Product Commercialization Manager (Contract)

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end commercialization of new and reformulated products, from concept through launch.
• Manage Design-to-Value initiatives focused on improving product performance, cost structure, and operational efficiency.
• Develop and maintain project timelines, ensuring milestones are met and risks are proactively addressed.
• Facilitate cross-functional alignment and decision-making to keep projects moving forward.
• Serve as the primary liaison between suppliers and internal teams, ensuring clear communication and seamless execution.
• Partner with Culinary and QA to validate product performance, specifications, and quality standards.
• Closely work with Procurement to evaluate supplier capabilities, cost structures, and sourcing strategies.
• Collaborate with Restaurant Operations to ensure products are operationally feasible and scalable.
• Support product testing, sensory evaluations, and quality validations.
• Identify opportunities for product optimization through ingredient changes, process improvements, or packaging enhancements.
• Partner with QA/Food Safety/Regulatory to ensure all products meet regulatory, safety, and brand standards.

Position Qualifications

• The ideal candidate brings a strong background in foodservice or QSR R&D or Quality Assurance, with a deep understanding of product development, specification management, project management and supplier collaboration.
• Success in this role requires thriving in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment where strategic thinking, technical expertise, and cross-functional influence come together to deliver meaningful business results.
• Required Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in R&D, QA, Product Development, or Commercialization within foodservice or QSR.
• Strong understanding of product formulation, manufacturing processes, and supplier collaboration.
• Prominent ability to lead cross-functional projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent communication, problem-solving, and organizational skills.

Competencies

• Action Oriented: Enjoys working hard; is action oriented and full of energy for the things he/she sees as challenging; not fearful of acting with a minimum of planning; seizes more opportunities than others.
• Active Learning: Learns quickly when facing new problems; a relentless and versatile learner; open to change; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement; experiments and will try anything to find solutions; enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks; quickly grasps the essence and the underlying structure of anything.
• Drive For Results: Can be counted on to exceed goals successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
• Team Player: Showing a willingness to put the team’s needs before their own. Gets to know other team members with ease. Demonstrates a high level of participation and motivation within the team. Attempts to meet individual team member needs. Shows a willingness to give and receive feedback. Clearly understands the team’s purpose and each member’s role. Recognizes the importance of individual diversity.
• Driving Efficiency: Analyzing how own time is being spent and setting priorities to maximize efficiency. Juggles own time effectively across several competing projects. Distinguishes among tasks/activities and places higher priority on the most important ones. Proactively schedules tasks, weekly/monthly plans and daily to-do lists. Schedules enough time to ensure the most important tasks are completed successfully. Effectively applies available tools and resources to help manage own time. Implements strategies to avoid procrastination.
• Functional Skills: Planning & Prioritization: highest impact, highest value
• Strong project leadership and execution skills
• Strategic thinker with a quality, cost and value mindset
• Communicates Effectively and Candidly
• Computer proficiency (Microsoft Office, Excel, PowerPoint, project management tools)
• Sound, scientific technical skills
• Self-starter, flexible, and comfortable in working in a fast-paced environment
• Detail oriented and able to manage multiple priorities
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills