Development Chef - Greencore : Job Details

Opportunity: Development Chef (Marks & Spencers)

Location: Northampton

Why Greencore

We're a leading manufacturer of convenience food in the UK and our purpose is to make every day taste better.

We're a vibrant, fast-paced leading food manufacturer. Employing around 13,600 colleagues across 16 manufacturing units and 17 distribution depots across the UK. We supply all the UK's food retailers with everything from Sandwiches, soups and sushi to cooking sauces, pickles and ready meals, and in FY23, we generated revenues of £1.9bn.

Our vast direct-to-store (DTS) distribution network, comprising of 17 depots nationwide, enables us to make over 10,400 daily deliveries of our own chilled and frozen produce and that of third parties.

Here at Northampton, we operate one of the most impressive facilities in Europe, based across a campus of 5 manufacturing units, and we have a team of around 2,000 colleagues making high quality premium products every day. We are the sole supplier of sandwiches, wraps, rolls and sushi for Marks & Spencer.

What you'll be doing

As a Development Chef, you will play a crucial role in creating new and modifying existing recipes, ensuring they meet customer expectations, financial targets, and high-quality standards. This is an incredible opportunity to bring your culinary expertise to a dynamic manufacturing setting, working with a leading retailer known for its innovation and excellence in food.

• Develop and refine recipes in our development kitchen, ensuring consistent quality, taste, and adherence to M&S's Great Food agenda.

• Collaborate with the product development team to propose new raw materials and packaging solutions that enhance product appeal and maintain quality during transit.

• Accurately document recipes, methods, reheating instructions, and key measures such as pH, viscosities, and yields to ensure repeatable and scalable production.

• Present products in feasibility meetings, providing insight into their preparation and production processes.

• Set up and deliver professional internal and external product panels for submissions and benchmarking.

• Attend factory trial sign-offs to ensure production quality matches kitchen-developed standards, supporting cook sign-offs where required.

• Work alongside Head Development Chefs and Sushi Specialists to drive innovation and creativity within the team.

• Develop products that contribute to sustainability goals and align with the latest industry trends.

At Greencore, we put our people at the core. We celebrate individuality and help everyone bring their best to work. We are looking for a passionate chef with food manufacturing experience who can translate high-end restaurant standards into scalable, factory-friendly recipes.

You should have:

• Experience working within a food manufacturing environment, with a clear understanding of what is achievable in large-scale production.

• Hands-on experience in a manufacturing kitchen, developing recipes that can be efficiently produced while maintaining quality and consistency.

• A strong background in a fast-paced restaurant environment, demonstrating creativity and adaptability.

• Commercial awareness, with the ability to cost recipes and work within financial constraints.

• Strong presentation skills, with the confidence to communicate professionally with customers and stakeholders.

• Competitive salary and job-related benefits.

• Generous holiday allowance.

• Pension scheme (up to 8% matched contribution).

• Company share save scheme.

• Access to exclusive Greencore employee discounts.

• Greencore Qualifications and ongoing development opportunities.

• Full access to our Wellbeing Centre platform.

This is an excellent opportunity to work with Marks & Spencer, one of the UK's most iconic retailers, while growing your career in food innovation and development. If you have the experience, passion, and creativity to succeed in this role, join us at Greencore and be part of shaping the future of food!