Director, Product Development & R&D

Tobacco Technology, Inc.; Eldersburg (MD); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Tobacco Technology, Inc. seeks a Director of Product Development & R&D to lead the company’s product development and research efforts. The role manages R&D managers, senior flavorists, scientists, and other technical staff to align resources with strategic goals.

The Director will drive development from concept through commercialization, ensuring alignment with quality, regulatory, operations, and sales teams, while fostering innovation and process improvements across the organization.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science or related field required; advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years in product development, food science, flavor development, or related manufacturing environments.
• Experience leading scientists, flavorists, chemists, or other technical professionals.
• Strong understanding of formulation development and commercialization.
• Experience transitioning products from lab to commercial manufacturing.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of new flavors, formulations, applications, and related products from concept to commercialization.
• Define development priorities based on customer requirements, business opportunities, and technical complexity.
• Ensure objectives, timelines, and deliverables are clearly defined for all projects.
• Set standards for formulation development, testing, documentation, and technical review.
• Provide technical direction on complex or high-priority projects and oversee transition to manufacturing and operations.

Skills

Leadership & people mgmt

Strategic thinking

Regulatory knowledge

Flavor chemistry expertise

Cross-functional collaboration

Project management

Communication skills

Quality & process improvement

Scale-up & manufacturing

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Flavor Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or related field

Advanced degree preferred

Job description

The Director of Product Development & R&D provides strategic and operational leadership for the company’s product development and research functions. This senior-level position is responsible for leading the R&D Manager, Senior Flavorists, Flavorists, Scientists, and other technical development personnel while establishing the priorities, processes, and standards that guide new product development.

The Director serves as the senior technical leader connecting Development, R&D, Operations, Quality, Regulatory, and Sales. The position is responsible for ensuring customer and internal development projects move efficiently from concept and formulation through validation, scale-up, commercialization, and ongoing technical support.

This role requires both strong technical knowledge and strong organizational leadership. The Director is expected to develop the technical team, improve development processes, establish accountability, manage competing priorities, and ensure development resources are aligned with the company’s strategic and commercial objectives.

Product Development

• Oversee the development of new flavors, formulations, applications, and related products from initial request through commercialization.
• Establish development priorities based on customer requirements, business opportunity, technical complexity, available resources, and strategic importance.
• Ensure development projects have clearly defined objectives, responsibilities, timelines, and deliverables.
• Establish standards for formulation development, testing, documentation, sample preparation, and technical review.
• Review and provide technical direction on complex or high-priority development projects.
• Ensure successful transition of formulations from laboratory development to full-scale manufacturing.
• Partner with Operations to address scale-up challenges, manufacturing feasibility, raw material considerations, process requirements, and production efficiency.
• Ensure projects are formally transferred to Operations, Quality, Regulatory, and other appropriate departments before commercialization.
• Establish and lead the company’s longer-term R&D and innovation strategy.
• Identify emerging ingredients, technologies, processes, and market trends that could create new product or business opportunities.
• Balance immediate customer-driven development projects with longer-term research and innovation initiatives.
• Develop internal technical capabilities and proprietary knowledge that strengthen the company’s competitive position.
• Evaluate new raw materials, technologies, suppliers, and development methodologies.

Organizational Collaboration

• Serve as the primary technical and development liaison between Sales, Operations, Quality, Regulatory, Purchasing, and executive leadership.
• Partner with Sales to evaluate customer opportunities and determine technical feasibility, development requirements, and realistic project timelines.
• Ensure commercial commitments are aligned with technical capability, development capacity, regulatory requirements, and manufacturing feasibility.
• Work closely with Operations to ensure products developed in the laboratory can be manufactured safely, consistently, efficiently, and at the required scale.
• Partner with Quality and Regulatory to ensure formulations meet applicable food safety, labeling, regulatory, and customer requirements.

Technical Standards & Documentation

• Ensure formulas, processing instructions, specifications, and technical documentation are complete before commercial production.
• Ensure appropriate change-control procedures are followed when formulas, ingredients, suppliers, or manufacturing processes are modified.

Performance Management

Develop and monitor department KPIs, including:

• Projects completed on time
• Sample turnaround time
• Projects by priority and stageReformulation and Rework Rate
• Development Capacity Utilization

Provide regular development and R&D performance updates to executive leadership.

Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities:

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Flavor Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or a related scientific discipline required; advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years’ experience in product development, food science, flavor development, ingredient technology, or related manufacturing environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading scientists, flavorists, chemists, or other technical professionals.
• Strong understanding of formulation development and commercialization.
• Experience transitioning products from laboratory development to commercial manufacturing.
• Ability to evaluate both the technical and commercial implications of development decisions.
• Strong understanding of food ingredient functionality, raw materials, manufacturing processes, and product specifications.
• Excellent leadership, communication, organization, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to communicate complex technical issues effectively to customers, Sales, Operations, and executive leadership.
• Experience within the flavor, fragrance, food ingredient or beverage industry.
• Experience with liquid and dry flavor systems.
• Experience with scale-up from laboratory batches to commercial production.
• Familiarity with flavor regulations, food safety requirements and applicable FDA requirements.
• Experience implementing structured product development or stage-gate systems.
• Experience developing and managing technical teams during periods of organizational growth.

This position requires a regular presence in the office.