Senior Manager, R&D

1 hour, 21 minutes ago
Full-time
Senior
Project and Program Management
Chomps

Chomps

Chomps specializes in producing 100% grass-fed beef and venison jerky sticks that are paleo and Whole30 approved, offering a protein-rich, gluten-free snack option for health-conscious consumers.

Food Products
11-50
Founded 2012

Description

  • Develop and execute R&D strategies that support manufacturing excellence, product quality, and business growth.
  • Identify and prioritize opportunities to improve operational performance across the manufacturing network.
  • Serve as a technical advisor to Operations and Executive Leadership on manufacturing, commercialization, and quality initiatives.
  • Establish long-term roadmaps for process improvement, capability development, and technical innovation.
  • Lead, coach, and develop the R&D team while setting priorities, processes, and technical standards.
  • Allocate team resources and build organizational capability through mentoring, talent development, and succession planning.
  • Lead commercialization efforts from concept through full-scale production.
  • Oversee plant trials, scale-ups, and process validations across multiple manufacturing locations.
  • Provide technical leadership and support to manufacturing and co-manufacturing partners.
  • Lead root cause investigations and resolve significant quality, process, and operational challenges.
  • Drive improvement initiatives focused on yield, throughput, labor efficiency, and overall equipment performance.
  • Partner with cross-functional teams to align priorities, improve launch readiness, and execute business objectives.
  • Use data, plant performance metrics, and consumer feedback to prioritize improvement efforts.
  • Communicate project status, risks, and recommendations to leadership and stakeholders.
  • Ensure robust documentation of formulations, process changes, validations, and technical learnings.

Requirements

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Food Science, Meat Science, Engineering, or a related field.
  • 7–10+ years of experience in food manufacturing, product development, commercialization, process improvement, or technical operations.
  • Experience in meat snacks, meat processing, or shelf-stable animal protein products.
  • Demonstrated success leading complex manufacturing and commercialization initiatives across multiple facilities.
  • Strong knowledge of food processing, formulation, quality systems, and manufacturing operations.
  • Experience supporting and influencing co-manufacturing partners.
  • Proven people leadership experience, including coaching, performance management, and talent development.
  • Strong business acumen with the ability to balance quality, cost, speed, and scalability.
  • Ability to influence cross-functional teams and drive alignment without direct authority.
  • Excellent problem-solving, communication, and project management skills.
  • Experience leading continuous improvement or operational excellence initiatives.
  • Track record of delivering measurable improvements in yield, quality, cost, or manufacturing performance.
  • Experience building teams and organizational capabilities within a high-growth environment.
  • Ability to travel up to 50%.
  • Must reside in the United States and be authorized to work without visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Benefits

  • Salary range of $140,000–$150,000 plus a 20% annual bonus.
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
  • 401(k) with 6% company match.
  • Monthly wellness and home office reimbursements.
  • Unlimited PTO and 15+ paid holidays.
  • Hybrid and flexible remote schedule, with a Chicago office available for local employees.
  • Paid maternity and paternity leave.
  • Company-wide continuing education budget.

Interested in this position?

Apply directly on the company website

Apply Now

Similar Roles

Program Manager AI Enablement

ShipMonk 1K-5K Air Freight & Logistics

ShipMonk is seeking an AI Enablement Program Manager to run a company-wide program that helps every department adopt AI safely, effectively, and at scale.

E-commerce LLM
1 hour, 6 minutes ago

Program Manager

Chime 1K-5K Banks

Chime is hiring a member insights professional to analyze feedback and experience signals across the company and turn them into clear, actionable recommendations that improve the member experience.

1 hour, 6 minutes ago

Sr. Field Technical Program Manager

Databricks 1K-5K IT Services

Databricks is hiring a Field Technical Project Manager to lead commercial delivery of customer services across big data and AI projects for enterprise clients in the Asean and Greater China regions.

Agile Apache Spark Machine Learning MLflow
1 hour, 6 minutes ago

Director - Application Migration/integration

Ensono 1K-5K IT Services

Ensono is hiring a Business Transformation Architect to lead enterprise transformation and migration initiatives for clients by aligning business goals with solution design, governance, and execution.

AWS Azure
1 hour, 6 minutes ago

You're on a roll! Sign up now to keep applying.

Sign Up

Already have an account? Log in

Used by 14,729+ remote workers