Truly Good Foods · 1 month ago
Senior Manager, Research & Development
Charlotte
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level
7+ years expTruly Good Foods is a family-owned business specializing in the production of high-quality snacks. The Sr. Manager, Research and Development (R&D) will lead the creation and design of the company's new Innovation & R&D Lab, focusing on product development and cross-functional collaboration to bring innovative snack products to market.
Food and BeverageManufacturingSnack Food
Responsibilities
Lead the end-to-end development of new manufactured snack products, from benchtop formulation through scale-up and final commercialization
Build, refine, and own TGF’s New Product Development stage-gate process
Translate consumer insights, category trends, and customer feedback into innovative product concepts
Develop formulations that meet sensory, nutritional, regulatory, and shelf-life requirements
Lead benchtop tests, pilot runs, and full-scale production trials
Evaluate ingredient functionality, run shelf-life studies, and conduct sensory evaluations
Partner with Supply Chain and Purchasing to source new functional ingredients and qualify suppliers
Ensure product feasibility and cost alignment with manufacturing capabilities
Partner closely with Operations, QA, Purchasing, and Supply Chain to ensure seamless commercialization
Support QA with technical documentation (specs, allergen/HACCP review, process validation, etc.)
Provide technical insights to Sales & Marketing for customer presentations, sampling events, and trade shows
Serve as a technical subject matter expert across the organization
Maintain detailed project documentation, formulations, trial notes, and specifications
Ensure regulatory and label compliance (FDA, FSMA, and other required standards)
Stay current on emerging ingredient technologies, snacking trends, and regulatory updates
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's or master's degree in food science, Food Engineering, Nutrition, or related field
7+ years of hands-on experience in product development within snacks, bakery, nuts, or broader CPG
Strong understanding of food chemistry, ingredient interactions, and formulation for roasted, baked, coated, or extruded snack products
Demonstrated experience leading commercialization from lab to manufacturing floor
Strong project management, sensory evaluation, and problem-solving skills
Excellent communication abilities and comfort presenting to technical and non-technical audiences
Passion for innovative, health-conscious snacking and wellness trends
Startup-minded mentality with agility to move quickly and prioritize effectively
Experience building or improving stage-gate or innovation processes
Curiosity around new ingredients, functionality, and emerging snacking technologies
Benefits
Affordable healthcare (medical/dental/vision)
Opportunity to participate in the Health Savings Account (HSA), Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) and Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
Short Term Disability Insurance paid by the company
Basic life Insurance equals to your annual salary paid by the company
Employee Assistance Program, paid by the company
Long Term Disability Insurance
The opportunity to purchase additional voluntary insurance coverage for:
Life Insurance
Accident
Whole Life
Prepaid Legal
PTO (Paid Time Off)
9 Paid Holidays per year
401-k Plan (eligible after 6 months of employment)
Company
Truly Good Foods
Truly Good Foods is a food and beverage distribution company that manufactures and offers snack mixes, candy, bars, nuts, and dry fruits.
51-200 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageLeadership Team
Lisa Smith
VP of Sales & Marketing
Eric Leonard
President
Recent News
FoodProcessing.com
2025-09-05
2025-08-29
Company data provided by crunchbase