Manager, Research & Development

🔥 8 minutes ago

🇺🇸 United States – Remote

💵 $130k - $145k / year

⏰ Full Time

🟡 Mid-level

🟠 Senior

👔 Manager

👻 Ghost score 0%

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Khloud

WebsiteLinkedInAll Job Openings

1 - 10 employees

🍽️ Food & Beverage

🛍️ eCommerce

🛒 Retail

💰 $12M Series unknown on 2025-05

Food & Beverage • eCommerce • Retail

Khloud is a consumer snack brand that produces protein-packed popcorn made from whole grains and clean, simple ingredients. The company sells single-serve and multi-pack popcorn in a variety of flavors, emphasizes 7g of protein per serving, non-GMO and gluten-free formulations, and avoids artificial flavors and seed oils. Khloud sells primarily through its Shopify-powered eCommerce site with subscription options and is also distributed in retail stores.

📋 Description

• Lead development of new products, line extensions, renovations, and cost-optimization projects across snack formats. • Partner with Marketing to translate consumer insights and product concepts into formulas meeting sensory, cost, manufacturing, regulatory, and retailer requirements. • Define product requirements, assess technical and food safety feasibility, and support claims substantiation with Regulatory. • Evaluate ingredients and processing methods for performance, scalability, and cost. • Own commercialization from feasibility through full-scale production. • Lead plant trials, scale-ups, and process validations across co-manufacturers, making go/no-go decisions. • Solve technical problems in high-protein formulas. • Research emerging ingredients, processing technologies, and category trends. • Serve as the primary technical resource for products throughout their lifecycle. • Lead day-to-day technical support for co-manufacturing partners. • Partner with Quality on root-cause investigations and lasting corrective actions. • Drive improvements in yield, throughput, consistency, product quality, and consumer experience. • Deliver cost savings through formula optimization, ingredient changes, and process improvements. • Use plant data, consumer feedback, and sensory results to prioritize improvements and track KPIs. • Run internal employee sensory studies. • Scope and manage external consumer research, including IHUTs, central location tests, and competitive benchmarking. • Write RFPs, select and manage research vendors, drive timelines, and present findings to leadership. • Align Operations, FSQA, Procurement, Supply Chain, Marketing, and Sales on priorities and launches. • Communicate project status, risks, and recommendations to leadership. • Build relationships with suppliers, co-manufacturers, and technical partners. • Document formulas, process changes, validations, and technical learnings. • Set stage-gate, change-control, and document-control standards. • Improve product-development processes, tools, team efficiency, portfolio visibility, timelines, and performance metrics.

🎯 Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Food Engineering, or a related field. • 5–10 years of progressive experience in CPG food product development, commercialization, or technical operations, including at least 3 years leading projects end to end. • Experience with popcorn, baked or fried snacks. • Track record of leading products from concept through scale-up, plant trials, and commercial launch. • Strong formulation and ingredient functionality skills. • Experience leading trials and resolving technical issues with co-manufacturers. • Experience designing sensory tests, including triangle, paired comparison, hedonic, and descriptive tests. • Experience managing outside consumer research vendors, including IHUTs. • Working knowledge of food safety, quality systems, labeling, and retailer specifications. • Strong project management skills and ability to influence cross-functional teams without direct authority. • Willingness to travel about 25–40%. • Preferred: experience with high-protein or better-for-you products. • Preferred: experience building R&D processes in an emerging, high-growth company. • Preferred: experience with continuous improvement or operational excellence methods. • Regular travel to pilot plants and production facilities, including exposure to allergens and PPE requirements.