Senior Director, Product Development & Innovation

Little Spoon • New York City, NY

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

About The Role: Little Spoon was founded on the belief that today’s parents are different – equal parts more time-strapped and more food-savvy than ever. We set out to disrupt a century-old category with products and an experience that deliver on what the modern parent deserves. And we’re at a very exciting growth stage— we’re the #1 DTC baby and kids food brand in the US, and recently made a big foray into retail (nationwide at Target) this fall! We’re looking for a strategic and execution-minded Senior Director, Product Development & Innovation to lead our R&D team and own the rapid development, testing, and commercialization of Little Spoon’s product roadmap. This role is perfect for an experienced, entrepreneurial food R&D leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment — comfortable moving between hands-on formulation work, strategic product development, people management, and cross-functional leadership. You’ll own Little Spoon’s end-to-end product innovation lifecycle, ensuring we deliver exceptional, nutritious, best-in-class products for babies, toddlers, and kids across our rapidly expanding DTC and retail footprint. You’ll manage a team of high performing food scientists and packaging engineers, and partner closely with FSQA, Operations, Brand, and Retail to accelerate our roadmap, scale innovation systems, and power Little Spoon’s next chapter of category-defining growth. You’ll be an essential leader in shaping the future of Little Spoon’s product portfolio across refrigerated, frozen and ambient food formats and execute on a multi-year product roadmap with dozens of projects. This role is for someone who wants to create the future of kids’ food — pairing culinary creativity with science and scale. You’ll build products that meaningfully improve children’s health and reshape how modern families feed their kids. This role reports to our Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer.

Requirements

• Extensive experience leading R&D within a food company, with deep expertise in formulation, food science,commercialization and innovation.
• Proven track record of bringing multiple food products from concept to launch — ideally across both DTC and retail environments.
• Strong culinary, formulation, and food science intuition paired with the ability to operate strategically at a 10,000-ft level.
• Experience leading and developing R&D teams; ability to inspire, coach, and push innovation at pace.
• Expertise in commercialization, co-manufacturer management, testing protocols, sensory evaluation, and scale-up.
• Exceptional project leadership — highly organized, structured, decisive, and able to move multiple workstreams forward simultaneously.
• Data-driven approach to innovation; comfortable evaluating product performance, customer data, nutritional metrics, and category dynamics.
• Scrappy, resourceful, bias-to-action mindset — comfortable navigating ambiguity, building from zero to one, and iterating quickly.
• Collaborative and low-ego team player who thrives in cross-functional environments.
• 12-15+ years of food R&D, culinary innovation, or product development experience, with 5+ years of people leadership experience.
• Degree in Food Science, Nutrition, Culinary Science, or related field (or equivalent industry experience).
• Experience strategically driving innovation, renovation, and supply chain maintenance projects with manufacturers and cross functional partners
• Strong understanding of food safety, regulatory, and nutritional standards for infants and children.
• NYC-based or able to work hybrid at our HQ; willingness to travel to facilities as needed.
• Passion for Little Spoon’s mission to modernize the baby & kids food category.

Responsibilities

• Product Development Leadership Lead, mentor, and develop Little Spoon’s R&D team, developing best-in-class capabilities across formulation, sensory, culinary, packaging, and process development.
• Own the full technical development lifecycle across all DTC and Retail products from concept through commercialization
• Serve as the technical steward of Little Spoon’s culinary point of view, nutritional philosophy, and ingredient standards.
• Partner with Food Safety & Regulatory to ensure all new products meet Little Spoon’s rigorous quality and compliance standards.
• Partner with the Director of Portfolio, Innovation & GTM Strategy to prioritize and translate innovation briefs into fully realized, technically viable product concepts.
• Manage all formulation workstreams — from rapid prototyping to iterative testing, reformulations, sensory evaluations, and ongoing quality optimization.
• Own budget management, documentation, specs, SOPs, testing plans, and ingredient library.
• Innovation Partnership & Cross-Functional Alignment Partner closely with the Director of Portfolio, Innovation & GTM Strategy who owns roadmap definition, positioning, and innovation strategy, and the Director of Consumer Insights Provide early feasibility assessments, technical guardrails, ingredient considerations, and formulation routes during concept development.
• Collaborate on claims validation, competitive landscape reviews, and ingredient / nutritional differentiation.
• Align early with Marketing and GTM teams to ensure technical decisions support positioning, claims, packaging needs, and customer-facing storytelling.
• Ensure seamless product handoff to GTM teams at the completion of foundational development stages.
• Commercialization & Scale-Up Own technical commercialization, working with Ops, Supply Chain, and external partners to bring product and packaging prototypes into scalable production.
• Interface directly with co-manufacturers, suppliers, and ingredient partners to ensure reliability, product consistency, and cost feasibility.
• Collaborate with Retail Sales to adapt or develop products specifically for in-store category requirements, retailer needs, and velocity expectations.
• Work with Finance to evaluate COGS, identify cost-reduction opportunities, and ensure margin targets align with strategy.
• Provide guidance on and lead complex manufacturing trials to ensure successful rollout OTIF.
• Continually refine the stage-gate process across categories to accelerate speed-to-market while maintaining rigor.
• Own process development and refinement at co-manufacturers Partner with operations to ensure manufacturing network and capabilities support supply chain needs Work to identify and onboard additional manufacturers and/or equipment as needed
• Lead renovation efforts across the portfolio, identifying opportunities for cost savings, product improvements, and complexity refinement
• Lead the rollout and maintenance of our new Product Lifecycle Management system and integration with our future ERP system Organizational & Technical Leadership Build structure, clarity, and process into a rapidly growing product organization — identifying bottlenecks and implementing systems that help teams move faster.
• Serve as the senior product development voice in strategic business planning conversations, providing insight into feasibility, timelines, ingredient trends, and nutritional considerations.
• Prepare briefs, product strategy updates, dashboards, and leadership readouts that enable quick decision-making.
• Support post-launch reviews, providing technical perspectives on performance, reformulation needs, and continuous improvement.

Benefits

• Equity Every Spooner shares in our success. All full-time salaried employees are granted stock options as part of their total compensation.
• Comprehensive Health Coverage We offer medical, dental, and vision plans with a variety of options to fit your needs.
• 401(k) with Company Match We match 100% of your contributions up to 5% of your salary — with no waiting period.
• Flexible PTO + Holidays In addition to 11+ company holidays, we offer flexible paid time off (no set cap) for full-time employees.
• Paid Parental Leave We’re proud to support new parents with at least 12 weeks of paid leave (and up to 18 weeks for birthing parents). Available after 6 months of full-time employment.
• Learning & Development $250 per quarter to invest in your growth — whether that’s coaching, courses, or your next great read.
• Little Spoon Perks $200 Welcome to the Team credit 50% off recurring code for your own account 20% off recurring code to share with close friends & family

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees