Head of Technical Compliance, NPD & Own Brand

Manchester, Lancashire
Pets at Home
Head of Technical Compliance, NPD and Own Brand

Permanent with hybrid working of three days a week in our Cheshire HO (SK9 3RN)

Shape the Future of Pet Care

At Pets at Home, we’re on an exciting transformation journey. As we continue to innovate and redefine the future of pet care, we’re raising the bar for pet health, wellbeing and lifestyle products. Every decision we make is driven by a simple purpose: helping pets live healthier, happier lives and supporting the people who love them.

The Opportunity

We’re looking for an exceptional Head of Technical, Compliance, New Product Development and Own Brand Development to play a critical leadership role at the heart of our Commercial function.

Reporting to and partnering closely with the Commercial Director, you’ll be the driving force behind the quality, safety and innovation of our Own Brand portfolio. Bringing deep expertise in food, alongside a strong understanding of general merchandise, you’ll help shape products that customers trust, pets thrive on and our colleagues are proud to champion.

This is a role where strategy meets execution. You’ll define and evolve our Own Brand standards, develop compelling new brand propositions, ensure every product and piece of artwork meets the highest regulatory and compliance requirements, and build a high-performing team that thrives on accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.

You’ll lead the development of smarter processes, stronger ways of working and faster routes to market, enabling us to move with pace while never compromising on quality, ethics, sustainability or compliance. Most importantly, you’ll help deliver sustainable commercial growth while ensuring our products continue to set the standard in pet care.

The role will see you:

• Own accountability for ensuring products are legally compliant, safe for customers and sourced from technically and ethically compliant factories in line with the responsible sourcing policy.
• Responsible for delivering the Own Brand product roadmap, with a primary focus on food-led product development.
• Working in close partnership with the Commercial Director, Heads of Category, Buying, Supply Chain, Brand/Marketing, Digital and supplier partners, to ensure the roadmap is commercially focused, customer-led and aligned to category strategy.
• Bringing to life your strong product development capability with suppliers, balancing innovation, quality, cost, sustainability and technical compliance to deliver market-leading Own Brand products.
• Developing and maintaining Own Brand guidelines, creating new brands where required, and executing packaging artwork to ensure brand consistency and launch readiness.
• Leading, building and shaping the team so it has the capability, pace, accountability and ways of working required to deliver the transformation plan, with a continuous improvement mindset focused on simplifying processes, improving efficiency and accelerating business timelines.

With core role pillars being:

• Technical, Compliance and Responsible Sourcing
• Product Roadmap & Food-Led NPD Delivery
• Supplier Product Development & Factory Standards
• Own Brand Guidelines, New Brands & Artwork
• Artwork Collaboration & Launch Readiness
• Stakeholder Collaboration & Influence
• Leadership & Team Development

About You – what we would like you to bring to our role Experience, Knowledge and Expertise

• A solid background in Food, Pet or FMCG retail, with specialist food product development experience a keen advantage and a good understanding of GM from a standards, compliance and product assurance perspective.
• Strong experience in supplier-led product development, compliance, cost management and NPD delivery with the ability to develop the factory base to enable market leading innovation .
• Strong understanding of sustainability requirements across product and packaging, with the skill to translate Pets at Home sustainability goals into practical standards, supplier expectations and delivery plans.
• Experience preferable in developing Own Brand guidelines, creating new brand propositions and managing packaging artwork from brief through to compliant execution
• Experience of leading Own Brand growth and delivering NPD at pace, with the commercial judgement to develop high-quality product specifications that meet customer expectations while managing cost and margin.
• Collaborative leadership style with a track record of building teams, strengthening capability and working effectively with Buying, Category and cross-functional partners to deliver business transformation or turnaround plans.
• Continuous improvement mindset with the ability to simplify processes, improve efficiency, reduce complexity and accelerate business timelines.

If you’re passionate about innovation, obsessed with quality, and excited by the opportunity to influence a market-leading brand during a period of significant transformation, we’d love to hear from you.

About Us

At Pets at Home, we are committed to providing the best possible care for pets and their owners. As the UK’s leading pet care retailer, we offer a unique and rewarding work environment where passion for pets meets professional growth. We pride ourselves on our supportive and inclusive culture, where every team member is valued and encouraged to make a difference. Join us and be a part of a dynamic team that shares your love for pets and commitment to excellence.

Pets just see people. They aren’t biased and they don’t discriminate. We take our inspiration from pets, and we value and respect difference in all its forms. Our aim is to reflect the diversity of the communities we operate in, and every colleague can help us achieve this. We encourage our people to be themselves so even if your skills and experience don’t perfectly align, if you think you can make a unique contribution through your values and behaviours, we want to hear from you!