R&D - Food Science & Project Management Associate (Chicago)

R&D - Food Science & Project Management Associate

Department: Operations

Reports To: VP of Operations

Location: Remote, Chicago IL

Travel: Approximately 50% travel to support all contract manufacturing facilities

About Like Air

Like Air was founded by siblings Steve Atieh and Allison Lin with a mission to reinvent snacking through delicious, better-for-you products made with simple ingredients. Since launching in 2020, Like Air has grown rapidly and is now available in more than 15,000 retail stores nationwide, including Kroger, Publix, Albertsons, Walmart, Costco, Sam’s Club, BJ’s, Sprouts, Wakefern, Meijer, H-E-B, Wegmans, Hy-Vee, CVS, and many more.

Today, Like Air is the fastest-growing and largest family-owned brand in its category, according to

Nielsen. The brand has been featured on Shark Tank, Good Morning America, The View, QVC, Inc.'s list of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies, Good Housekeeping, and numerous other national media outlets.

We're building a high-performing, entrepreneurial team that's passionate about disrupting the snack aisle and creating the next iconic CPG brand.

Position Summary

The R&D - Food Science & Project Management Associate will own the technical development and

commercialization of Like Air’s products from concept through full-scale production. This role combines food science, product formulation, process development, commercialization, engineering, and project management to bring innovative, high-quality products to market quickly and successfully.

Working closely with the Founder team, Operations, Marketing, Sales, External Suppliers, and

Manufacturing partners, this role will translate consumer and business needs into commercially viable

products that deliver on taste, quality, cost, scalability, and manufacturability.

This is a highly hands-on role for a self-starter who thrives in a lean, fast-moving CPG environment and is comfortable moving between the lab, manufacturing floor, supplier conversations, and cross-functional project meetings.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage multiple product development and commercialization projects at the same time without losing sight of the details. Lead weekly cross-functional meetings. Build project timelines, identify milestones, track action items, and keep teams accountable.
• Keep leadership informed on progress, risks, decisions, and anything that could impact a launch.
• Stay curious about new ingredients, technologies, processing methods, and trends that could make our products even better.
• Weekly onsite support 1-2 days a week for production partners
• Design bench formulation, ingredient selection, technical experiments, shelf-life studies, sensory evaluations, and product testing and refinement
• Produce rapid iterations of new product formulations, produce and package samples for customers, sales presentations, internal tastings, and commercialization
• Utilize sensory science to assess and predict quality outcomes and propose formulation, process, or packaging measures to mitigate these risks
• Assess process improvements by collecting and analyzing data to identify Voice of the Customer, Voice of the Process, Process Capability Index, and linear regression to assess quality control and predict process outcomes
• Partner with internal and external partners to develop primary and secondary packaging that delivers upon company and customer expectations
• Own product specifications, including formulas, flavor profiles, sensory attributes, redundant supply for raw materials, and finished-product requirements.
• Coordinate BOMs, routings, manufacturing instructions, batch sheets, ingredient information, allergens, nutrition, line rates, costing inputs, labels, artwork, other launch documentation, and customer documentation, organized and properly version-controlled
• Ensure our products meet applicable quality, regulatory, labeling, nutritional, and food safety requirements
• Use consumer and internal feedback to make smarter formulation decisions
• Review and qualify new ingredients and suppliers based on taste, production processing, yields, function, safety, cost, quality, and supply reliability

What We’re Looking For

You don’t need to check every box. We’re looking for someone who is smart, curious, hungry to learn,

and excited to own things.

• Bachelor’s degree preferred in Food Science, Food Technology, Engineering, or a related scientific field with at least 3 years of relevant experience
• Strong foundation in food science, formulation, sensory evaluation, process development, or CPG product development
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work with cross-functional teams across the entire organization
• Ability to work occasional nontraditional hours for sensory sessions, bench trials, product testing, manufacturing runs or other situations that might require assistance
• Ability to travel approximately 50%, including weekly onsite support at manufacturing partners
• Experience with snack foods, puffed & popped products, coatings, flavors, or similar food technologies strongly preferred