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Fortnum & Mason

Senior Category Technologist

Hybrid

London, United kingdom

Senior

Freelance

22-01-2026

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Skills

Quality Management Sales

Job Specifications

Our Head Office department is in the heart of Piccadilly and occupies the 5th & 6th floor of our beautiful flagship store. This central London location offers so much to explore including restaurants, bars, cultural sites, shopping and more, and only a short walk from the Green Park Tube Station and plenty of bus stops.

Why Work For Us:

Competitive salary
A generous store and restaurant discount of up to 40%
25 days holidays (excluded bank holidays) and an extra day off for your birthday
A fantastic subsidised staff restaurant which uses Fortnum’s ingredients
A range of opportunities to develop and grow personally and professionally
Excellent pension scheme

About The Role:

To technically lead and manage the technical and CSR aspects of the F&M New Product Development process for Category Own label products and proprietary brands, including supplier approval and specification sign off.
To be responsible for ensuring all products developed and launched meet external commitments, product safety and legal due diligence requirements.
To technically manage our supplier relationships, to manage risk, ensure traceability and to implement and maintain a sustainable supplier quality management system across the F&M supply base.
The role will perform supplier site visits and audits of new and established suppliers. A key requirement of the role is an ability to drive positive changes within the supply base from processing sites down to growing and mining levels.
The role will also coordinate and provide quantifiable metrics to allow the real-time assessment of supplier performance against the businesses Technical & CSR targets and Operational procedures.
The role will also coordinate and provide quantifiable updates on the technical areas of responsibility and will need to influence all area of the business to deliver NPD right first time.
A key requirement is an ability to technically lead and influence a cross functional team. To be able identify and drive positive changes collaboratively and to ensure any technical actions are delivered on time.

What You'll Do:

Operational procedures NPD

To work with the cross functional teams to deliver technical aspects of the NPD process on time
To provide regular updates on the status of the NPD projects
To ensure the technical aspects NPD are delivered to the standard required
To ensure the Technical. International and CSR strategy and rules are delivered for all new products launched
To maintain and deliver the T&CSR aspects of the NPD critical path
To ensure CSR and technical Briefs are submitted on time and are fully complete
To flag potential issues in advance and so allow resolution prior the projects falling behind

New Product Development

To ensure provisional critical paths created in stage one of the launch process include all stages of the technical approval process, including any upskilling required by the in-house technical team
Ensure NPD product brief contains all technical requirements for the product
All technical stages to be delivered on time and a proactive manner
All new products are assessed, and any new technical requirements fed into the appropriate Technical processes. I.e. operational procedures, surveillance testing, etc.
To have full sign off each NPD Gate (Technical and CSR requirements)

NPD Technical Review (Stage 5) actions

Technical actions to be closed off within the agreed timescales
To be investigated to identify the root cause and corrective actions implemented into business policy if required
Relevant corrective actions to be included in product specification where relevant

Specifications

To be in place for all food and non-food own label and proprietary branded product
To include all legal DD requirements, quality and all relevant information required to facilitate international approval of product (and generation of labels)
To include all information for all business channels
To ensure specifications cover all known risks to the business
All product both OB and Proprietary brands have signed off specifications by on sale date
Specification templates to be appropriate for all product types and supply routes
Clear written guidance to be available for suppliers to aid the completion of specifications
To include a quantifiable QAS requirements (QAS created by buyers)
To include all information required to meet online customer needs and to ensure the product online product has all legal requirements
To ensure specifications contain all information required for the international customers and online ww sales.
To deliver the new Specification system and creating bespoke requirements for the new
specification template

Audits

All audits to be carried out to the schedule and all corrective actions followed up and closed off
Audit results to be communicated to relevant managers, in the weekly and monthly reports
Audit results to be trended and correctives actions to be closed off within the communicated timescales
External audits to be

About the Company

Since its foundation in Piccadilly in 1707, Fortnum & Mason has been at the heart of London life, supplying the very finest goods and services. From the Food Halls to the Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon it is filled with unique and exceptional food and gifts. Visit www.fortnumandmason.com for more. For over 300 years at Fortnum & Mason, our purpose has come from giving our customers 'a sense of pleasure'. This single founding principle informs and guides everything we do and starts by working with the best people. The legendary ... Know more