Product Developer Manager, Culinary Innovation

PepsiCo • Albuquerque, NM

8h

About The Position

The Product Developer plays a key role in transforming chef-created gold standards into functional, testable product prototypes and recipes. This role is highly hands-on—supporting the development, iteration, and validation of MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) that bridge culinary intent with real-world technical feasibility.
Working within the Product Development and process development team, this role contributes to prototype builds, preparation system testing, documentation, and early-stage scale-up activities. The Product Developer ensures speed, accuracy, and craftsmanship in every development cycle.

Requirements

• Degree in Food Science, Culinary Innovation, Food Technology, Product Design, or related field preferred.
• At least 5 years of hands-on product development experience in food, culinary innovation, or R&D kitchens.
• Experience working with preparation systems (oven, microwave, sous-vide) and basic understanding of product behavior during the final application.
• Strong practical culinary ability to prototype quickly and accurately.
• Comfortable in fast-paced, ambiguous R&D environments.
• Excellent organization, documentation, collaboration and communication skills.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with pilot production or co-man processes is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Execute hands-on development of early culinary product prototypes based on direction from Chefs and senior product developers.
• Support product evaluations, reformulations, and recipe adjustments to align with gold-standard targets.
• Test products across preparation systems (oven, microwave, sous-vide, etc.) to ensure consistency, usability, and quality.
• Document preparation parameters and product performance to support product iteration and scale-up.
• Provide input on product handling, quality challenges and pack-out implications.
• Organize samples, build variants, and prepare materials for sprint reviews and tastings.
• Participate in sprints development, supporting rapid prototyping, controlled testing, and iteration cycles.
• Work closely with the Product Development, Process development and Supply Chain teams to prepare products for pilot trials.
• Support troubleshooting during early-stage co-manufacturing or test production runs.
• Maintain accurate logs of formulas, build notes, test results, ingredients challenges and learnings, etc.
• Ensure traceability and development hygiene for all product iterations.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager