Junior Product Development Manager (All Genders)

Job Description

• Assess nutritional, digestibility, and palatability aspects of pet food ingredients, understanding their impact on organoleptic parameters and cost.
• Complete and manage product briefings and specification sheets for accurate pricing and pre-production samples. Communicate specifications to suppliers, manufacturers, and buying office.
• Monitor production timelines, quality, and customer satisfaction, taking appropriate actions and communicating with stakeholders as needed.
• Approve development samples and main production, considering EU consumer-rights policies and marketing claims.
• Collaborate with suppliers and internal teams to optimise product costs and achieve margin growth targets.
• Analyse top-selling products, flavours, and trends, demonstrating a clear understanding of own brands within the category of expertise.
• Support cross-functional projects, including quality assurance, customer care, and innovation initiatives.
• Manage qualitative issues in cooperation with suppliers, ensuring product safety, marketability, and accurate labelling.
• Direct and clarify testing needs for items/ranges, liaising with internal and external stakeholders for execution.

Qualifications

• University degree in Agricultural Engineering, Veterinary Medicine, Life Sciences, Nutrition, or a related field.
• Nice-to-have: specialization in Animal Nutrition (Masters, Diplomma or related courses)
• Previous work experience in a similar role, preferably in the retail sector.
• Strong knowledge of feed norms plus EU manufacturing & labelling guidelines for pet food
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to work effectively in a team and communicate well
• Proactive with strong problem-solving skills
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite, Sharepoint and Copilot
• Proficiency in English - a C1 level is essential.

Additional Information

Headquartered in Munich, with offices across Madrid, Krakow, Wroclaw, London and Vienna, we collaborate because we genuinely love working together - so you’ll be at the heart of an incredible, multinational team. We trust each other to get the job done, which means you’ll benefit from hybrid working, spending 60% of your time in the office and 40% at home. There’s an option to work for 20 days abroad in approved countries too.

Add to that development opportunities that help you to shape your own career path, excellent training and support, wellbeing offers, subsidised transport or bike leasing, plus 20% discount across all our products, and you’ll begin to get a sense of what sets us apart. Find out more about the specific benefits at your local office in our blog posts.

A note on compensation: We believe in being transparent about salary ranges. The range shown reflects the full scope that the role can grow into over time, depending on experience, skills, and impact. Most offers are positioned around the midpoint of the range, ensuring a fair and consistent approach across our teams.

At zooplus, we believe in equal opportunity and support everyone to fulfil their potential. We recognise the power of listening and learning from each other and embrace diversity and inclusion of all.

#LI-Hybrid