Research & Development Manager

Research and Development Manager

The Research & Development (R&D) Manager is responsible for leading innovation, product development, process optimization, and technical commercialization for Thrive Freeze Dry's portfolio of human and pet food products. This role partners closely with Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, Sales, and Customers to deliver safe, high-quality, and scalable freeze-dried ingredients and finished goods. The R&D Manager ensures that all new products, reformulations, and process improvements align with Thrive's strategic goals, meet customer expectations, and comply with regulatory and certification standards across our North American manufacturing network.

Product Innovation & Development

• Lead the design, development, and testing of new freeze-dried ingredients, meals, snacks, and formulations for human and pet applications.
• Translate customer needs, market trends, and internal strategy into actionable R&D roadmaps and prototypes.
• Manage bench-top trials, pilot tests, and plant-scale validations to ensure product performance, stability, and manufacturability.
• Maintain responsibility for ingredient functionality, sensory attributes, nutritional profiles, and shelf-life performance.
• Other duties as assigned

Commercialization & Process Optimization

• Partner with Operations, Engineering, and Quality to define processing parameters for new and existing products.
• Lead commercialization efforts from concept through first production, ensuring a smooth transition to full-scale manufacturing.
• Identify opportunities to improve yield, reduce waste, enhance throughput, and optimize cost without compromising product quality.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives across the freeze-drying process, blending, packaging, and handling systems.

Regulatory, Compliance & Documentation

• Ensure all R&D activities align with FSMA, HACCP, FDA, USDA, Organic, Non-GMO, Kosher, SMETA, and customer-specific requirements.
• Collaborate with the Quality team to verify that product specifications, formulations, processing instructions, and change controls are accurate and compliant.
• Create and maintain R&D documentation, including formulas, spec sheets, SOPs, work instructions, and experimental summaries.
• Support customer audits, technical reviews, and documentation requests related to new or existing products.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Project Management

• Manage R&D teams across Thrive Freeze Dry's North American network.
• Manage multiple concurrent R&D projects across categories, customers, and manufacturing sites.
• Facilitate communication between Production, Supply Chain, Quality, Engineering, and Sales to ensure alignment and efficient execution.
• Provide technical leadership to plant teams during scale-ups, troubleshooting, and process validations.
• Represent R&D during customer visits, technical presentations, and collaborative development sessions.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Food Science, Food Engineering, Chemistry, Nutrition, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in the food industry, including pet food and/or functional ingredients; experience in both areas and within a freeze-drying environment preferred.
• Minimum of 5 years' experience leading, managing, and developing a team.
• Strong technical understanding of freeze-drying process parameters, product formulation, ingredient interactions, and analytical testing methods.
• Experience managing technical projects from ideation to commercialization.
• Ability to interpret regulatory requirements and apply them to product design and documentation.
• Excellent communication, cross-functional collaboration, and organizational skills.
• Ability to travel between manufacturing sites and customer locations as needed, including international, 25%-50%.

Physical Requirements – Must be able to perform the following functions with or without accommodations:

• Consistent and reliable attendance
• Physical demands: some lifting, carrying, pushing, and/or pulling; some stooping, kneeling, crouching; and frequent fine finger dexterity. Generally, the job requires the following percentages of time committed to physical activity: 40% or more sitting, 40% or more walking, and 40% or more standing.
• The job is performed under occasional temperature variations and in a food manufacturing office environment. Unrestricted visual and audio abilities are required for the safety of all employees. The ability to lift to 40 lbs. is required.