Lead R&D within a fast-paced, private label and co-manufacturing snack business, encompassing salty snacks, cookies & crackers, and better-for-you platforms. Deliver consumer-relevant innovation, accelerate speed-to-market, and advance customer trust and growth across multiple retail and branded platforms.
Requirements
- Deep technical expertise in salty snacks, including extrusion, frying, seasoning application, and baked technologies. (preferred).
- Proven track record of launching successful products across multiple retailers.
- Experience leading teams within a matrixed, fast-paced, customer-driven environment.
- Strong leadership presence with demonstrated ability to influence senior internal and external stakeholders.
- Strong leadership and communication skills; ability to influence across all levels and disciplines.
Responsibilities
- Define and drive a branded R&D strategy aligned with customer expectations, consumer trends, and corporate growth objectives.
- Translate category insights and national brand benchmarks into customized, ownable product solutions for retail partners.
- Lead the development and execution of a R&D pipeline tailored to private label customers—including fast-follow, renovation, and differentiated innovation—balancing speed-to-market and technical feasibility.
- Drive both core portfolio support (renovation, regulatory compliance, and productivity) and innovation activation (new product launches, LTOs, and seasonal innovation), ensuring R&D alignment with commercialization objectives.
- Maintain and optimize R&D systems: formula repositories, specifications, samples, and process documentation; keeping these systems up-to-date and well-organized
- Build and document gold standard recipes, conduct sensory evaluations, and lead shelf-life testing with regulatory and quality assurance teams to ensure food safety, compliance, and consistency.
- Partner with Quality to Maintain robust traceability, recall procedures, and recordkeeping systems for full compliance and product accountability.
Other
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in food science, Food Engineering, or related discipline.
- 15+ years of progressive R&D leadership in CPG, preferably with experience in both private label and co-manufacturing environments.
- This is a people leader role, with direct responsibility for coaching, mentoring and developing a team.
- Lead and mentor a team of product developers and technical experts, fostering a high-performance and agility culture, strong customer focus, and technical thoroughness.
- Lead and scale a high-performing R&D team across product development, commercialization, regulatory, and culinary.
