R&D Manager

About the role

A leading food manufacturer is seeking an experienced R&D Manager to lead product development, innovation, commercialization, and process improvement initiatives within a high-volume manufacturing environment. This individual will manage and develop a small technical R&D team while serving as a key technical leader across product development, manufacturing, quality, and commercialization activities. The R&D Manager will be responsible for advancing new and existing bakery, dough, refrigerated, and frozen food products, taking projects from early-stage formulation and bench development through plant trials, scale-up, commercialization, and full production. The position requires someone who can balance strategic leadership with hands-on technical problem-solving and collaborate effectively with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Procurement, Sales, and Marketing. This is an ideal opportunity for an R&D leader who enjoys working closely with manufacturing, developing technical talent, and translating customer and business needs into commercially successful products.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of R&D and technical product development professionals.
• Establish team priorities, goals, project timelines, and performance expectations.
• Mentor employees in product development, formulation, manufacturing processes, troubleshooting, and commercialization.
• Evaluate team capabilities, workloads, and resource requirements to ensure projects remain aligned with business priorities.
• Promote a collaborative, accountable, safety-focused, and continuous-improvement culture.
• Encourage data-driven decision-making and structured technical problem-solving across the R&D organization.
• Lead the development and optimization of bakery, dough-based, refrigerated, and frozen food products.
• Manage product formulation, ingredient selection, processing parameters, packaging considerations, shelf-life improvements, and product performance.
• Identify opportunities to improve existing products through quality enhancements, cost optimization, waste reduction, sustainability, and improved manufacturability.
• Evaluate new ingredients, processing technologies, equipment, and industry trends to identify opportunities for innovation.
• Translate customer, consumer, and commercial needs into technically feasible new products.
• Ensure new products can successfully transition from laboratory development through pilot and full-scale manufacturing.
• Manage multiple R&D and commercialization projects from initial concept through successful launch.
• Establish project timelines, milestones, technical requirements, resources, priorities, and risk-management plans.
• Lead plant trials, scale-up activities, process validations, and production start-ups.
• Work cross-functionally with Operations, Quality, Engineering, Supply Chain, Procurement, Sales, and Marketing to ensure successful execution.
• Communicate project status, technical risks, challenges, and recommendations to key stakeholders and senior leadership.
• Provide technical expertise for strategic customer initiatives and customer-facing discussions when needed.
• Partner directly with plant Operations and Engineering teams to improve product quality, manufacturing efficiency, yield, and overall process performance.
• Troubleshoot formulation, ingredient, processing, and production challenges.
• Provide hands-on technical support during manufacturing trials, scale-up, and new product launches.
• Identify and implement opportunities to reduce manufacturing waste and product costs while maintaining quality and functionality.
• Ensure products and processes are designed with full-scale manufacturability in mind.
• Use manufacturing data, testing results, and technical observations to drive continuous improvement activities.
• Ensure R&D activities comply with applicable food safety, quality, regulatory, labeling, and customer requirements.
• Partner with Quality teams to maintain product standards and address technical or manufacturing challenges.
• Assess technical, operational, regulatory, and commercialization risks associated with new product development.
• Maintain accurate formulations