Summary

Are you a creative and driven professional with a passion for developing innovative meat products? Join our team as a Product Development Manager and lead the charge from concept ideation through commercialization. Be at the forefront of innovation, quality improvement, and cost savings while collaborating with cross-functional teams to bring exciting new products to market.

Company

At Land O’Frost, our brands of lunchmeat, hot dogs and specialty sausage products are recognized as one of the nation’s best-selling and trusted brands. We have accomplished this through our incredible team of employees who are customer focused, motivated, achievers, developers, and purpose driven.

How You Will Contribute

• Develop new meat products from concept ideation through commercialization.
• Lead and execute multiple projects concurrently, including innovation, quality improvement, product optimization, and cost savings.
• Develop manufacturing procedures, specifications, labels, and product costs.
• Collaborate with and lead cross-functional teams, both internal and external (co-manufacturers), in the execution of product launches.
• Influence business decisions by providing clear communication of results, technical hurdles with proposed solutions, and technical recommendations.
• Design and direct laboratory and production trials involving formulation, processing, packaging, and shelf life.
• Develop test plans with hypotheses and translate results to meet business objectives.
• Stay abreast of new developments in ingredient and process technologies, packaging, design, category trends, and related fields.
• Design and execute research to validate and implement new technologies to improve existing product performance or introduce new products.
• Collaborate with Regulatory partners on USDA requirements and regulations involving meat labeling, nutritional validation, GMO, allergen status, etc.
• Work with Operations and Business partners to identify opportunities to improve product performance or efficiencies.
• Develop strong relationships, both internally and externally (industry and academia), to execute projects and meet business objectives.
• Advise and mentor junior developers and cross-functional partners.

About You

• 5+ years in product development, R&D, or a related field.
• Bachelor’s degree required (Master’s degree a plus) in Meat Science, Food Science, or a related field.
• Proficient in Microsoft 365.
• ERP system experience preferred.
• Local and/or overnight travel required (approximately 25%).