Undergraduate Food Technologist

**Undergraduate Food Technologist**
£23,400 plus excellent benefits (Work Level 6C)
12-month work placement (starting June 2025)
Manchester city centre (hybrid working)

We’re looking for an Undergraduate Food Technologist to join our Technical team in Manchester on a 12-month work placement. If you’re a great team player with a passion for growing your career, we can offer you an amazing opportunity to do just that with a business that always puts people at the heart of its strategy. In this role you’ll work in a hybrid way - splitting your time between home, the office, and visiting our suppliers across the UK (find out more about our hybrid working policy at colleagues.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy).

As the UK’s largest convenience retailer, we’re committed to providing high quality, ethical products at great prices for our millions of customers and members nationwide. As our Undergraduate Food Technologist, we’ll look to you to build a detailed knowledge of our products; visiting supplier sites to gain an understanding of the processes used across our manufacturing environments.

**What you’ll do**
- Support the team with planning and delivering projects, collaborating with both internal and external partners
- Carry out regular visits to our supplier sites
- Measure compliance to product quality, safety, legal, and ethical targets
- Support the delivery of new products
- Investigate product-related issues and recommend solutions

**This role would suit people who**
- Are currently in their second year of studying towards an undergraduate degree in Food Science/Technology or similar
- Have a good understanding of the basic principles of food safety and quality management
- Have good communication and relationship-building skills
- Are passionate about food and developing their career
- Have good problem-solving and project management skills, with the ability to work independently and as part of a team

**Why Co-op?**

If you’ve got the skills and passion we’re looking for, we can offer you a competitive salary and great benefits package which includes 30% off Co-op branded products in our food stores (as well as other discounts on Co-op products and services). You’ll also get:

- 28 days holiday plus bank holidays
- A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
- Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
- Coaching and training to support your career development
- Wagestream - a money management app that gives you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn it
- Grocery Aid - 24/7 access to a range of emotional, financial, and practical support services for you and your family

**Building an inclusive work environment**

At Co-op, we’re proud to do things a different way. As one of the world’s largest co-operatives, owned by millions of members, community is at the heart of what we do. Since our Co-op was founded in 1844, we’ve had a clear social purpose, and everything we do as a business helps to build a fairer world for our members, customers, colleagues, and communities.

We'll ask whether you’d like to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme when you apply.

If we invite you to take part in the recruitment process for any of our jobs, we’ll ask you if you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to participate.

You can find out more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process.

You can find out more about the Disability Confident scheme and all our commitments to diversity and inclusion at jobs.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion-wellbeing.