Senior R&D Manager: Snack Innovation & Leadership

Mars, Incorporated and its Affiliates; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 119,000 - 164,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company bonus

Job summary

Mars, Incorporated and its Affiliates is seeking a Senior Manager R&D for Nature's Bakery in Chicago to lead product development activities and provide advanced technical leadership for innovation. The role will guide a small team, manage resource allocation, and drive high-impact projects with autonomy.

The position emphasizes technical delivery, risk management, and talent development, with opportunities to collaborate across R&D, manufacturing, quality, and regulatory groups, while traveling

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related technical discipline.
• 10–12+ years of product development leadership experience.
• Deep expertise in product innovation, formulation, prototyping, scale-up, and commercialization readiness.
• Strong ability to plan experiments, analyze data, and document decisions.
• Willingness to travel to laboratories, pilot plants, manufacturing sites, suppliers, or learning locations.

Responsibilities

• Set team priorities, direct product development activities, allocate work, manage delivery trade-offs, and coach up to three direct reports.
• Plan and execute technical work to deliver product innovation, formulation, prototyping, product quality, scale-up, and commercialization readiness against objectives, timelines, and compliance.
• Use data, experimentation, risk assessment, and technical judgment to make recommendations and resolve complex issues.
• Partner with cross-functional teams including R&D, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, commercial, regulatory, and external partners.
• Document assumptions, specifications, methods, decisions, learnings, and handoffs in accordance with governance requirements.
• Lead complex investigations, establish best practices, influence technical strategy, develop talent, and ensure team performance.

Skills

Product development leadership

Formulation expertise

Data analysis

Technical strategy

Education

Bachelor's degree in Food Science/Chemistry/Biology/Engineering/Nutrition

Job description

Mars, Incorporated and its Affiliates is seeking a Senior Manager R&D for Nature's Bakery in Chicago to lead product development activities and provide advanced technical leadership for innovation. The role will guide a small team, manage resource allocation, and drive high-impact projects with autonomy.

The position emphasizes technical delivery, risk management, and talent development, with opportunities to collaborate across R&D, manufacturing, quality, and regulatory groups, while traveling