Culinary Director, Product Development & Commercialization

Culinary Director, Product Development & Commercialization

A Growing Food Manufacturing company in the San Francisco East Bay area seeks a Culinary Director of Product Innovation & Commercialization to lead the entire lifecycle of product development. This is a full-time leadership role that requires a mix of strategic vision, food science expertise, operational execution, and cross-functional collaboration. Seeking candidates with a strong culinary experience and a food science background. This role will have both creative and operational responsibilities.

The R&D Chef will be responsible for ideation of menu applications for the product and R&D to launch and post-market performance of their diverse products. This position will also oversee the manufacturing process from concept validation (research, testing), supplier sourcing (ensuring products can be source traced for regulatory requirements), compliance (ensuring the product meets all legal, safety, and regulatory requirements) and launch (overseeing the final production, packaging, marketing coordination, and release of the product to customers). In addition the Director is responsible for managing the product portfolio in collaboration with marketing and sales to deliver customized and scalable solutions to meet customer requests.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end product development – from concept validation, supplier sourcing, prototyping, compliance, to launch.
• Be customer facing expert on product development to meet unique needs of different customer channels
• Drive innovation pipeline – build and manage a roadmap of products aligned with consumer trends and market gaps.
• Partner with marketing, sales & operations – ensure launches are integrated across supply chain, creative, and go-to-market campaigns.
• Optimize unit economics & margins – negotiate with suppliers, improve COGS, and build scalable systems.
• Ensure compliance & quality control – manage regulatory requirements across categories and markets.
• Own timelines & execution speed – keep projects on track, moving from ideation to launch without bottlenecks

Must-Have Skills :

Nice-to-Have Skills :

Experience & Education :

Benefits :