If the Director of R&D role were a genre of music, it'd be techno. Like techno music, which beeps, bops, and repeats at about 150 bpm, our Director of R&D understands the importance of fast-paced, reliable consistency for testing, scaling, and manufacturing products. Sure, the intricacies and technicalities of your day to day sound a little like gibberish sometimes to the outside world, but hey. That's just techno music for you! If you march to the beat of your own bop, and love optimizing great tasting Mexican-American food, we'd love to hear from you.

About you:

• Like a hybrid cheerleader-businessperson, you demonstrate a professional, team-first attitude toward work and co-workers. GO, TEAM!
• You have a sparkly-razzle-dazzling track record of helping develop innovative products - and developing teams that develop those products.
• You have thorough cross-departmental CPG knowledge.
• You've got excellent interpersonal and communication skills, capable of fostering strong relationships internally and externally.
• Not only do you know the main components of a balanced diet ("A taco in each hand!" you often say), but you can also make fast decisions balancing intuition and facts.
• You are fascinated by problems and are relentless in the pursuit of solving them, like Nemo's dad, only more optimistic.
• You enjoy the work of dissecting processes and understanding ingredient functionality in correlation to achieving the perfect finished product.
• You are flexible and creative, never losing sight of the practicality of your work.
• Fact: You're committed to delivering results, going after the stretch-target.

What you will do:

• Manage the R&D team through individual and team performance, career development, and mentorship in addition to fostering a culture of creativity in innovation.
• Lead the development of processes, systems, and the organizational structure of the R&D team with a growth mindset.
• Guide technical feasibility qualification for product development and product renovation work - ensuring the efficient and effective transition of product development programs to high volume manufacturing.
• Lead novel ingredient exploration and novel process exploration for future product development and product renovation initiatives. This includes traveling to trade shows, product manufacturers, and equipment manufacturers to find innovative solutions for future Siete products.
• Build strong relationships with key suppliers and contract manufacturers to gain additional sources for new product ideas as well as improvement of current products. Travel to these suppliers and contract manufacturers, as needed.
• Guide ingredient exploration for in-process product development projects - ensuring we have the right ingredients for new projects.
• Travel within the US & internationally to visit suppliers and/or manufacturing facilities as needed.
• Communicate the progress and the needs of the department to the leadership team.
• Optimize resource utilization, continuously explore ways to improve effectiveness and efficiency of the team.
• Maintain knowledge and understanding of developments and trends in the consumer packaged goods space including ingredients, new products, existing products, packaging and effectively translate that knowledge to create opportunities within our brand.
• Coordinate with relevant stakeholders to strategically plan short and long term product development concepts.
• Travel up to 30% of the time.

Your experience:

• Master's in a related field of food science, engineering, or chemistry preferred but not required.
• At least 10 years of multi-category experience in R&D, including product development.
• Analytical, Chemical and microbiological knowledge and experience in formulation, laboratory, sensory analysis techniques/methods.
• Extensive knowledge of FDA and US government regulations, including labeling & nutritional facts. Knowledge of international regulations and USDA a plus.

Please fill out our culture questionnaire . There are no wrong answers here -we want to learn more about you!

Siete Family Foods is an equal opportunity employer and committed to diversity in its workplace. Siete Family Foods hires qualified candidates and makes all employment-related decisions based exclusively on job-related qualifications, without regard to characteristics such as race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, marital status, disability, veteran status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other status protected by law.