R&D Manager

The R&D Manager is responsible for leading research, product development, formulation, commercialization, and technical innovation for food manufacturing operations. This role owns the development and improvement of products from concept through scale-up and launch, ensuring that new and existing products meet customer expectations, food safety requirements, regulatory standards, quality specifications, operational capabilities, and financial targets. The R&D Manager serves as the technical bridge between Commercial, Operations, Quality Assurance, Regulatory, Procurement, Supply Chain, Finance, and customers. This role leads product innovation, process validation, ingredient evaluation, technical documentation, and commercialization execution while supporting company growth in a regulated food environment. Essential Duties & Responsibilities Product Development & Innovation Lead new product development, product improvements, line extensions, and formula optimization initiatives aligned with business strategy, customer requirements, and manufacturing capabilities. Translate customer briefs, market opportunities, operational constraints, and commercial priorities into actionable R&D project plans. Conduct and oversee benchtop development, pilot trials, plant trials, product testing, sensory evaluations, and shelf-life studies. Develop formulas, processing parameters, product specifications, ingredient standards, and finished product requirements. Evaluate emerging ingredients, technologies, processing methods, and market trends to strengthen the product pipeline and improve product performance. Maintain accurate R&D documentation, including formulas, trial reports, test results, approvals, specifications, and change records. Food Safety, Quality & Regulatory Compliance Ensure all product development activities comply with FDA/FSMA requirements, GMPs, HACCP or food safety plans, allergen controls, labeling requirements, customer standards, and internal quality systems. Partner with QA and Regulatory to approve ingredients, claims, labels, specifications, nutritional information, and finished product requirements. Support audit readiness by maintaining complete, accurate, and traceable technical documentation for products, ingredients, suppliers, and processes. Assess product and process risks related to food safety, allergens, labeling, microbial stability, shelf life, and customer requirements. Support investigations and corrective actions related to product quality, customer complaints, holds, deviations, and formula or process issues. Commercialization & Scale-Up Lead commercialization activities from concept approval through full-scale production launch, including project timelines, trial plans, risk assessments, and launch readiness reviews. Coordinate plant trials, process validations, first production runs, and post-launch reviews in partnership with Operations, QA, Sanitation, Maintenance, Procurement, and Supply Chain. Develop and validate processing parameters, yields, batch instructions, allergen controls, packaging requirements, and quality checkpoints for new or revised products. Identify commercialization risks and develop mitigation plans related to equipment capability, ingredient availability, sanitation/changeover needs, labor impact, throughput, shelf life, and cost. Ensure effective capacity planning, labor deployment, line balancing, and sanitation/changeover optimization to minimize downtime and risk. Ingredient, Supplier & Cost Optimization Partner with Procurement and suppliers to evaluate new ingredients, alternate sources, ingredient functionality, cost impacts, lead times, and quality risks. Support cost savings, margin improvement, and supply continuity through formula optimization, ingredient substitutions, yield improvement, and waste reduction. Review raw material specifications, supplier documentation, certificates of analysis, and technical data to ensure alignment with product and regulatory requ…

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