Director, Product Development & Commercialization

Shameless Foods; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid Time Off

Work From Home

Training & Development

Job summary

Shameless Foods is seeking a hands-on Chief Confectionery Technologist responsible for commercializing Shameless Snacks from brief to first production run. You will own feasibility, COGS, and supplier selection, coordinating co-manufacturers and labs, delivering bench samples, and writing specs.

You will collaborate with Brand, QA, Procurement, Packaging, and FP&A to hit roadmap dates, ensure sensory and stability criteria, and drive cost-down and scale‑up while maintaining Shameless formulas

Qualifications

• 10+ years in confectionery or adjacent food product development.
• Hands-on formulation depth in gummies (pectin and starch).
• Experience taking products from bench through pilot to first commercial run.
• Experience qualifying and managing co-manufacturers without owning the plant.
• Written acceptance criteria and run a technical sensory gate; fluent in CoAs, moisture activity, stability and shelf-life.
• Builds a BOM cost and knows yield and MOQ math.

Responsibilities

• Own commercialization timeline from brief to first production run.
• Create feasibility and cost reads on briefs (COGS) and decide go/no-go.
• Coordinate benchtop samples and vendor labs to deliver ahead of flavor lock.
• Define technical specs, sensory acceptance criteria and shelf-life.
• Translate Brand consumer language to CM process language.

Skills

Confectionery product development

Hands-on formulation

Co-manufacturer management

Documentation discipline

Technical communication

Job description

About the role:

You are in charge of commercializing every Shameless Snacks product: taking an approved brief and delivering a formula, spec, supplier and stable first commercial production run, on the roadmap date and at the target cost. You own the technical answer to “can we make this, where, and at what COGS,” and the go/no-go at each step from bench to first run.

Shameless is an omnichannel better-for-you confectionery brand. We do not own plants. Product is made by co-manufacturers across several confectionery platforms, and the company owns its formulas. This role is the technical center of that model.

What you own:

• The commercialization timeline for every product, brief to first production run, and the go/no-go at each step
• Feasibility and cost reads on every brief before it is approved: can we make it, where, and at what COGS - no experience with COGS and minimal knowledge of comans in North America
• You can also originate concepts for Brand to consider
• Formulation across all platforms, with every formula owned by Shameless in writing - not sure this is clear as the base formulas would come from comans
• Benchtop samples, hands‑on — you make them yourself and through flavor‑house and co‑manufacturer labs (there is no in‑house lab today), and deliver them to Brand 3–4 weeks before flavor lock - have not seen comans having labs, without a lab this is difficult as you will need to rely on comans to run off production lines which would cost for trials, plus slow things down due to scheduling. Some vendors have PPs but depending on product and again their schedule. This is difficult.
• Technical specs and acceptance criteria: sensory, texture, shelf life, stability. You own technical sensory; Brand owns consumer acceptance
• Regulatory and label data: nutrition panel, sugar grams, allergens, claims substantiation - this is normally run by a regulatory person, not PD. Would need to be trained in Genesis to run label statements or any other software.
• Structural packaging spec (bag, master case, display) with Brand on artwork - this would be done by pack group?
• Supplier and co‑manufacturer technical qualification: technical fit, trials, site audits. You recommend which co‑manufacturer makes what difficult here, need to find an individual with coman experience from a virtual factory manager level. My experience with comans is simply running trials
• Pilot runs, stability, scale‑up and first commercial run, ending in a released spec, BOM and test plan handed to Quality and Procurement
• Post‑launch improvement: sensory consistency, cost‑down and reformulation, driven by market feedback and quality signals

How you work with the rest of the company:

Brand decides what and when. You decide how, and whether it can be done at cost. Each function holds the final call on its own piece:

• Brand owns the brief, the roadmap, consumer acceptance, artwork and go‑to‑market
• Quality (under the Director of Supply Chain, Procurement and Sourcing) approves the spec and test plan and releases lots at the co‑manufacturer
• Procurement and Sourcing owns commercial terms, MOQs and purchase orders
• The executive team owns co‑manufacturer contracts, IP, recall terms, and which co‑manufacturer gets volume
• Operations owns inbound logistics, tariffs and 3PL
• FP&A owns COGS targets, the margin model, and S&OP
• The Retail team owns retail spec sheets, pallet patterns and OTIF

Your job is to give each of them what they need from the product: the spec, the cost inputs, the lead times, the recommendation on where it should be made - cost inputs is usually run by someone in finance, i unfortunately do not have experience in costs, COGs, etc

What success looks like in year one:

• The co‑manufacturer transition is complete for the core portfolio - more info needed here, does that mean all China based products to North American comans?
• Every active SKU has a written, Shameless‑owned formula and spec
• Written acceptance criteria exist for every platform, and every incoming sample is evaluated against them before it reaches Brand - not sure what is meant by written acceptance criteria? Who writes it Brand?
• Every launch on the roadmap ships on its date, with formulation freeze and benchtop samples delivered ahead of flavor lock
• Landed COGS on transitioned SKUs is down against the prior baseline, quantified with FP&A - not understood as unfortunately I have no experience with finance.
• Every project is visible in the pipeline system with a stage, owner and next gate, and nothing depends on one person’s inbox - applying a stage gate process to your commercialization is tough due to the speed you want to launch. The whole idea of a stage gate process is to slow down to verify every I is dotted and T is crossed.

What you bring:

Experience

• 10+ years in confectionery or adjacent food product development, still hands‑on at the bench, with formulation depth in gummies (pectin and starch), and depth in at least two of: aerated, panned/crunchy, licorice, sugar‑reduced systems (allulose, erythritol, fiber).
• Has taken products from bench through pilot to first commercial run, and has transferred a formula between plants
• Has qualified and managed co‑manufacturers without owning the plant, including site audits and holding a CM to spec - i have not managed comans unfortunately.
• Has written acceptance criteria and run a technical sensory gate; fluent in CoAs, moisture activity, stability and shelf‑life - not sure what a technical sensory gate is.
• Builds a BOM cost and knows yield and MOQ math - unfortunately no experience.

How you work

• Ownership — you hold the timeline and the go/no-go; when a launch slips for product readiness, that is yours

• Resourcefulness — there is no in‑house lab or pilot plant; trials run at supplier and co‑manufacturer facilities, and you make that work.

• Documentation discipline — formulas, specs and supplier history live in the system, not in your head.

• Speed with rigor — comfortable being the whole function in a company that moves weekly, without lowering the technical bar.

• Clear communication — you translate between Brand’s consumer language and a co‑manufacturer’s process language, in both directions.

• Paid Time Off

• Work From Home

• Training & Development