{"id":4180749,"url":"https://alion.io/job/kepak-group-innovation-development-chef","title":"Innovation Development Chef","company":{"id":449891,"name":"Kepak Group","domain":"kepak.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/kepak-group","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workable","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":90,"open_postings":23,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.391,"repost_share":0.043,"time_to_fill_p50_days":34,"computed_at":"2026-11-12T10:38:37Z"}},"role":"Hospitality","role_family":"Hospitality","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Kirkham, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-12T17:25:04Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-12","last_verified_at":"2026-11-12T17:25:04Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"Kepak Foods Division have developed a portfolio of brands that are successful in the chilled convenience, ambient and frozen meat categories in the UK, Ireland and chosen European markets for both Retail and Foodservice Customers. We have 5 Manufacturing Sites supported by shared services, with 1000 people supporting our vision to become a transformed, future proofed, profitable €0.5bn Food Business by 2030. \nAre you passionate about food innovation and identifying the next big consumer trend? We're looking for an Innovation Development Chef to help shape the future of our product portfolio through culinary expertise, trend insight, and creative concept development.\nWorking closely with our Head of Innovation and cross-functional teams, you'll transform consumer insights, market trends, and emerging food opportunities into exciting, commercially viable products that support business growth.\nResponsibilities\nDiscover What's Next\nIdentify emerging consumer, customer, category, and market opportunities.\nResearch global food trends, ingredients, cuisines, technologies, formats, and consumer behaviours.\nConduct food safaris, market visits, competitor benchmarking, trade exhibitions, and trend immersion activities to uncover inspiration.\nTranslate market insights into actionable recommendations and innovative product concepts.\nBuild strong partnerships with suppliers to access new ingredients, technologies, and innovation opportunities.\nCreate & Develop Innovative Concepts\nSupport the development of strategically aligned innovation concepts that meet consumer, customer, and business needs.\nSource ingredients, benchmark products, and evaluate category developments to bring ideas to life.\nProduce high-quality culinary prototypes that showcase the potential of new opportunities.\nContribute culinary expertise during concept evaluation, validation, and scoping stages of the innovation process.\nAssess concepts for consumer appeal, commercial viability, and operational feasibility.\nDrive Excellence\nChampion food quality, authenticity, and culinary credibility throughout the innovation journey.\nEnsure all culinary activities are delivered to the highest standards of food safety, hygiene, and quality.\nSupport projects through to delivery, balancing creativity with practical execution.\nIdentify opportunities for ingredient optimisation, value engineering, and operational efficiencies without compromising consumer experience.\nRequirements\nProfessional chef qualification or equivalent culinary background. \n3+ years Development experience ideally within a food manufacturing environment\nStrong understanding of food manufacturing and product development processes. \nDemonstrated experience in culinary innovation, concept development or foodservice development. \nExcellent food presentation, sensory evaluation and product benchmarking capabilities. \nStrong knowledge of food trends, consumer behaviour and market dynamics. \nEffective stakeholder management and communication skills. \nCommercial awareness and understanding of foodservice and retail environments. \nAbility to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously. \nPassion for food, curiosity and a continuous learning mindset\nBenefits\nWhat can we offer you?\nCompany Pension\nFurther Education support\nBike to Work Scheme - You can buy a bike and safety equipment through a salary sacrifice scheme which reduces your taxable income - meaning you pay less tax!\nLong Service Awards - We recognise, acknowledge and award the dedication and valuable contribution of long serving employees\nGroceryAid Employee Assistance Program - help with a wide range of topics including mental health and wellbeing support, family and relationship advice, debt management, back to work support, and counselling for all Kepak colleagues and their families. \nCorporate gym membership at Ribby Hall Village\n BUPA Cash plan free of charge","description_format":"text","description_chars":3910,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Continuous learning","Gym membership"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Meat & Poultry"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-12T17:25:04Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"GB","licensed_sponsor":true,"adverts_offering_sponsorship_24m":0,"sanctioned_now":false,"evidence":"Licensed UK visa sponsor (Skilled Worker)","filings_12m":null,"filings_prev_12m":null,"green_card_filings_12m":null,"median_offered_wage_usd":null,"route":"Skilled Worker","cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-11-12T09:37:45+00:00","sources":["UK Home Office: register of licensed sponsors (workers)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":34,"reasons":["conf:1","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-12T18:34:49Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/kepak-group-innovation-development-chef","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/kepak-group-innovation-development-chef.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-12T18:34:49Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":39075,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-13T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":449891},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=449891"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fkepak-group-innovation-development-chef"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fkepak-group-innovation-development-chef"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fkepak-group-innovation-development-chef"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/kepak-group-innovation-development-chef\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fkepak-group-innovation-development-chef"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4180749}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"kepak.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4180749},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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