About Kitchen Food Company
Lead Innovation. Develop Great Food. Build a High-Performing Team.
Kitchen Food Company is a leading manufacturer of fresh, short shelf-life ready meals and convenience foods, supplying major retailers and foodservice customers across Australia.
Senior Food Technologist – Ready Meals & Short Shelf-Life Foods
We are seeking an experienced Senior Food Technologist to lead product development initiatives, manage a small team of Food Technologists, and drive innovation from concept through to commercial launch.
Reporting to the Senior NPD Specialist, this is a hands-on leadership role responsible for delivering new products, product improvements, cost optimisation projects and process enhancements while ensuring compliance with food safety, regulatory and customer requirements.
About the Role
As the Senior Food Technologist, you will lead and mentor a team of two Food Technologists, overseeing multiple NPD and continuous improvement projects across our ready meals and fresh food portfolio.
You will work closely with Operations, Quality, Procurement, Planning and Finance teams to ensure products are developed, trialled and launched successfully, while maintaining the highest standards of quality, food safety and profitability.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Leading the development and commercialisation of new and improved food products from concept to launch.
- Managing and mentor two Food Technologists, providing coaching, technical guidance and workload prioritisation.
- Owning the NPD pipeline and Stage Gate process, ensuring projects are delivered on time and within budget.
- Interpreting customer briefs and develop innovative product concepts aligned with market trends and customer requirements.
- Driving recipe optimisation, cost engineering and value improvement initiatives.
- Leading factory trials, product scale-up activities and post-launch reviews.
- Managing critical paths and coordinate cross-functional project teams.
- Ensuring compliance with Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), HACCP, GMP and customer requirements.
- Reviewing and approve specifications, nutritional information panels, ingredient declarations and product labelling.
- Overseeing shelf-life validation programs including sensory, microbiological and physical testing.
- Identifying emerging ingredients, technologies and packaging innovations to support business growth.
- Providing technical support to customers, internal stakeholders and external suppliers.
About You
To be successful in this role, you will bring strong technical expertise, leadership capability and a passion for developing high-quality food products.
Essential Experience & Qualifications
- Tertiary qualification in Food Science, Food Technology, Nutrition, Chemistry or a related discipline.
- Minimum 5 years' experience in FMCG food manufacturing, specifically within short shelf-life or chilled food production environments.
- Demonstrated experience in ready meals, convenience foods, fresh prepared foods or similar categories.
- Proven experience leading product development projects from concept through to commercial launch.
- Experience managing or mentoring technical team members.
- Strong understanding of food regulations, labelling requirements, HACCP and GMP.
- Experience conducting factory trials and scaling products from pilot to full production.
- Excellent project management and stakeholder engagement skills.
- Strong commercial awareness and ability to balance innovation, quality and cost objectives.
- High attention to detail and excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Highly Regarded
- Experience working with major Australian retailers.
- Knowledge of ready meal packaging technologies and APCO/ARL requirements.
- Experience with short shelf-life chilled foods and high-care manufacturing environments.
Why Join Us?
- Opportunity to lead a growing NPD function and influence business innovation.
- Manage and develop a team of Food Technologists.
- Work with a diverse range of products and leading retail customers.
- Collaborative and supportive leadership team.
- Competitive salary package.
- Career development opportunities within a growing Australian food manufacturer.
If you're an experienced FMCG Food Technologist ready to take the next step into a leadership role, we'd love to hear from you.
Apply now and help shape the future of Australia's ready meals.