Charlie Bigham's | B-Corp
New Product Development - Undergraduate Placement Opportunity

How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Job Introduction
Are you passionate about food and eager to gain hands-on experience in the world of New Product Development? We have an exciting one-year placement opportunity where you will play a vital role in supporting our dynamic New Food Development (NFD) team from concept brief to process handover, while also contributing to various aspects of the new food development process. This role offers a unique chance to learn and grow in a fast-paced, innovative environment.
We are looking for a student placement to assist the NFD and EFD (New and Existing Food Development) teams throughout the food development process from concept to launch, as well as supporting the team on general activities and requirements.
Role Responsibility
Key Accountabilities
- Supporting the NFD and EFD team in first-class concept development through to trials, launch, and post-launch stages.
- Test and validate our dishes to ensure our food safety and quality are met.
- Support in preparation for, and running of, scale-up trials and raw material assessments in the production kitchen.
- Prepare and organize product samples for internal presentations, external testing, photoshoots, and other product submissions.
- Lead support for all general NFD/EFD team activities, including change management.
- Support the kitchen team when the Kitchen Assistant is on annual leave.
Key Responsibilities
FIRST CLASS CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
- Support the preparation of internal food tastings. Take notes and actions, ensure attendance, and share outputs with necessary teams.
- Prepare product benchmarks and conduct tastings to assess all relevant food concepts to ensure we are always developing best-in-class food.
- Conduct raw material assessments against the specification at concept and trial stages to ensure we are selecting the best quality ingredients.
- Own the documentation of food tastings through shelf-life assessments from fresh/frozen and champion the quality standards our consumers will expect at each stage of the product life.
- Drive the generation of cooking instructions for new dishes in accordance with our food safety and quality criteria.
- Complete online research for benchmarking exercises, creating relevant tools to show the results, keeping the benchmarking database up to date.
Reasons to use Rodeo
I’m in my final year doing Economics and I don’t know whether to apply for grad schemes now or do a masters first. What do you think?
Honest answer — it depends on where you want to end up. A lot of top grad schemes (Big 4, civil service, banking) don’t need a masters. Let’s look at the ones you’d be competitive for now, and we can decide if a masters actually adds anything.
Also worth knowing: most autumn 2026 applications are open now. Timing matters more than you think.
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme
Why you're a good match
StrongYour economics background and your summer at a regional bank line up with what PwC looks for on the consulting scheme. Applications close in four weeks.
See breakdownIt searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Why you're a good match
You’ve got the grades and the economics background, and your bank internship is exactly the experience this scheme looks for. Apply soon — deadlines close within the month.
Experience fit
Your summer at the bank plus your econometrics coursework map directly to the day-one responsibilities on this scheme — client modelling, market briefings, and deal support.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
THE CUSTOMER
- Support customer meetings to prepare food and take notes where required.
NEW AND EXISTING FOOD DEVELOPMENT
- Attend the weekly NFD and Process meetings.
- Lead all support activities to the Process Technologists in planning, preparing, and conducting scale-up trials in the production kitchen.
- Drive the successful completion of all product testing and sample submissions at the trial stage.
- Support the NFD & EFD team with sample preparation and organization in the production kitchen and development kitchen.
- Ensure product sample submissions are completed on time with the required documentation for testing, customer submissions, and photoshoots, etc.
- Support the completion of trial paperwork, QAS, Keycards, Labels, and Handover documentation.
- Assist the NFD/EFD team in raising and processing change forms for any changes to recipes or ingredients.
- Support the running of process trials where given, working alongside process technologists to plan and execute trials against agreed objectives.


Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
PRODUCT QUALITY
- Own quality improvement projects where given and drive the planning, investigation, and execution of improvement initiatives in collaboration with the Process Technologists, Technical, and Operations teams.
- Attend taste panel & positive release meetings to drive Bigham’s quality culture.
- Support the NFD/EFD team in completing 4, 8 & 12-week post-launch review documentation.
- Support the maintenance and training of our QAS product standards to ensure these are always up to date and well understood by the site teams.
- Lead the management of Keycards, keeping the Keycard Register and filing of Keycards up to date, print Keycards where required, and ensuring all issued Keycards are signed off by key stakeholders.
The Ideal Candidate
Qualifications And Experience
- Working towards a food-related degree.
- Experience of project management and managing timelines.
Key Skills
- A confident communicator.
- Numerate.
- Highly organized, able to manage and prioritize multiple tasks.
- Focused with excellent attention to detail.
- Excellent intrapersonal skills.
Key Attributes
- Passionate about great food.
- Positive ‘Can Do’ attitude.
- Enthusiastic.
- Proactive and curious.
- Full of drive & energy.
- Enjoys being part of a team.
- Creative and Innovative.
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Location