Senior Manager, Product, GDI
About The Position
Location: Atlanta Our North America Innovation Center sits at the heart of The Coca-Cola Company’s next chapter of growth. We are committed to transforming and evolving our organization and ambitions — bringing our people closer to the consumer, continuously raising the bar, and embracing digitalization to enable sustainable growth. We are looking for a highly driven individual contributor who thrives on ownership and impact, and who fuels the innovation pipeline with bold ideas that translate into real-world results. This role is not about maintaining the status quo; it is about challenging assumptions, unlocking opportunity, and personally driving valuable breakthrough innovation. You will apply deep product development expertise to lead ideas from concept to execution, contributing to a strong and diverse portfolio of meaningful innovation — accelerating growth and helping shape the future of the organization. Job Purpose Summary As a Senior Manager, Product Development, you will lead the execution of the most impactful product development initiatives to accelerate bottom- and top-line growth, bringing concepts to life through advanced formulation, testing, and commercialization. As the most senior individual contributor on the team, you will support the team lead by coaching and guiding scientists, sharing deep technical expertise, and helping shape team strategy and ways of working. You will partner closely with cross-functional stakeholders to drive local and regional projects, applying strong technical judgment, market insights, and digital tools to ensure products meet consumer expectations, quality standards, regulatory requirements, and manufacturing realities. This is a highly hands-on role for a trusted technical leader who influences through expertise, mentorship, and collaboration while delivering high-impact beverage innovations.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s/Master’s in Food Science, Chemistry, Nutrition, Chemical Engineering, or similar.
- 8-10 years in product development for beverages/food
- Strong technical understanding of ingredient functionality within beverage systems.
- Experience managing multiple projects from ideation to launch in fast-paced environments.
- Familiarity with sensory evaluation, consumer testing, and data interpretation for decision-making.
- Ability to: Think end-to-end across initiatives and influences priorities aligned with strategy.
- Understand and apply the technical domain trends/ new technology at work.
- Encourage creativity within the team and removes barriers to idea generation.
- Leverage internal and external resources smartly.
- Act as a subject-matter expert and sets technical direction or standards.
- Solve complex, ambiguous problems and anticipates downstream impacts.
- Coach and supports others within and outside of the team, sharing expertise and constructive feedback.
- Cross functional influence
- Make timely decisions with incomplete information while managing risk.
- Fluent in English; regional languages a plus.
- Regional travel up to 10–15%.
Responsibilities
- Product Design - Work as part of functional team to align on objective (new product launch, superiority, tax and regulation, productivity) and success criteria’s with OU Innovation Hub, OU TISC and Global category Leads
- Create Prototypes & Formulations – Coach scientists and develop lab-scale recipes driven by consumer insights and technical/supply chain requirements, following GMP and company protocols. Incorporate local insights, new ingredients, and regulatory needs into final product design.
- Test, Learn, Improve – Conduct sensory, analytical, and shelf-life testing together with the Micro and stability teams; use data and basic statistics to guide optimization.
- Scale Up for Market – Lead support from GDI for pilot and commercial production trials, ensuring processes and packaging compatibility.
- Collaborate Broadly - Partner with Marketing, SRA, Supply Chain, Packaging, and Quality for seamless delivery; connect with global technical experts to import best practices.
- Maintain Excellence – Over the full process, keep lab equipment in top condition; follow safety, compliance, and documentation standards.
Benefits
- A full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position, is offered.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
