Product Development & Commercialisation Lead

New Religion; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,800,000 - 2,500,000; Full time

Job summary

New Religion is building water-based beverage products from idea to shelf. We are seeking a hands-on leader to own formulation, sensory optimization, regulatory compliance and cross‑functional coordination with R&D, packaging and manufacturing partners.

You will drive scale-up, cost, and packaging readiness while partnering with founders to grow the product development and commercialization function as the company scales.

Qualifications

• 6–8 years of experience in beverages, nutraceuticals, food or FMCG, with strong beverage development experience.
• Proven track record of commercialising at least 3 beverage products.
• Deep understanding of beverage formulation, ingredients, manufacturing, and packaging.
• Experience with FSSAI requirements and labeling.
• Hands-on problem solver with cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Own beverage development from concept through commercialisation.
• Lead formulation, trials, sensory iterations, pilot runs and scale-up.
• Coordinate with R&D, regulatory, ingredient, packaging and manufacturing partners.
• Ensure regulatory readiness and product costing.
• Drive packaging development and stability testing.

Skills

Beverage development

Regulatory compliance

Formulation & sensory

Scale-up & manufacturing readiness

Nutraceuticals

Supplier coordination

Job description

Every great system is built from the foundation up. New Religion starts with hydration.

This generation has learned to optimise how we eat, train, recover and sleep. New Religion is focused on strengthening the foundation beneath those optimisations by building products that make water stronger.

We’re part of Foundery, backed by Nikhil Kamath, Kishore Biyani and Ronnie Screwvala, and we’re currently building our first products and early team.

THE ROLE

We’re looking for someone who has taken beverage products from formulation to shelf — and understands everything that has to go right in between.

You’ll own product development and commercialisation end to end, balancing formulation, sensory, efficacy, stability, regulatory compliance, manufacturability and cost to build products that work both in the lab and in the market.

You’ll work directly with the founder and coordinate R&D, regulatory, ingredient, packaging and manufacturing partners to get products from idea to shelf.

This is a hands‑on role. You’ll be expected to solve technical and commercial problems, negotiate hard, make decisions and build the product development and commercialisation function as New Religion grows.

WHAT YOU’LL OWN

• Own beverage development from concept through commercialisation.
• Lead formulation, trials, sensory iterations, pilot runs, scale‑up and manufacturing readiness.
• Optimiseformulationsacrossefficacy,sensory,stability,regulatorycompliance,manufacturability and cost.
• Work across functional ingredients, nutraceuticals and their application in water‑based beverage systems.
• Own ingredient sourcing, specifications, technical documentation and supplier coordination.
• Own regulatory readiness with regulatory partners, including FSSAI ingredient permissibility, usage levels, product classification, claims and labelling.
• Drive primary and secondary packaging development.
• Lead stability, shelf‑life testing and final product specifications.
• Identify, evaluate, negotiate with and manage R&D, ingredient, packaging and co‑manufacturing partners.
• Own product costing, BOMs, MOQs and commercial viability.
• Ensure HSN classification, applicable GST rates and other product‑level commercial requirements
• are validated with finance and compliance partners.
• Coordinate R&D, packaging, manufacturing, regulatory, quality and supply‑chain partners to commercialise products on time.
• Troubleshoot formulation, scale‑up, regulatory and commercial issues that could delay launch.
• Own technical transfer and handover of commercialised products into repeatable production.
• Build the product development and commercialisation systems, processes and team as we scale.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

• 6–8 years of relevant experience in beverages, nutraceuticals, food or FMCG, with strong beverage development experience.
• Proven experience successfully commercialising at least 3 beverage products.
• Strong understanding of beverage formulation, ingredient systems, manufacturing, packaging and
• scale‑up.
• Strong understanding of functional ingredients, nutraceuticals and their application in water- based beverage systems.
• Working knowledge of FSSAI requirements covering ingredient permissibility, usage levels, product classification, claims and labelling.
• Experience with stability studies, shelf‑life testing, product specifications and technical documentation.
• Experience working directly with R&D partners, co‑manufacturers, ingredient suppliers and packaging vendors.
• Strong commercial understanding of product costing, BOMs, MOQs and supplier economics.
• Strong negotiation skills are a must.
• Comfortable moving between technical detail, regulatory requirements and commercial decision‑making.
• Strong project ownership and ability to manage multiple partners and timelines.
• Comfortable operating without an established playbook.
• Hands‑on problem solver with strong follow‑through.
• AI-native. You treat AI like electricity, a core part of how you think and work.

BONUS POINTS

• Experience in functional beverages, hydration, nutrition or supplements.
• Experience taking products from bench or pilot stage through successful commercial launch.
• Experience working with novel or emerging functional ingredients and navigating their regulatory requirements.
• Experienceoptimisingformulationsforsensoryperformance,s stability, manufacturabilityandcost.
• Existing network across beverage R&D partners, manufacturers, ingredient suppliers and
• packaging partners in India.
• Startup or early‑stage consumer brand experience.
• Experience building or managing an NPD or commercialisation team.

YOU’LL FIT IF

• You’ve spent years learning how great beverage products go from an idea on paper to something consumers can actually buy and now want the ownership to build that function yourself.
• You’re equally comfortable discussing formulation with an R&D partner, questioning whether an ingredient or claim is FSSAI‑compliant, reviewing a BOM, negotiating with a supplier and solving a scale‑up problem with a manufacturing partner.
• You understand that a great formulation isn’t enough. It needs to taste right, remain stable, meet regulations, work at scale and make commercial sense.
• You don’t stop at the formulation.
• You get the product to shelf.