Lotus Natural Foods, the healthy snacking division of Lotus Bakeries and a portfolio of 5 incredible brands; BEAR, TREK, nakd. Kiddylicious and Peter’s Yard, all having their own distinct proposition and role within our business.

We have great ambitions for all our brands, ensuring that as a business we deliver sustainable growth over the long-term. We believe that taste and quality are 100% of what underpins us as brand leaders within our categories, and what pulls us apart from our competitors. All of our brands started right here in the UK, as the first market for distribution, but over the years we can now be found across the globe, our ranges have got bigger, along with us as a business.

To date we have achieved so much, but there is still plenty of room to grow further and that means we need more brilliant people, those that share an ambition for making a difference and want to join us in delivering the next chapter of growth. Fancy getting involved, then read on…

We’re looking for a brilliant packaging production specialist who’s ready to take the next step in their career and join our in-house Creative Studio, working initially across our Natural Foods brands BEAR, TREK, nakd., Kiddylicious and Peter’s Yard.

 About the job

• This is a hands-on packaging production role. Alongside supporting and developing our packaging production team, you'll be actively artworking, adapting and rolling out packaging yourself across multiple brands, formats, SKUs and markets.
• You'll work closely with our Head of Design to lead and develop packaging production across the studio, maintaining brilliant technical standards across artwork, masterfiles, colour, proofing, preflight and final production.
• You'll work alongside our studio’s Project Manager, Global Packaging team, Brand teams, QA and external production partners to make sure work moves smoothly and accurately from approved creative through to final production.
• You'll support and develop the packaging production team, sharing your knowledge and building technical capability across the wider studio.
• You'll help us improve how we work, spotting unnecessary complexity and recommending smarter, simpler and more scalable solutions.
• You'll play an active role in exploring how AI, workflow automation and emerging technology can improve artwork checking, adaptations, versioning, quality control and the wider packaging production workflow.
• Your technical expertise will also support shopper, POS, in-store and other printed or physically produced brand materials.

To succeed in this role, we believe you should have:

• Strong hands-on experience in packaging artworking and production, ideally within FMCG or consumer brands, with the desire to stay close to the work while stepping into greater senior responsibility. Ideally 7 years + professional experience.
• Deep technical knowledge of packaging and print production, including masterfiles, cutter guides, colour management, print processes, separations, trapping, overprint, finishes and preflight.
• Advanced Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign skills, with experience working across complex ranges, SKUs, adaptations and multilingual artwork.
• Experience working closely with printers, repro houses and production suppliers, with the confidence to solve technical production challenges.
• A natural ability to support, mentor and share knowledge with others. You don’t need to have been managed others before, but you should be excited by the opportunity to develop as a mentor and manager.
• A curious and improvement-focused mindset, you question how things are done, bring solutions rather than problems and look for smarter, simpler ways of working.
• Excitement about the potential of AI and workflow automation, with the curiosity to explore, test and implement how they can improve packaging production.
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills, with the confidence to explain technical subjects clearly, challenge constructively and bring people with you.
• A positive, collaborative and hands-on attitude. We’re a friendly, close-knit Creative Studio, so we’re looking for someone who is approachable, engaging and good fun to work with.

 Other essential requirements for this role:

• Right-To-Work within the UK (without sponsorship)
• Minimum Education to Bachelors Degree level

Please note this role is a full-time position at our beautiful offices in St Albans, with four days a week spent on-site. Please only proceed if this works for you.