Product Development Specialist – Bread & Bakery Manufacturing

ROTELLA'S ITALIAN BAKERY; La Vista (NE); On-site; USD 60,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Health, dental, vision, life insurance

401(k) and profit-sharing

Paid time off

Paid Holidays

Job summary

Rotella’s Italian Bakery in Nebraska seeks a Product Development Specialist to create and improve high-volume bread and bakery products. You’ll work hands-on on dough, fermentation, and production scale-up to ensure repeatable, profitable results on commercial bakery lines.

Join a team focused on food safety, quality, and process improvement. You’ll collaborate with production, QA, purchasing, and sales to translate market needs into manufacturable products.

Qualifications

• Experience in bread, bakery, dough, baked goods, or food manufacturing product development preferred.
• Hands-on with formulas, trials, substitutions, troubleshooting, and scale-up.
• Able to balance product quality, cost, manufacturability, and customer needs.

Responsibilities

• Develop, test, and refine bread and bakery products from concept to launch.
• Adjust formulas for dough characteristics, fermentation, bake profile, texture, and shelf life.
• Partner with production, quality, purchasing, sales, and operations to scale manufactured products.
• Conduct bench trials, pilot runs, sensory evaluations, and product improvements.
• Document formulas, ingredients, processing steps, production parameters, and specs.
• Support troubleshooting for dough handling, mixing, proofing, baking, cooling, slicing, and packaging.
• Identify opportunities to improve quality, efficiency, cost, or manufacturability.
• Maintain focus on food safety, sanitation, GMPs, and allergen control.

Skills

Bread & bakery knowledge

Dough handling

Formulation & scale-up

Cross-functional collaboration

Documentation & records

Production floor experience

Education

Food science / baking science / culinary education

Job description

Description

Job Overview

Product Development Specialist – Bread & Bakery Manufacturing

Rotella’s Italian Bakery, Inc. | LaVista / Gretna, Nebraska

About the Role

Rotella’s Italian Bakery Inc. is hiring a Product Development Specialist to help develop, improve, test, and commercialize bread and bakery products in a high-volume manufacturing environment. This is a hands-on role for someone who understands dough, baking, production scale-up, and the discipline required to make products consistently on commercial bakery lines.

Job Type: Full-time

Location: LaVista / Gretna, Nebraska

Key Responsibilities

• Develop, test, and refine bread, bun, roll, and specialty bakery products from concept through production launch.
• Create and adjust formulas with attention to dough characteristics, fermentation, proofing, bake profile, texture, flavor, appearance, shelf life, and consistency.
• Partner closely with production, quality, purchasing, sales, and operations teams to ensure new and existing products can be manufactured efficiently at scale.
• Conduct bench trials, pilot runs, production trials, sensory evaluations, and product improvement work.
• Translate customer needs, market trends, and operational requirements into products that are practical, profitable, and repeatable.
• Document formulas, ingredients, processing steps, production parameters, testing results, and finished product specifications.
• Support troubleshooting for product quality issues related to dough handling, mixing, proofing, baking, cooling, slicing, packaging, and shelf life.
• Identify ingredient, process, or equipment opportunities that improve quality, efficiency, cost, or manufacturability.
• Maintain a strong focus on food safety, quality systems, sanitation, allergen control, GMPs, and consistency.

Qualifications

• Experience in bread, bakery, dough, baked goods, or food manufacturing product development preferred.
• Strong understanding of baking or food science, ingredient functionality, fermentation, mixing, proofing, baking, cooling, packaging, and finished product quality.
• Hands-on experience with formulas, production trials, ingredient substitutions, troubleshooting, and scale-up from test batch to production.
• Ability to work closely with production, quality, purchasing, sales, and leadership to balance product quality, cost, manufacturability, and customer requirements.
• Food science, baking science, culinary, or related education is preferred; equivalent bakery manufacturing experience will be considered.
• Strong communication, documentation, organization, and follow-through skills.
• Comfortable spending time on the production floor and working directly with operators, supervisors, and quality teams.

What We Are Looking For

We are looking for someone who is curious, practical, detail-oriented, and passionate about bread. The right person will enjoy improving products, solving manufacturing challenges, and helping bring bakery ideas to life in a way that works in real production. This position requires both creativity and strong manufacturing discipline.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation based on experience
• Health, dental, vision, and life insurance
• 401(k) and profit-sharing opportunities
• Paid time off
• Paid Holidays

Benefits

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Work Location: In person

Requirements

Qualifications

• Experience in bread, bakery, dough, baked goods, or food manufacturing product development preferred.
• Strong understanding of baking or food science, ingredient functionality, fermentation, mixing, proofing, baking, cooling, packaging, and finished product quality.
• Hands-on experience with formulas, production trials, ingredient substitutions, troubleshooting, and scale-up from test batch to production.
• Ability to work closely with production, quality, purchasing, sales, and leadership to balance product quality, cost, manufacturability, and customer requirements.
• Food science, baking science, culinary, or related education is preferred; equivalent bakery manufacturing experience will be considered.
• Strong communication, documentation, organization, and follow-through skills.
• Comfortable spending time on the production floor and working directly with operators, supervisors, and quality teams.