic, hands-on leadership role where you'll own the nutrition strategy, lead Nutrition + NPD, and act as the technical service partner across the wider business. You'll simplify and strengthen the recipe portfolio (without compromising quality), drive NPD from concept to launch, and ensure formulations are nutritionally superior, commercially sound, supply-chain resilient, and operationally smooth.
It's a role for someone with thick skin, big influence, and real credibility — the person who can confidently align Production, Quality, Procurement and "Partner Success" (commercial teams) around the right decisions.
What you'll be doing...
Lead & elevate a high-impact Nutrition + NPD team
You'll manage a small but important team with varied experience levels and personalities — developing capability, raising standards, and creating a culture of continuous improvement and accountability.
Own the nutrition strategy and raise the bar
- Ensure products meet/exceed regulatory, quality and premium nutrition standards
- Optimise and simplify formulations (keep what matters, remove what doesn't)
- Build recipe flexibility to handle ingredient availability and supply disruption
- Lead NPD projects end-to-end: concept → trial → scale-up → launch
- Explore new ingredients, technologies, and processes that create differentiation
- Keep an eye on trends (pet food mirrors human food fast) and turn insight into action
You'll make smart calls that protect quality while improving margins and reducing complexity — aligning nutrition, cost, process efficiency, and long-term sustainability.
Make manufacturing work better (not harder)
- Ensure recipes run smoothly through production with minimal waste/downtime
- Troubleshoot issues, lead trials, and support scale-up
- Partner tightly with Production and Procurement to keep operations resilient
You'll influence senior stakeholders, challenge constructively, and help teams make faster, better decisions — especially around formulation choices, supplier conversations, and regulatory considerations.
What success looks like (first 6-18 months)...
- A clearer, stronger, more marketable nutrition story behind the portfolio (science that sells)
- Recipes that are simpler, more robust, and more profitable
- An NPD pipeline that moves with pace — and launches that drive repeat purchase, not just initial orders
- A team that's developed, aligned, and performing at a higher level
- Degree (or equivalent) in Animal Nutrition, Food Science, Veterinary Science or similar
- Significant experience in pet food / food manufacturing / feed or another regulated manufacturing sector
- Proven leadership experience managing technical and/or NPD teams
- Strong formulation, nutrition, and product development capability
- Confident balancing quality + nutrition + cost + manufacturing efficiency
- Excellent cross-functional working and project leadership skills
- Premium or super-premium product background
- Strong grasp of ingredient flexibility and supply chain risk
- Portfolio optimisation / commercial margin experience
- Strategic but practical (you roll your sleeves up)
- Confident, assertive, and able to handle strong characters
- Decisive — a calculated risk-taker who doesn't sit on the fence
- Organised, resilient, and comfortable in a fast-moving manufacturing environment
- Passionate about nutrition and continuous improvement
This is a family-owned, high-standards, quality-led manufacturing business with a "work together" mindset and the freedom to challenge and improve. It's not a fluffy pet brand — it's scientific, technical, and proud of doing things properly.
It's also important to be transparent: this role is on-site at the manufacturing location every day. That's non-negotiable.
Interested?
Because this role is confidential, we'll share full company details once we've spoken.
Apply today! If you're not actively looking but this sounds like your kind of challenge, still get in touch we're happy to have a confidential conversation so please call us on 01214680934.
