Product Development Director jobs in Petersburg, VA

Hello Richmond, our RD&S Team is growing and would like to hear from experienced and passionate Food product Developers.  #foodcareers #planetpositive #chickpeas

Sabra makes America’s most iconic and beloved hummus and a delicious range of plant-based dips and spreads. We are dedicated to uniting and delighting the world around planet-positive food.

Sabra was founded in 1986 in Astoria, Queens and is headquartered in White Plains, New York. Sabra’s 500 team members proudly produce hummus in Chesterfield County, Virginia, taking great care to ensure the highest-quality hummus is ready to go home with you. From party time to snack time, Sabra is always a feel-good food.

Sustainability is in our roots. Sabra hummus is made with chickpeas grown on family-farms in the Pacific Northwest. The chickpea is not only a nutritional powerhouse but an agricultural treasure, pulling nitrogen from the atmosphere and depositing nutrients into the soil for future crops to consume, making the world a better place one chickpea at a time. Our commitment to the planet drives the ingredients we source, the products we produce, the choices we make and the way we engage with one another and with our community.

This role provides guidance and direction and ensures successful stage-gate processes are followed. The incumbent will also work externally to screen new technologies for our open innovation pipeline.

Dip Into Your Role

• Manage the end-to-end Food Product Development Lifecycle for their platform (either Beyond or Core)
• Lead a team of product Developers and Technicians, setting direction and providing guidance
• Partner and influence cross-functionally across the business to ensure necessary and successful outcomes
• Work with cross-functional partners to develop the scope of projects and create project plans for development work in the lab, pilot plant, and plant trials to validate and support current products and create new ones.
• Scope, direct, and ensure product scale-up from culinary standard to lab prototype to pilot plant to commercialization. Skilled in developing commercial specifications and translating benchtop and pilot plant formulas to production formulas.
• Develop intellectual property strategies for a capability or technology that can alter strategy or create a competitive advantage in the marketplace
• Researches and collaborates with ingredient vendors, universities, or other research institutions on new, novel, and unique ingredients that could provide a competitive advantage.
• Anticipates impact of formulation on innovation/product P&L and adjusts development to fit P&L needs. Ability to manage project and department budgets. Basic understanding of budget management and P&L outlook. Use knowledge of market metrics and consumer trends to influence innovation and business strategy.
• Ensure the team conducts shelf-life studies – design, execution, and interpretation of results. Able to adapt new analytical methodologies to solve shelf life or stability concerns or issues
• Oversee the plan, design, and delivery of complex projects contributing to ideation, reviewing and identifying new projects, developing, implementing, and executing technical plans, collecting and analyzing data, communicating results and project status, generating reports and making presentations. Comfortable communicating outcomes of studies and recommendations to leadership.
• Train, coach, mentor, and support interns, technicians, and scientists
• Updates R&D/S and cross-functional team on new technologies and trends and uses them to influence project and innovation strategy, teaches PDs to influence

Recipe for Success

• BS degree (Food Science, Dairy Science Food Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Culinary Science). MS or PHD degree is a plus.
• Demonstrated passion for food
• Solutions-oriented, a strategic thinker and decision-maker, and able to build and nurture dynamic effective teams, continuous improvement mindset, result and solutions orientation
• 8 years of food industry/manufacturing experience required
• People leadership or supervision experience
• Effective communicator, able to influence down, up, and cross-functionally driving consensus to action
• Background in product development and commercialization of food products is required. Experience in Ready to Eat (refrigerated foods preferred)
• Strong working knowledge of the interaction of process and formulation.
• Able to tailor formulation based on process constraints and teach Product Developers to overcome similar challenges
• Track record of breakthrough innovative thinking
• Technical depth in food development with an ability to translate technical learnings from other disciplines into food development. Culinary training preferred.
• Ability to find and apply new technologies to solve key formulation issues and apply food science and other scientific principles. Advanced knowledge of the interaction of process and formulation
• Strong coaching and mentoring skills
• Advanced experience managing data, using research tools and statistical analysis, and advanced experimental design
• Effective communicator at all levels of the organization. Adept at interacting with members of the Executive Team and key stakeholders, and influencing solid business decisions
• Able to anticipate and solve food safety issues during the food formulation process. Solid understanding of GMPs
• Candidate must display strong leadership skills including above-average ability to: influence others, outside-of-the-box thinking, pull inspiration from different areas of life.
• Proven track record of using consumer data to identify market opportunities and using consumer and sensory testing to improve existing products or create new products
• 30% travel expected with the ability to travel internationally & domestically as needed
• Able and willing to work regularly onsite at the Virginia Plant

We celebrate an inclusive environment and provide equal opportunity for development and advancement. As an equal opportunity employer, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, status as a covered veteran or uniform service member, or any other protected characteristic under applicable federal, state and/or local law.