Product Development Scientist - Functional Nutrition
4 days ago
Twickenham
Location: Twickenham, South West London (on-site) \n Contract: Permanent, full-time (Monday to Friday) \n Salary: £38,000–£45,000, plus performance bonus and up to £5,000 relocation support \n Start date: Early October 2026 \n Reports to: Operations & Product Manager \n \n KURK is a health and nutrition company making natural formulations to improve human health. We research, formulate, manufacture and sell our products — and we do it all from our own production facility and lab in West London. That means real science, real products, and full control from bench to shelf. \n We're a small team at an inflection point: investing in new science and growing our product range. This hire will shape what comes next. \n \n The role: \n This is an experienced NPD role with genuine end-to-end ownership. You'll take new products from brief to launch — consumer and market research, formulation, bench trials, sensory work, costing, scale-up and commercial launch — and you'll help define how NPD is done at KURK, not just follow a process someone else wrote. \n You'll work alongside our Operations & Product Manager, with direct access to the founder and real influence over the product pipeline. \n \n What you'll do: \n\n • Own NPD projects end to end: brief, research, formulation trials, sensory evaluation, costing and presentation to management\n, • Help design and embed KURK's stage-gate NPD process\n, • Manage external suppliers and manufacturers through development and scale-up: quotes, MOQs, purchase orders, lead times and factory trials\n, • Build the commercial case for new concepts — costing, pack formats, market and competitor analysis — ready for board-level sign-off\n, • Improve existing products — formulation, flavour and format — using customer feedback and market data\n, • Support production of KURK's product range: batch preparation, weighing to specification, quality documentation\n, • Help maintain the lab environment — hygiene, food safety and contamination protocols, stock and equipment\n\n This is a hands-on role in a small company. Some days are formulation and strategy; some days are on your feet in the lab. \n \n About you: \n Essential \n\n • Three to five years in a commercial NPD, R&D or product development role, with products you have personally taken from concept to launch. We will ask you to walk us through one of them in detail.\n, • Formulation and bench-trial experience, ideally across more than one format\n, • Experience coordinating external suppliers and manufacturers through scale-up\n, • Commercial instinct — you think about target price, cost of goods and manufacturing risk early, not at the end\n, • Working knowledge of food safety and quality systems (HACCP, GMP) and UK food regulation\n, • Self-directed: able to define the process, not only follow it\n, • A degree in food science, nutrition, chemistry or similar, or equivalent experience\n, • Able to work on-site in Twickenham, South West London\n\n \n Desirable \n\n • Liquids, emulsions, drinks or other functional formats\n, • Reformulation with measurable outcomes\n, • Nutritional labelling and claims under UK law\n, • Experience of a structured stage-gate process, or of building one\n\n \n KURK is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all backgrounds.