R&D Manager

Pennsylvania Food Corporation; Portage (WI); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The R&D Manager at Pennsylvania Food Corporation leads research, formulation, and commercialization for food products from concept through scale-up and launch, ensuring customer expectations, safety, and regulatory standards are met.

You will translate briefs into development plans, oversee benchtop to plant trials, validate processing parameters, and drive quality, cost, and schedule improvements while mentoring cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage R&D and commercialization projects from concept to launch.
• Translate customer briefs, market opportunities, and constraints into actionable development plans.
• Oversee benchtop development, pilot trials, plant trials, sensory evaluations, and shelf-life studies.
• Develop formulas, processing parameters, product specs, ingredient standards, and finished product requirements.
• Evaluate emerging ingredients, technologies, and market trends to strengthen the product pipeline.
• Maintain accurate R&D documentation including trial reports, results, approvals, and specifications.
• Lead technical leadership and continuous improvement efforts across functions.
• Coordinate cross-functional execution with Commercial, Operations, QA, Regulatory, Procurement, and Supply Chain.

Job description

• Lead new product development, product improvements, line extensions, and formula optimization initiatives aligned with business strategy, customer requirements, and manufacturing capabilities.
• Translate customer briefs, market opportunities, operational constraints, and commercial priorities into actionable R&D project plans.
• Conduct and oversee benchtop development, pilot trials, plant trials, product testing, sensory evaluations, and shelf-life studies.
• Develop formulas, processing parameters, product specifications, ingredient standards, and finished product requirements.
• Evaluate emerging ingredients, technologies, processing methods, and market trends to strengthen the product pipeline and improve product performance.
• Maintain accurate R&D documentation, including formulas, trial reports, test results, approvals, specifications, and change records.

Food Safety, Quality & Regulatory Compliance

• Ensure all product development activities comply with FDA/FSMA requirements, GMPs, HACCP or food safety plans, allergen controls, labeling requirements, customer standards, and internal quality systems.
• Partner with QA and Regulatory to approve ingredients, claims, labels, specifications, nutritional information, and finished product requirements.
• Support audit readiness by maintaining complete, accurate, and traceable technical documentation for products, ingredients, suppliers, and processes.
• Assess product and process risks related to food safety, allergens, labeling, microbial stability, shelf life, and customer requirements.
• Support investigations and corrective actions related to product quality, customer complaints, holds, deviations, and formula or process issues.
• Lead commercialization activities from concept approval through full-scale production launch, including project timelines, trial plans, risk assessments, and launch readiness reviews.
• Coordinate plant trials, process validations, first production runs, and post-launch reviews in partnership with Operations, QA, Sanitation, Maintenance, Procurement, and Supply Chain.
• Develop and validate processing parameters, yields, batch instructions, allergen controls, packaging requirements, and quality checkpoints for new or revised products.
• Identify commercialization risks and develop mitigation plans related to equipment capability, ingredient availability, sanitation/changeover needs, labor impact, throughput, shelf life, and cost.
• Ensure effective capacity planning, labor deployment, line balancing, and sanitation/changeover optimization to minimize downtime and risk.
• Partner with Procurement and suppliers to evaluate new ingredients, alternate sources, ingredient functionality, cost impacts, lead times, and quality risks.
• Support cost savings, margin improvement, and supply continuity through formula optimization, ingredient substitutions, yield improvement, and waste reduction.
• Review raw material specifications, supplier documentation, certificates of analysis, and technical data to ensure alignment with product and regulatory requirements.
• Maintain awareness of ingredient trends, regulatory developments, customer expectations, and competitive product activity.

Technical Leadership & Continuous Improvement

• Serve as a technical subject matter expert for formulas, product functionality, processing behavior, troubleshooting, and product performance.
• Lead structured problem solving for formula, process, quality, sensory, shelf-life, and manufacturing performance issues.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives related to yield, waste, labor efficiency, product consistency, sanitation effectiveness, and customer satisfaction.
• Provide technical training and guidance to Operations, QA, Sanitation, Maintenance, and Commercial teams on new products, revised processes, and critical product attributes.

Project Management & Cross-Functional Execution

• Manage multiple R&D and commercialization projects simultaneously, ensuring clear priorities, milestones, owners, risks, and decision points.
• Partner with Commercial and customer-facing teams to assess feasibility, respond to customer requests, prepare samples, support presentations, and communicate technical considerations.
• Coordinate with Finance and Operations to evaluate product costs, yields, labor impact, equipment constraints, and margin expectations.
• Communicate project status, technical risks, launch readiness, and resource needs to leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Build, coach, and develop technical talent within R&D and related project teams.
• Set clear expectations for documentation discipline, project execution, food safety awareness, technical rigor, and accountability.
• Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, practical problem solving, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with HR and leadership on workforce planning, talent development, succession planning, and organizational capability for the R&D function.

Cross-Functional & External Collaboration

• Partner closely with Sales, Marketing, Operations, Quality, Regulatory, Procurement, Supply Chain, Engineering, Sanitation, and Finance to align technical execution with business needs.
• Serve as a technical representative in customer meetings, product reviews, commercialization discussions, audits, and supplier interactions as needed.
• Support customer onboarding, new product introductions, scale-up activities, product troubleshooting, and technical communications.

The R&D Manager is responsible for leading research, product development, formulation, commercialization, and technical innovation for food manufacturing operations. This role owns the development and improvement of products from concept through scale-up and launch, ensuring that new and existing products meet customer expectations, food safety requirements, regulatory standards, quality specifications, operational capabilities, and financial targets.

The R&D Manager serves as the technical bridge between Commercial, Operations, Quality Assurance, Regulatory, Procurement, Supply Chain, Finance, and customers. This role leads product innovation, process validation, ingredient evaluation, technical documentation, and commercialization execution while supporting company growth in a regulated food environment.