Manager, R&D - Product Dev

Job Description: R&D Manager, Cream Cheese Product Development  

The R&D Manager, Cream Cheese Product Development leads product development across medium- to high-complexity projects for the Philadelphia business while managing and developing a team of product developers supporting a broad portfolio of initiatives. This role is responsible for translating business needs into practical development plans, driving technical execution, and ensuring projects progress effectively from concept through commercialization. 
 
This leader is expected to operate effectively in a dynamic, cross-functional environment and to balance people leadership with strong technical and project leadership. Success in the role requires sound product development judgment, the ability to manage multiple priorities, and strong collaboration across R&D, operations, quality, regulatory, marketing, and supply chain. The role also requires building team capability, setting clear expectations, and developing talent to meet current and future business needs. 

Key Responsibilities:     

• Lead product development across multiple cross-functional projects within the Philadelphia crema cheese business, including innovation, renovation, cost reduction and brand maintenance work 
• Manage, coach, and develop a team of product developers, including setting priorities, providing feedback, and building technical and leadership capability across product development and brand maintenance responsibilities 
• Translate business objectives into clear development plans and ensure effective execution from concept through commercialization 
• Partner with cross-functional teams to drive project progress, resolve technical issues, and deliver against business timelines 
• Lead product testing, qualification, and commercialization activities across laboratory, pilot plant, and production environments 
• Apply strong technical judgment to product, ingredient, process, and formulation challenges and guide the team through problem-solving and decision-making 
• Communicate technical findings, recommendations, risks, and implications clearly to cross-functional stakeholders and leadership 
• Manage multiple priorities concurrently and proactively identify tradeoffs, resource constraints, and priority conflicts across initiatives, including planned and unplanned brand maintenance asks 
• Build strong ways of working across the team and cross-functional partners to improve execution, clarity, and accountability 
• Demonstrate flexibility and willingness to learn new categories, technologies, and processing areas in support of business needs 
• Ensure high-quality documentation, technical rigor, and strong executional discipline across development work 
• Mentor, coach, and collaborate with colleagues within and outside the immediate team to strengthen capability and business results 
  

Qualifications:     

• Bachelor’s degree required in Food Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Life Sciences, or a related field, plus a minimum of 6 years of product development experience within CPG, food and beverage, or a related industry; or master’s degree plus a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience, or PhD plus a minimum of 4 years of relevant experience  

• Experience with cheese and dairy ingredients or products, formulations and manufacturing processes or dairy science education 

• Demonstrated people leadership experience including managing, coaching, and developing technical talent 

• Strong knowledge of consumer goods, food chemistry, analytical testing, formulations and processing used in food manufacturing 

• Proven ability to lead product development and commercialization across multiple projects and priorities 

• Strong communication, influencing, project management, and problem-solving skills 

• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment with changing priorities 

• Strong technical judgment and ability to design effective experiments, interpret results, and adjust plans as needed 

• Self-motivated and able to deliver results with a high degree of ownership in a complex environment 

• Strong ability to prioritize across competing business needs and make sound tradeoff decisions 

• Willingness to travel up to 30%, including travel to internal plants, co-manufacturers, suppliers, and other business locations in the United States and Canada  

 Work Environment & Schedule 

This position is considered a Normal office environment with some travel or visits to external locations; offices are open workspaces.  Additionally, this role requires in office presence at least three days per week in compliance with hybrid work schedule. 

Physical Requirements 

Physical demands include but not limited to