Concept Lead & Test Bakery Manager

ARYZTA is for people who are passionate about what they do and doing it well. We take pride in our high quality, delicious food and in our leading position as the world's number one frozen bakery.

Our employees are one of our key ingredients, and together they play a critical role in driving the continued success of our business.

In ARYZTA, every day is different. If you are resilient, ambitious, and a team player, ARYZTA could be the place for you to thrive and grow in your career!

Reports to: Lead Product Development Manager - Manufactured

Location: Grange Castle Business Park, Dublin 22

We have a fantastic opportunity to join the ARYZTA Ireland Product & Innovation team!

Purpose

The Test Bakery Innovation Lead will have overall responsibility for the Test Bakery and its day-to-day activities as well as ensuring the rapid and agile delivery of the NPD pipeline. This role is central to driving speed-to-market, ensuring concepts move efficiently from idea through trial to scalable solutions.

A high level of enthusiasm, creativity and curiosity is essential, bringing energy to concept development, problem solving and continuous improvement. The Test Bakery Innovation Lead will play a key role in fostering an agile and collaborative environment where ideas can be tested, refined, and progressed at pace.

This will be completed in partnership with the customer facing development team. Leadership of the Test Bakery will ensure that the day to day demand for sampling is met, while also establishing the function as a central knowledge hub, grounded in strong bakery fundamentals. You will need to develop strong supplier relationships and look for newness within the current base or by evaluation of potential new suppliers to deliver first to market opportunities. Transfer of products from test bakery to manufacturing is key to this role and therefore a team player that can build trust with our operations function is a must. Systems / Process and CI are key aspects of this role in line with a stage and gate innovation policy.

Key Responsibilities Test Bakery Leadership & Operations

• Lead day-to-day test bakery operations, ensuring a safe, organised and high performing environment
• Plan and prioritise activities to support fast paced project delivery
• Drive agile ways of working to enable efficient trial execution
• Maintain equipment, ingredients and overall operational readiness
• Support and develop bakery capability through coaching and training (e.g., workshops, trade shows, etc.)
• Ensure effective coordination of daily sampling requirements and associated (lab, customer)

Recipe Development, Scalability & Delivery

• Support concept and recipe development using strong bakery expertise
• Ensure all projects meet customer expectations and defined product requirements
• Maintain clear, timely and accurate project and trial documentation
• Ensure documentation aligns with Stage & Gate processes and external standards (e.g. BRC)
• Coordinate review sessions and track actions to drive progress
• Ensure products are effectively translated from test bakery into manufacturing
• Maintain strong cross functional collaboration with operations
• Ensure test bakery quality standards are consistently delivered in production
• Lead and support CI initiatives from test bakery through to manufacturing
• Source ingredients aligned to innovation, quality and commercial requirements
• Partner with suppliers to identify trends and first to market opportunities
• Ensure compliance with technical, quality and business standards
• Maintain accurate and up to date ingredient databases
• Collaborate cross functionally to support innovation delivery

Key Competencies

• Innovation, Creativity & Food Market Trend Awareness
• Agility & Pace
• Technical Bakery Expertise
• Delivery Focus / Working to Deadlines
• Organisation & Attention to Detail
• Continuous Improvement / Problem Solving Mindset
• Ownership & Accountability

Requirements

• Minimum 5 years' experience in a commercial / industrial bakery
• Bread Bakery hands on experience in high volume bakery in parallel with a clear understanding of artisan and sourdough production
• Extensive knowledge of test bakery to trials and line hand over
• Commercially savvy
• Team player
• Aware of market trends and competitive set
• High level of detail with good communication skills
• Works at pace
• Strong leader with passion for mentoring

Other Requirements

• Regular travel required to customer and supplier sites (Mainly Ire & UK)
• Availability to work flexible hours as needed

Our aim is to promote equality of opportunity and fair treatment for all job applicants.