Company Overview:
- Well-established, high-growth food manufacturing company with approximately $1 billion in annual revenue and multiple production facilities across the Southeast and South-Central U.S. The company produces ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook protein products distributed nationally through major retail, food service, and restaurant channels. This is a stable, family-oriented organization experiencing strong continued growth.
Job Summary:
- The New Product Introduction (NPI) Manager leads cross-functional projects from concept through commercial launch while owning and improving the processes that enable successful product commercialization.
- This role drives alignment across R&D, Quality/Food Safety, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing, and Sales to ensure projects are executed efficiently and consistently.
- The position also leads SOP development, process standardization, and continuous improvement initiatives to build a scalable, repeatable product launch model.
- This is a high-visibility, hands-on role suited for a highly organized, process-driven individual who thrives in a fast-paced, high-project-volume environment.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Project Management, Supply Chain, or a related field required
- 5+ years of experience in product management, project management, or product commercialization
- Experience in food manufacturing or CPG strongly preferred
- Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional projects
- Experience with SOP development or process improvement initiatives preferred
Key Responsibilities:
- Project Leadership
- Lead end-to-end product launch projects from concept approval through plant trials, scale-up, validation, and launch
- Manage multiple projects simultaneously across retail, industrial, and foodservice channels
- Develop and maintain integrated project plans, including timelines, risk registers, budgets, and launch readiness criteria
- Identify and resolve risks, bottlenecks, and dependencies
- Drive stage-gate execution and ensure decision readiness at each milestone
- Process Development & Manufacturing Readiness
- Ensure new products are launched with documented, repeatable, and capable processes
- Support identification of equipment needs, line modifications, or capital improvements required for new product launches
- Own and maintain SOPs across the product launch lifecycle
- Drive adoption and consistency of processes across teams
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Serve as the central point of contact across R&D, Quality, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing, and Sales for assigned projects
- Coordinate with Product Development on formulations, specifications, and customer expectations
- Coordinate with Operations on production readiness, capacity planning, and scheduling
- Coordinate with Supply Chain on raw materials, packaging, and supplier alignment
- Coordinate with Quality to ensure compliance with food safety, allergen control, labeling, and validation requirements
- Continuous Improvement
- Embed continuous improvement principles into launch activities to enhance efficiency, quality, and cost performance
- Identify opportunities to standardize and optimize processes across plants
- Support post-launch reviews to assess performance and drive sustained improvements
Must Have:
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Project Management, Supply Chain, or a related field.
- 5+ years of experience in product management, project management, or product commercialization.
- Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional projects.
- Experience managing end-to-end new product commercialization or product launch projects.
- Experience in food manufacturing or CPG.
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Pay: $90,000.00 - $120,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k) matching
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
Experience:
- product mgmt, project mgmt, or product commercialization: 5 years (Required)
- leading cross-functional projects: 5 years (Required)
- managed new product commercialization/ launch project: 5 years (Required)
- food manufacturing or CPG: 5 years (Required)
Work Location: On the road
