Product Developer

Product Developer

In Sainsbury’s Development Team. We ensure that we are the ambassadors for developing great products that will delight and excite our customers and that really deliver on quality and value. We’re a big, friendly team who work with our Cross-category teams and our large supplier base to identify trends that will help our customers get the right products at the right price, while having the least negative impact on our environment. After all, customers are at the heart of everything we do.

You’ll deliver and optimise the development strategy for Sainsbury’s Beauty, helping us to grow market share through competitive, exciting, and distinctive products. You will have responsibility for the development of ranges including our own brands - My Skin Matters, Source of Nature & My Hair Matters. You’ll identify opportunities for product improvement, new product development and potential cost savings, making key decisions based on Market knowledge and data.

In this role, you’ll be able to contribute directly to our Plan for Better strategy, developing products that are better for our planet and delivered in more sustainable packaging. We hope that you’ll be as passionate about skin, hair and personal care as we are, bringing with you and understanding of the product area, and process of getting from inspiration to production, to purchase.

As a Product Developer you’ll:

• Working with the Category Development Manager, cross-functional teams & suppliers to shape & deliver the Product Plan for your sub-category areas, ensuring compliance to all Gated Process requirements & documentation
• Be the custodian of customer experience/quality through identifying & setting customer quality measures for all products developed, ensuring this is customer-insight led, e.g. online reviews, panelling reports & customer complaints
• Utilise all insights available, e.g. Nectar (Customer), Hunter (Trends), Commercial Metrics, to inform Gate 1 strategy, project objectives, Product Briefs, and in PIRs/Gate 5s to ensure we are driving quality & distinctiveness in the areas where it matters most to our customers, and are capitalising on new & emerging trend opportunities
• Lead the creation & delivery of the Product Brief for all new & improved products, ensuring alignment internally & with suppliers on objectives, and accountable for ensuring the critical path set is achievable, whilst making sure to challenge timelines where appropriate to deliver at pace
• Keep up to date on trends and understand what is happening in the market place and competitive set and use to inform the category teams and drive the innovation
• Deliver of product requirements from our Net Zero commitments, such as driving nutritional improvements and supporting the delivery of packaging targets
• Manage the end-to-end process of design generation; ensuring compliance to all steps & documentation; writing design briefs that are customer-insight led; accountable for product titles, sub-copy & photography that drive customer appeal, and deciding on labelling (e.g. health claims) & cooking instructions that are right for the target customer
• Accountable for accuracy of customer-facing product information, such as product title, sub-title, cooking instructions and claims (e.g. health claims) on-pack & Sainsbury’s Online, eliminating inconsistencies & errors
• Support category supply base management and supply strategy and provide input for VCAs, tenders and PQFs as appropriate
• Working with business partners i.e. in PR, Marketing, Sainsbury’s Online, & Internal Comms, and posting on Sainsbury’s Internal Social Media (Yammer) to gain support for, and increase customer & colleague exposure to, new products & ranges

The Development team would love to see:

• Degree or equivalent in relevant discipline
• Experience of product development from retail, manufacturing, food service or equivalent
• Commercial awareness and cost structure knowledge
• Good communication and presentation skills
• Passionate about new trends & delivering innovation
• Ability to interpret and analysis data
• Demonstrates strong drive & influencing skills to work effectively in cross-functional teams
• Good project management & planning skills
• Good knowledge of manufacturing & quality management principles
• A clear targeted personal development plan to enhance judgement, drive & influencing skills

Why Sainsbury’s?

Work-life balance is important to us, so we offer our colleagues as much flexibility as possible in line with the needs of their role. We trust them to decide how, where and when they work, combining remote and collaborative working with a flexible approach to hours, giving them plenty of time and space for life outside of work whilst delivering against our business goals.

As well as a great work-life balance, lots of on-the-job training and endless opportunities, click here for more detail on our benefits: https://sainsburys.jobs/working-for-us/benefits/

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