- Location
- New York, New York, United States · published
- Department
- Education
- Seniority
- Director
- Source
- Workable
Description
The Company:
HallPass Candy is building the next generation of candy. Our goal is simple: create the candy people already love, with a fraction of the calories, at the same price. HallPass recently launched nationwide at Walmart.
HallPass is part of the Medici Brands portfolio, alongside brands like David. This is a rare opportunity to join a breakout food brand at a pivotal stage of growth. Led by CEO Peter Rahal, Cofounder and Former CEO of RXBAR, and President Michael Tierney, Founder and Former CEO of Stuffed Puffs, HallPass brings together deep experience building and scaling category-defining consumer brands.
The Role
HallPass is seeking a Director of Research & Development to lead product innovation and formulation across our growing confectionary portfolio, with an initial focus on chocolate and chocolate-based confectionery.
The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in chocolate and confectionery with a hands-on, entrepreneurial approach to product development. This is an opportunity to help build the R&D function at a rapidly growing brand, developing products that can compete with the most iconic candy products in the market.
Key Responsibilities
Product Development & Innovation
- Lead end-to-end formulation and development of new chocolate and confectionery products, from initial concept through commercialization.
- Develop innovative formulations that deliver the taste, texture, appearance, and sensory experience of traditional candy with substantially reduced calories.
- Drive formulation improvements across existing products, optimizing taste, texture, shelf life, nutritional profile, and cost.
- Identify and evaluate novel ingredients, sweetener systems, fats, fibers, and processing technologies that enable breakthrough confectionery products.
- Translate consumer insights and competitive benchmarks into actionable product development priorities.
Chocolate & Confectionery Expertise
- Apply deep expertise in chocolate processing, tempering, crystallization, enrobing, molding, fillings, coatings, and related confectionery manufacturing processes.
- Develop and optimize chocolate systems, including sugar-reduced and alternative-sweetener formulations.
- Solve technical challenges related to sweetness, mouthfeel, texture, stability, moisture migration, and shelf life.
- Evaluate ingredient interactions and processing parameters to ensure product quality and consistency at commercial scale.
- Apply broader food science and product development expertise across additional confectionary categories e.g. baked goods
Commercialization & Manufacturing
- Partner directly with our commercialization team, co-manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, and equipment partners to develop commercially viable products.
- Establish manufacturing specifications, processing parameters, and quality standards.
- Troubleshoot formulation and processing challenges during scale-up and ongoing production.
- Identify opportunities to improve manufacturing efficiency, ingredient costs, and product consistency without compromising quality.
R&D Strategy & Leadership
- Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing R&D team, fostering a culture of innovation, technical excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement.
- Build scalable R&D processes, documentation, testing protocols, and product development capabilities.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with leadership, operations, supply chain, and commercial teams to bring new products to market.
- Manage external technical partners, laboratories, suppliers, and consultants as needed.
- Help define the long-term technical capabilities and R&D infrastructure required to support HallPass's growth.