How You Will Make History Here...The successful candidate in this role will be responsible for developing new Campbell Food Service (CFS) product designs that support well-defined business propositions and incorporate operator and consumer feedback. Working with minimal supervision, this individual will lead product development from concept through commercialization and apply strong technical principles, experimentation, and creative problem-solving skills.
This position supports frozen and shelf-stable soups, sauces, entrées/simple meals, dips, and new platforms. New-platform work includes new product formats and technologies that enable scalable solutions for emerging operator and channel opportunities.
What You Will Do...- With minimal supervision, develop and manage technical timelines and activities for multiple product-development projects. Partner with Marketing, Sales, Culinary, Insights, Supply Chain, and Commercialization Planning to define milestones, R&D activities, and timing.
- Lead projects from concept through commercialization based on product-design criteria and operator and consumer feedback. Build and refine prototypes to identify winning formulations.
- Work with Process R&D, Engineering, Packaging, Operations, suppliers, and co-manufacturers to define manufacturing needs and equipment requirements.
- Lead trials in pilot plants and manufacturing facilities, including co-manufacturers, to assess scale-up feasibility, production repeatability, and finished-product specifications.
- Proactively apply scientific knowledge and technical skills to business issues and opportunities. Incorporate operator and consumer feedback into prototype development.
- Deliver products against business objectives, including cost, nutrition, quality, and food guardrail targets.
- Perform analyses, testing, and experiments to develop or improve products and processes.
- Identify and communicate constraints and risks, solve technical problems, and provide sound technical guidance, proposals, and recommendations.
- Adapt formulations and processes to internal and external manufacturing systems.
- Lead operator collaboration, concept development, menu-gap analysis, and efforts to win new business.
- Provide technical leadership in operator-facing meetings and presentations.
- Partner with Marketing, Sales, Culinary, and Insights to identify and build concepts for new products and platforms.
- Translate culinary trends and operator and consumer insights into prototypes, line extensions, new product formats, and technologies that support scalable operator and channel opportunities.
- Establish and maintain shelf-life studies for assigned projects and lead competitive benchmarking. Apply findings to product design, quality improvement, and business-development opportunities.
- Manage and prioritize multiple projects while remaining flexible as operator and business needs change.
- Work effectively through ambiguity, identify critical-path activities and risks, persevere through less-defined work, and communicate implications to business partners and management.
- Collaborate with Purchasing on ingredient supply and costing; partner with Process R&D, Engineering, Packaging, Operations, and Supply Chain on equipment and manufacturing requirements; and leverage internal and external expertise to resolve technical challenges.
- Adapt Campbell formulations and processes to co-manufacturer equipment and systems while maintaining product quality, feasibility, and repeatability.
- Apply proficient technical R&D expertise and a strong understanding of scale-up and manufacturing challenges.
- Demonstrate financial and business acumen, including P&Ls, menu engineering, ingredient costing, and food cost.
Who You Will Work With...This position reports directly to the Director of R&D, Campbell Food Service.
The role requires cross-functional partnership with Process R&D, Engineering, Packaging, Sensory, Purchasing, Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, Marketing, Sales, Culinary, Insights, operators, suppliers, and co-manufacturers throughout development and commercialization.
This position will also work with external partners, including co-manufacturers and operators.
What You Bring to the Table... (Must Have)- B.S. in Food Science or a related field.
- 5+ years of CPG or foodservice product-development experience.
- Must be available to travel to operators, suppliers, co-manufacturers, and production facilities 20-30% of the time.
It Would be Great if You Have... (Nice to Have)- M.S. in Food Science or a related field.
- Ability to work effectively in a team environment and communicate and influence clearly, verbally and in writing, with cross-functional teams, operators, external partners, and R&D management.
- Comfortable driving decisions, delegating work to contractors, technologists, or co-ops as appropriate, and providing training, coaching, and feedback.
- Strong organizational, project-management, prioritization, presentation, and documentation skills.
- Ability to deal with ambiguity, adapt to change, persevere on less-defined projects, and creatively solve problems.
- Ability to translate and communicate complex technical information clearly and effectively to technical teams, business partners, operators, and other internal and external audiences, tailoring the level of detail and message to support understanding and decision-making.
- Passion for culinary arts, food, innovation, and building trusted operator relationships.
Working Conditions:
- Ability to work in a hybrid environment based in the Camden office, with work in kitchens and the pilot plant, as well as at operator locations, supplier and co-manufacturer sites, and manufacturing facilities.
- Physical ability to handle weights of approximately thirty pounds.
- Ability to walk or stand at times for up to 75% of the workday.
- Willingness and ability to taste and evaluate a wide range of food products and ingredients.
Ability to work in kitchen, pilot plant, and manufacturing plant environments that expose employees to heat, hot food products, coolers, and freezers and require the use of personal protective equipment
Compensation and Benefits:The target base salary range for this full-time, salaried position is between
$116,200-$159,800
Individual base pay depends on work location and additional factors such as experience, job-related skills, and relevant education or training. Total pay may include other forms of compensation. In addition, we offer competitive health, dental, 401k and wellness benefits beginning on the first day of employment. Please ask your Talent Acquisition Partner for more information about our total rewards package.
