NPD Lead

We believe dogs deserve the healthiest, most natural and tastiest meals - with none of the nasties. That's why we make FRESHly prepared food, cooked just like you would at home and delivered direct to our customers in perfect portions. As a B-Corp certified company, you're joining a sustainable business that genuinely cares about our people, our products and our impact on the planet. Our goal is simple: to help dogs live healthier, happier, and longer lives, while leaving humans smiling after every interaction.

We've come a long way since our co-founders (Kev & Dave), hand delivered the very first Butternut Box. Today, we feed hundreds of thousands of hungry dogs across the UK and Europe - but we won't stop until we're feeding dogs everywhere. To get there, we need a team of brilliant people who share that ambition to come and work for us.

The job:

Please note that this role will close on: 4th of September

This role sits within the Product Development team, reporting to the Product Development Director. You'll own our Additional Products category end-to-end, spotting opportunities, shaping concepts, delivering launches, and deciding what stays, grows, or goes. You'll also own product lines across wellness, gifting, food and non-food, combining the customer rigour of an innovator with the execution focus of an NPD lead, always raising the bar on how and what we deliver while staying true to the customer and ensuring every product has a clear reason to exist.

The nitty-gritty: It's a 15-month maternity cover, with genuine potential to stay with us beyond the placement if you're successful in the role and interested in moving into another role at a relevant level within the team or wider squad.

A bit about the team you'll be joining:

We're a hybrid squad working across the UK, owning the product pipelines for both Butternut Box and Marro. We're the foundation of what the business builds: great food, strong nutrition and products that genuinely improve pets’ health. We own what the physical product looks like and how it delivers real benefits for dogs and cats. We're deliberately lean and close-knit, so everyone gets stuck in, has real ownership and plenty of opportunity to develop and progress. What brings us together is a deep belief in our products, our category and the power of fresh food to improve pets’ lives.

A bit about the work you'll deliver:

You’ll own and help shape the long‑term roadmap for additional products and gifting across both brands. This means you will:

• Actively influence the pipeline to decide where we go next, prioritising what we work on now, next, and later.
• Bring new ideas and opportunities to the business from market, customer, and competitor research
• Identify new opportunities, manage reformulations, and make the call on products that no longer pull their weight.
• Work with third‑party partners to identify, develop, and deliver fresh opportunities across the category.

Product Development, concept to launch

You’ll oversee the end-to-end development of innovative additional products and gifting ranges, from initial concept right through to launch. You will:

• Cover both food and non‑food items, keeping every range true to its brief with a clear, justified reason to exist.
• Create compelling, customer‑led briefs grounded in real insights, and act as the customer champion to ensure the original opportunity doesn't get watered down.
• Help build recipes, plan and manage trials, and handle pre‑production activities.
• Lead product launches, support customer‑facing teams on go‑to‑market, and run honest post‑launch reviews.
• Develop and maintain product briefs, specifications, and supporting documentation to an exceptionally high standard.
• Collaborate with the Projects team to help us strengthen our ways of working, always pushing on faster, better and bigger pipelines.

Team & Stakeholder Management

You will manage the additional products team to deliver agreed roadmaps on time and in full. This involves:

• Bringing on your one direct report and continuously raising the bar on the quality of inputs and outputs.
• Collaborating with and influencing stakeholders across Senior Leadership, Marketing, Procurement, Supply Chain, Operations, CRM, and Brand.
• Working closely with our external partners.

Commercial & Compliance

A big part of this role is balancing product quality with commercial viability. You will:

• Collaborate with the brand, data, commercial, and ops teams to determine selling prices, forecasts, positioning and branding, and to understand where capital investment is needed.
• Support Procurement and commercial teams with cost analysis and margin delivery.
• Ensure all products comply w