Job Summary
Product Development Manager - National Accounts
Department: Research & Development
Location: Texas
Immediate Opening
Position Summary
The National Accounts Product Developer is a critical contributor to our success with large-scale customers. This role is responsible for the product development of large-scale bakery and bar products that align with our plant capabilities, profitability goals, and customer menu performance and needs. The ideal candidate brings a blend of creativity, technical expertise, and commercial awareness to deliver winning products for large scale national accounts.
Qualifications
- Bachelor?s degree in Food Science, Culinary Arts, Baking & Pastry, or related field preferred.
- 10+ years of experience in product development, in a commercial bakery or custom food manufacturing environment.
- Proficiency with Word, Excel, product development formulation software and tools like Genesis.
- Excellent communication, documentation, and organizational skills.
Key Responsibilities
Product Development & Documentation
- Develop scalable products (e.g., bars, brownies, cakes, muffins, cookies, bagels, croissants) for national chains.
- Precisely match existing menu items using customer-provided specifications, ingredient decks, and controls.
- Identify menu gaps or underperforming items and develop technically sound, scalable alternatives.
- Create new innovations for customer pitches.
- Use customer generated ideas and create scalable sample prototypes.
- Treat all bench samples as gold-standard prototypes with detailed documentation (ingredients, vendors, process steps).
- Maintain a library of fully vetted concepts for future opportunities.
- Ensure all formulas are entered with specific ingredients for accurate pricing and scalability.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with and through procurement to identify and source new ingredients and packaging.
- Develop relationships with key material vendors, and utilize their technical expertise as needed to advance technical features of our products.
- Communicate frequently and clearly with cross-functional teams.
- Provide technically accurate input to channel managers, and customers, if required.
- May be asked by channel managers to participate in customer meetings (virtual and in-person) and must ensure internal alignment prior to such meetings.
Commercialization & Technical Support
- Organize and participate in plant trials and pilots.
- Support QA and operations pre-and post-launch to ensure gold standards are being adhered to efficiently.
- Use tools like Genesis for nutritional and ingredient deck development.
- Be the technical source of information for our internal teams.
Ideal Candidate Profile
Top Fit:
- Proven experience in large scale commercial bakery product development.
- Demonstrated success in taking custom bench development to fully scaled ($10M+ annual revenue) national launches.
Next Best:
- Proven experience in large scale custom food manufacturing
- Demonstrated success in taking custom bench development to full scale national launch.
- Solid baking skills and willingness to complete AIB or pastry training.
Key Traits & Competencies
- Agile, resilient, and thrive in fast-paced, opportunistic, entrepreneurial environments.
- Good communication skills.
- Comfortable wearing multiple hats and working cross-functionally.
- Technically strong or resourceful in finding answers.
- Results-driven and deadline-oriented; willing to work extended hours when needed.
- Commercially minded: always considers scalability, shelf life, MOQs, and business impact.
- Strong understanding (or willingness to learn) of ingredient functionality in baking.
- Maintains confidentiality on all projects, especially while leveraging vendor technical resources effectively.
How to Apply
Interested candidates should submit their application online using the link below.
Apply Now
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