Director of Product Development

SAMBAZON, named one of Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces for 2025, is seeking an experienced Director of Product Development to join our Technical Operations and R&D team!

The position is responsible for formulating, testing, and commercializing new product innovations, cost optimization projects, and quality improvements across the SAMBAZON's product portfolio. SAMBAZON is a fast paced environment continuously launching products across CPG, Food Service, International, and Restaurant Group channels. The Director of Product Development is a leader in innovation, seeing oncoming trends, pushing blue sky prototyping, and 3 year pipeline projects. This position manages all technical aspects of formulation, scale up, and commercialization, including documentation for finished products, formulas, and processes.

This position offers a generous benefits package, annual bonus opportunity, and year-round half-day Fridays. It is a hybrid role (average of 3 days in office per week) based out of our San Clemente, California office, with a salary range of $100,000 to $120,000, depending on experience and qualifications.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Be a technical leader on innovation team to provide guidance on new innovation projects for business approval. Represent Global Technical Services team in initial scoping and vetting of innovation initiatives and project timelines.
• Create, conduct, analyze, and report on bench top and pilot plant experiments.
• Lead manufacturing trials to test and commercialize products while partnering with technical operations, contract manufacturers, and SAMBAZON Brazil facilities.
• Lead and develop new products and new improvements from concept to commercialization.
• Participate in key management reviews for new products with cross functional teams.
• Conduct root cause analyses and implement solutions to fix manufacturing issues.
• Create and manage technical documents for finished products and formulas. This includes product specifications, manufacturing procedures, nutritional information.
• Lead and participate in sensory evaluation & analysis of new and existing products; including documenting outcomes and recommending next steps.
• Manage technical aspects of projects to deliver results on time and on budget.
• Manage cost of goods analysis for all new products and optimizations; including ingredient, packaging, tolling, production losses, etc. for financial approval.
• Bench-top formulation work and management of development consultants for new or existing products. Developing formulas within defined guardrails for cost, nutrition, and taste.
• Develop strong relationships with internal and external partners, customers, suppliers, and co-manufacturers to develop and implement solutions.
• Travel up to 20% as needed, including visits to co-manufacturer plants & suppliers.

Qualifications

• B.S. degree in Food Science, Food Engineering, or related discipline is required.
• 10+ years experience in either R&D/Product Development, preferably in certified organic products or frozen desserts.
• Strong project management skills & track record of managing multiple projects with tight deadlines.
• Experience working directly with manufacturing facilities to test products.
• Experience writing and working with technical specifications and documentation.
• Proficient in MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Genesis/Esha; Filemaker experience is a plus.
• Strong working knowledge of:
  • Food science, health and nutrition, and food manufacturing processes
  • Quality assurance principles and basic lab procedures (e.g., pH, Brix)
  • Regulatory compliance requirements and technical documentation
  • Ingredient sourcing, supply chain dynamics, and market research practices

Visit www.sambazon.com to learn more about the company and our mission!