Product Development Manager

E.A. Sween•Eden Prairie, MN

8h•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking an Product Development Manager to lead product development for ready-to-eat food platforms, including sandwiches, wraps, handheld meals, and related prepared foods. This role combines hands-on development with team leadership to create products with consistent quality, consumer appeal, and clear business value. The Product Development Manager will lead culinary concept development, guide technical formulation, oversee bench and plant trials, and support commercialization from concept through launch. The ideal candidate brings strong product development experience, sound culinary judgment, food science capability, and proven people leadership.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Culinary Science, Culinology, Food Engineering or a related discipline.
7 or more years of product development experience within the food industry.
Strong culinary capability with a practical understanding of commercial food production, manufacturing constraints, and cost targets.
Demonstrated experience developing ready-to-eat foods, prepared meals, sandwiches, wraps, bakery-based products, meat systems, cheese applications, sauces, spreads, or related CPG food products.
Experience leading products from concept, bench development, prototype creation, plant trials, and commercialization.
Strong technical knowledge of ingredient functionality, formulation, food safety, shelf life, sensory evaluation, and manufacturing scale-up.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Food Science, Culinary Science, or related technical field.
Culinary degree, professional kitchen experience, or applied culinary product development experience.
Experience with chilled, refrigerated, MAP, and shelf-life-sensitive food products.
Experience with consumer research, sensory methods, DOE, statistical analysis, and data-based product optimization.
Knowledge of PLM, ERP, formulation systems, specification systems, Microsoft Office, and project management tools.

Responsibilities

Lead Product Development and Commercialization
Lead new product development projects from concept through commercialization, ensuring products meet business, consumer, operational, and food safety requirements.
Direct the development of ready-to-eat sandwiches, wraps, handheld meals, deli products, sauces, spreads, proteins, bakery-based foods, and prepared food systems.
Manage product renovation, line extension, quality improvement, cost reduction, ingredient substitution, and productivity initiatives across the product portfolio.
Lead bench development, culinary gold-standard creation, plant trials, first-production runs, and post-launch product evaluations.
Design and execute experiments, analyze data, draw conclusions, and make sound technical recommendations to support product and process decisions.
Develop and approve formulas, processing instructions, product specifications, trial reports, test data, and commercialization documents.
Apply food science principles related to flavor, texture, moisture migration, water activity, pH, emulsions, thermal processing, shelf life, and food safety.
Manage multiple technical projects with defined timelines, risk assessments, action plans, stakeholder alignment and consistent communication.
Apply culinary expertise to product design, flavor development, ingredient selection, sensory strategy, and overall eating experience.
Present product concepts, prototypes, technical updates, and recommendations to cross-functional leaders, customers, and key stakeholders
Serve as a technical subject matter expert in customer meetings, product presentations, commercialization reviews, and internal decision-making forums.
Lead People and Build Organizational Capability
Lead and develop a high-performing R&D team grounded in accountability, curiosity, collaboration, food safety, and continuous improvement.
Strengthen culinary, technical, and commercialization capability across the R&D function through coaching, training, and clear performance expectations.
Establish clear priorities, assign project responsibilities, review technical work, and ensure the team delivers against business, customer, and commercialization objectives.
Manage, coach, and develop R&D scientists, technologists, technicians, and other team members to improve performance, engagement, and technical depth.
Monitor industry trends, culinary trends, ingredient innovation, competitive activity, processing technologies, packaging formats, and evolving consumer needs.
Identify product opportunities that deliver differentiated, craveable, portable, and commercially viable solutions for the RTE food category.
Support innovation pipelines, customer-specific development, platform expansion, and long-term product strategy through disciplined technical leadership.
Improve R&D systems, documentation standards, trial planning, sensory practices, and commercialization processes to increase speed, consistency, and execution quality.
Influence cross-functional teams and guide business decisions using data, sensory insights, technical expertise, food safety requirements, and commercial priorities.