Product Development Lead: Food Innovation & Scale-Up

Sugar Foods Corporation; Commerce (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 115,000; Full time

Job summary

Sugar Foods Corporation in Commerce, CA is seeking a Product Development Manager to lead product development from concept to commercialization. The role combines hands-on formulation work with strategic leadership across R&D projects and cross-functional teams.

As a senior contributor, you will mentor developers, optimize processes, and ensure quality, cost feasibility, and timely delivery of new products for our food manufacturing portfolio.

Qualifications

• BS in Food Science or related field required; MS desirable.
• 8–10 years in food product development or R&D in a food manufacturing environment.
• Minimum 5 years in a management or lead role.
• Experience leading projects from formulation to scale-up and commercialization.
• Strong expertise in product formulation, process optimization and quality improvement.
• Ability to balance hands-on development with leadership responsibilities.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for product development across projects; supervise Project Levels 1–2, with ability to support Level 3 as needed.
• Guide development approaches and decision-making to ensure quality, cost, feasibility.
• Coach and mentor product developers to strengthen capability and accountability; stay hands-on as needed with formulation and trials.
• Ensure development decisions consider quality, cost, feasibility and long-term business impact; support continuous improvement within R&D.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Sales/Marketing, Operations, QA, Purchasing and Finance; leverage external resources to set priorities.
• BS in Food Science or related field required, or equivalent experience. MS in Food Science desirable.

Skills

Leadership

Project management

Product formulation

Quality improvement

Analytical thinking

Problem solving

Team mentorship

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

BS in Food Science

MS in Food Science desirable

Job description

Sugar Foods Corporation in Commerce, CA is seeking a Product Development Manager to lead product development from concept to commercialization. The role combines hands-on formulation work with strategic leadership across R&D projects and cross-functional teams.

As a senior contributor, you will mentor developers, optimize processes, and ensure quality, cost feasibility, and timely delivery of new products for our food manufacturing portfolio.