Product Development Graduate Programme 2027 for the UK chilled and grocery Food Market

Turn Your Passion for Food into Products People Love If you're curious about food, excited by new ideas and want to understand how great products make it from an initial concept onto supermarket shelves, our Product Development Graduate Programme is designed for you. This programme is designed to develop the next generation of Product Developers, equipping you with the technical, culinary, consumer and commercial skills needed to succeed in the food industry. Over three years, you'll build the skills and experience needed for a successful career in Product Development. You'll learn how to take a product through the complete development journey, from food trends, insight and idea generation through recipe development, customer presentation, factory trials and ultimately launch. You'll work as part of customer and product-focused teams alongside experienced Product Developers, Chefs and colleagues from across our wider business. Most importantly, you'll gain hands on experience. You'll be encouraged to bring your own ideas, challenge thinking and develop your creativity as your knowledge and confidence grow.

Your Three-Year Journey

The programme consists of three 12-month placements across different Greencore locations throughout the UK. This will provide exposure to a variety of customers and product categories, helping you build broad category knowledge, customer understanding and a well rounded view of the business.

Year 1 - Build the Foundations

You'll learn how our development process works, build your knowledge of ingredients and manufacturing, and support products through the development cycle. Working alongside experienced colleagues, you'll start to develop your technical, culinary, sensory and commercial understanding while gaining valuable hands on experience.

Year 2 - Take Ownership

With the foundations in place, you'll start to take greater ownership. You'll become more involved in developing recipes and concepts, working with customers and suppliers, supporting factory trials and supporting products towards launch. You'll continue to build your understanding of what makes a product not only delicious, but commercially and operationally viable at scale.

Year 3 - Operate as a Product Developer

Your final year is about preparing you for the next stage of your career. You'll take ownership of development projects, working with increasing autonomy while collaborating with customers and cross functional teams. You'll leverage consumer trends, market insight and Greencore's manufacturing capabilities to develop commercially successful products. By the end of the programme, you'll have the experience, confidence and capability to progress into a Product Development role within Greencore.

More Than On-the-Job Experience

Alongside your placements, you'll take part in a structured development programme designed to broaden your knowledge of both food and business. This will include specialist development and learning opportunities in areas such as:

• Culinary skills and food inspiration
• Sensory evaluation
• Category management and consumer insight
• Commercial awareness and costing
• Leadership and personal development
• Ingredient and supplier workshops
• Manufacturing processes and capabilities

What You'll Experience During the programme, you could be involved in:

• Exploring food trends and identifying new product opportunities
• Generating and developing new product concepts
• Creating and refining recipes
• Collaborating with chefs, suppliers and ingredient partners to create and refine products
• Preparing products and supporting documentation for customer presentations
• Supporting customer presentations, innovation sessions and product submissions
• Participating in sensory evaluation and product benchmarking
• Working cross functionally with Technical, Operations, Commercial, Process, Purchasing and other teams
• Supporting products through to launch
• Seeing products, you've helped develop reach supermarket shelves

It's an opportunity to understand the entire product development journey while building a strong network across Greencore.

The Support You'll Receive

We want you to succeed, so you'll have a strong support network throughout the programme.

• Dedicated Programme Champion - A key contact for your functional Graduate Programme who will support your development throughout the three years.
• Mentor - Additional guidance and support as you build your career.
• Line Manager - Regular feedback, performance reviews and support to help develop your skills and knowledge.
• Graduate Cohort - You'll join a cohort of graduates, giving you the opportunity to learn together, share experiences and build a network across the business.
• Greencore Network - Through your placements, training and site visits, you'll build relationships with colleagues and specialists from across our food categories and functions.

Where Could It Take You?

The Graduate Programme is the start of your Product Development career with Greencore. By the end of your three years, you'll have experienced different products, customers and manufacturing environments and developed an understanding of how to turn a great food idea into a successful product at scale. From there, you'll be ready to continue developing your career within our Product Development teams, with opportunities to grow your experience, responsibility and leadership capability.

If you're passionate about food, curious about consumer trends, and excited by the challenge of creating products that consumers love, we'd love to hear from you.

Join us, build your career with Greencore, and play a part in making every day taste better.

Relocation financial assistance - Any relocation payments made will be paid back in October2027! Additional holiday purchase scheme, pension scheme and access to employee benefits.

We're looking for graduates who are genuinely excited by food, ingredients, innovation and creating products consumers will love.

• Degree - Achieved, or expected to achieve, a minimum 2:2 honours degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Nutrition, Culinary Innovation or a related discipline.
• Experience - At least three months' relevant work experience.
• Passion for Food - A genuine curiosity about food, trends, ingredients and how products are created.
• Motivation - A clear commitment to developing a career within the food industry and Product Development.
• Flexibility - A willingness to complete three 12-month placements at different Greencore locations across the UK.
• Right to Work - You'll need the right to work in the UK for the duration of the three-year programme from September 2027.

Candidates with a Master's degree will be considered, provided their undergraduate degree is in Food Science, Food Technology, Nutrition Culinary Innovation, or another relevant food-related discipline.

You may not have heard of us, but we're sure you've tried our products. Greencore is a vibrant, fast paced leading food manufacturer. We employ c.11,800 colleagues across 16 manufacturing sites, and we supply all the UK's food retailers with everything from sandwiches, soups and sushi to cooking sauces, pickles and ready meals. In fact we reckon you'll have consumed at least one of our products in the last four weeks.