Matchtech
Head of Product Development
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Head of Product Development
Reporting to:
Executive Leadership Team Member
Location:
London - Hybrid (3 days onsite a week)
Department:
Product Development
Direct Reports:
Product Development Team Member(s)
Job Purpose
The Head of Product Development provides strategic leadership over the organisation's product portfolio, setting the product vision and strategy to support long-term business growth and competitive advantage. This role is accountable for aligning product development activities with organisational objectives, customer needs, and market opportunities, while building, mentoring, and leading a high-performing Product Development team.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead end-to-end product development across vitamins, minerals, supplements, and broader consumer health categories.
- Identify new product opportunities through consumer insights, wellness trends, nutritional science, ingredient innovation, and competitive analysis.
- Build strong business cases and prioritise the product development portfolio based on strategic fit, feasibility, speed to market, and commercial potential.
- Drive formulation and delivery format innovation, including capsules, tablets, gummies, and liquids.
- Lead packaging innovation with a focus on functionality, sustainability, and consumer appeal.
- Ensure compliance with relevant food supplement regulations, quality standards, and retailer requirements.
- Own stage-gate processes, governance, budgets, and delivery timelines.
- Partner closely with Marketing, Brand, Commercial, Quality, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Finance functions.
- Build and manage relationships with external partners, including ingredient suppliers, contract manufacturers, and packaging providers.
- Build, lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing product development team.
- Drive portfolio optimisation through reformulation, cost optimisation, ingredient improvements, sustainability initiatives, and line extensions.
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Required Knowledge, Skills, and Experience
Experience
- Essential
- Senior-level experience in Product Development, NPD, R&D, or Innovation within nutrition, consumer healthcare, supplements, or FMCG.
- Proven success launching multiple products from concept through to commercialisation.
- Strong understanding of formulation, manufacturing, quality, and relevant regulatory requirements.
- Excellent cross-functional leadership and stakeholder management skills.
- Strong commercial acumen, including experience developing and managing business cases.
- Experience working with external manufacturers and ingredient suppliers.
- Degree in a relevant scientific, nutritional, food, or commercial discipline, such as Nutrition, Food Science, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Pharmacy, or equivalent.
- Postgraduate qualification (MSc, PhD, or MBA) desirable.
- Additional training in food safety, quality systems, project management, or innovation methodologies advantageous.
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- Desirable
- Experience across multiple supplement formats or wellness categories.
- Knowledge of sustainability, packaging innovation, and clean-label or natural ingredient trends.
- Experience supporting international or multi-market product launches.
Skills
- Product Strategy and Vision
- Leadership and People Management
- Product Development Execution
- Technical and Commercial Acumen
- Customer and Stakeholder Focus
- Communication and Influencing Skills
- Operational Planning and Governance
- End-to-End Project Management
- Market and Competitive Analysis
- Stakeholder Management
- Creativity and Problem Solving
Key Relationships
- Internal and external stakeholders across the business and wider supply network.
Reporting Structure
This role reports to a member of the Executive Leadership Team and has responsibility for managing Product Development team members.
Note: This job description is intended to provide an overview of the role and responsibilities and is not an exhaustive list of duties.
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