Job: Food Lead

Location: Flexible

Why Greencore?

Following the combination with Bakkavor in January 2026, we’re one of the UK’s leading creators of convenience food, driven by a simple purpose: to make every day taste better.

As a vibrant and fast-moving business, we’re proud to employ over 28,000 talented colleagues across 36 manufacturing sites and 21 distribution depots in the UK and the US. Together, we bring delicious food to life. Our products cover every meal occasion from breakfast through to dinner and dessert, with lunch and snacking in between. In FY25, our shared passion helped us achieve combined revenues of approximately £4bn.

Our extensive direct to store (DTS) network, with 17 depots across the UK, allows us to deliver fresh and frozen food both our own and from trusted partners to thousands of stores every day, ensuring consumers enjoy the very best, whenever and wherever they shop.

We have a number of these newly created Food Lead vacancies in our Commercial function.  The location of the roles will be decided on a case by case basis.

Colleagues whose roles are at risk of redundancy and who meet essential role criteria will be given priority consideration for this role. 

Colleagues in central/support functions whose roles are at risk of redundancy and who accept a new role can continue working from their current location, in accordance with our location guidance, where feasible. The exception to this would be if a colleague accepts a role that requires in-person attendance at a specific location e.g. a Finance colleague who accepts an operationally focused Finance role. All other successful applicants will be expected to attend work at locations where roles are based. Location expectations and any associated working arrangements will be discussed and confirmed as part of the interview and offer process

Role Purpose

To lead the product development team with a specified portfolio to deliver both the customer & business food strategy ensuring profitable growth for Greencore and our customers whilst building great customer partnerships. In doing so deliver a portfolio of new and/or improved products which meet key performance indicator targets and are aligned to the Greencore food strategy.

Key Accountabilities

• Support in the delivery of the over-arching strategy for the product portfolio within each manufacturing sector and champion the strategy and Greencore’s food credentials in all business processes and forums Works with relevant stakeholders to drive a quality improvement plan.
• Category & portfolio relationship holder. Leverages strong and effective customer relationships to deliver growth opportunities. Takes an active role representing the business on Customer Facing teams. Leads and influences through category knowledge and insight. Ensures delivery aligned to customer business strategy. Customer ways of working expert.
• Ensure the Portfolio Development team has the right capacity and capability by effectively motivating, managing, and supporting the team, monitoring and allocating resources, coaching and mentoring individuals, driving continuous improvement, supporting prioritisation and setting clear standards through behaviours and actions. Ensure all team members have personal development plans, set training plans and actively drive succession planning.
• Works with Insights & Category teams to define and tailor development plans, suited for their customers/categories, aligned to the Greencore Food Strategy. Keeps abreast of category trends through trend reports, social media, retail and non-retail influences. Maintains a category level understanding of key competitors and their relevant strengths, weaknesses and capabilities.
• Demonstrate 'best in class' principles for Product Development and embed adherence to the product development processes and procedures to ensure we develop and launch products that deliver against our Great Food credentials and business KPI's. Present to a high standard in both internal and external meetings including at a senior level, managing key stakeholders and working together to find solutions. Demonstrate good influencing skills to achieve desired outcomes.
• Stakeholder management at senior management level across multiple sites to ensure alignment to deliver the customer, category and Greencore strategies. Works collaboratively across area of responsibility to drive the Development agenda & unlock barriers. Ensures Development activity is delivered through robust & efficient ways of working & adherence to business process.
• Champion Culinary Excellence and our Great Food agenda with customers, internal stakeholders and across our teams to ensure we have food at the heart of everything we do, inspiring the development of market leading, quality products, that we're proud of.
• Support the building of the budget for development area. Monitor spend within product development teams to ensure that costs remain within set levels. Actively seeks to identify areas of efficiency within the product development process & seeks to provide implementation recommendations to the Head of Food & Innovation.
• Provides food expertise to Operations and Technical relationships. Maintains a strong understanding of the relevant site capabilities and leverages opportunity through knowledge of broader Group capability.
• Ensure all Development facilities are maintained to a high standard. Ensure that the product development team has the right capacity and capability for the workload by setting and monitoring resource levels and by ensuring that development plans and succession planning exercises are completed annually.
• Provide subject matter expertise in area of influence responsibility, both internally & externally, to drive both the Great Food agenda and deliver against the food strategy.
• Adhere to and support our inclusion and diversity commitments and our group sustainability (HSD) commitments. Be a role model for inclusive leadership behaviours & Greencore food strategies in these areas.
• Support the active management organizational risk related to Cyber Security, Data & Control of Customer IP by committing the necessary focus & resource. Take ownership for personal and commercial data processed throughout the group.
• Actively sponsor and commit the necessary resource and focus required to deliver our inclusion and diversity commitments, goals and targets and be a role model for inclusive leadership behaviours.
• Actively sponsor and commit the necessary resource and focus required to support delivery of our sustainability commitments, goals and targets.
• Actively manage organisational risk related to both Cyber Security and data, by committing the necessary focus, resource and investing in the skills and experience required to ensure compliance to relevant policies and legislation, along with taking ownership for personal and commercial data processed throughout the group.

What We're Looking For

• Graduate calibre, specifically consumer science degree or equivalent knowledge gained in the workplace
• An experienced, passionate and creative food professional
• Proven track record of having developed & delivered high quality, sustainable commercial products
• Demonstrated an ability to structure work and focus a team to deliver against an agreed vision
• Shows passion and commitment to coaching, training and developing team members
• Uses broad consumer, customer and food knowledge to create Portfolio & Customer strategy across Sales, Portfolio, Customer and Operational Sectors
• The ability to lead & manage teams, categories and projects across the Business
• The ability to think creatively whilst being adept at problem solving
• An effective communicator through all levels of the business embracing and driving change

We’re proud to be recognised in the Gender Equity Measure Top 100 for our commitment to gender equality.

What you’ll get in return

*       Competitive salary and job-related benefits

*       Holidays

*       Competitive matched pension contributions

*       Life insurance up to 4x salary

*       Company share save scheme

*       Greencore Qualifications

*       Exclusive Greencore employee discount platform

*       Access to a full Wellbeing Centre platform

*       Enhanced parental leave and menopause policies