Sr Product Developer - Food & Bev, Product Development & Sensory

Job description

Leads ideation, development, and commercialization of Private Brand Food and Beverage products. Partners cross-functionally with Sourcing, Regulatory, Nutrition, Quality, and Compliance teams to bring products to market that meet Whole Foods Market (WFM), Amazon, and regulatory standards.

Key job responsibilities

Ideation & Insights

- Identify trending ingredients and products using market research, trend-mapping, category insights, competitor shops, and trend treks.

- Research consumer trends and synthesize findings into actionable category insights.

Formulation & Development

- Lead product development, including comparisons against target products and sensory benchmarks.

- Drive formulation development by identifying benchtop and/or retail gold standards.

- Lead organoleptic evaluations and vendor sample comparisons.

- Work with the sensory team to design and execute sensory testing to reduce evaluation bias.

- Communicate sensory, nutritional, and quality parameters to vendors; provide feedback and reformulation requests.

Launch & Production

- Manage first production activities: send requirements, lead conference calls, and oversee vendor execution.

- Evaluate first production samples against approved retains and issue approval/release decisions.

- Attend first productions as needed.

Quality & Compliance

- Review and evaluate supplier-submitted product and formulation specifications; communicate findings to stakeholders promptly.

- Collaborate with Product Safety and Quality teams on input and feedback.

- Evaluate, validate, and finalize product preparation instructions where applicable.

- Uphold WFM and Amazon quality and brand standards; resolve quality discrepancies with internal teams and vendors.

Supplier & Cross-Functional Support

- Help identify new co-packing partners and support co-packers in sourcing raw materials.

- Visit suppliers to review capabilities and explore innovation opportunities.

Other

- Support special projects, including competitive product evaluations and rollout of new policies and technologies.

- Perform other miscellaneous product development duties as necessary.

A day in the life

Part of the appeal of a Product Developer job is the varied activities from day to day and mix of desk work and hands on product work. A day in the life might include a specification review for a new product, a cutting, some competitive shopping, and a meeting with your cross-functional stakeholders who help develop products (Sourcing, Nutrition, Food Safety, Logistics, Packaging, Quality, Sensory, Project Manager).