Product Development Manager (Hamilton)

Product Development Manager Location: Hamilton, Ontario (Onsite) Industry: Commercial Baking / Food Manufacturing

Our client, a growing commercial bakery in Hamilton, Ontario, is seeking a passionate, innovative, and hands‑on Product Development Manager to join their team.

This unique opportunity is for an entrepreneurial R&D scientist who enjoys working autonomously, thrives in a fast‑paced manufacturing environment, and is excited to play a foundational role in shaping the future of innovation within the organization.

Reporting to senior leadership, the R&D Scientist will lead development of new bakery products, improve existing formulations and processes, and collaborate cross‑functionally with Operations, Quality, Sales, Procurement, and customers to drive innovation and commercial success.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end‑to‑end product development activities from concept through commercialization for bakery and baked goods products.
• Develop new formulations from scratch, including cakes, pastries, sweet goods, and other bakery products.
• Improve existing products through reformulation, cost optimization, shelf‑life enhancement, ingredient substitutions, and process improvements.
• Conduct bench trials, plant trials, and scale‑up activities while ensuring consistency, quality, and manufacturability.
• Translate customer requests and market trends into commercially viable product solutions.
• Stay current on bakery trends, ingredients, consumer preferences, clean label initiatives, and emerging technologies.
• Prepare and maintain product specifications, ingredient statements, nutritional information, and technical documentation for Canadian and U.S. markets.
• Support commercialization activities including first production runs, troubleshooting, and process validation.
• Work closely with Operations and Quality teams to ensure successful product launches and ongoing production performance.
• Assist with customer presentations, product demonstrations, sampling, trade shows, and innovation meetings as required.
• Identify opportunities to improve production efficiency, product consistency, yields, and quality.
• Collaborate with manufacturing teams to optimize formulations and baking processes.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives related to productivity, waste reduction, and margin enhancement.
• Troubleshoot formulation and processing challenges in a manufacturing environment.
• Build relationships with ingredient suppliers and vendors to source innovative ingredients and solutions.
• Collaborate with Procurement on ingredient alternatives, supply continuity, and cost savings opportunities.
• Partner with Sales and Leadership teams to support business growth and strategic initiatives.
• Operate independently as the company’s primary R&D resource with strong ownership and accountability.
• Contribute to the long‑term innovation strategy and roadmap for the business.
• Support the future development, mentoring, and leadership of an R&D team as the department expands.

Qualifications

• Degree or diploma in Food Science, Food Engineering, Chemistry, or related scientific discipline.
• Minimum 5+ years of R&D/product development experience within commercial baking or food manufacturing.
• Strong understanding of bakery ingredient functionality, current ingredient vendors in the bakery space, shelf life, food safety, and manufacturing processes.
• Experience scaling products from benchtop to commercial production.
• Knowledge of CFIA, FDA, labeling regulations, nutritional requirements, and food safety standards.
• Experience preparing product specifications, nutritional panels, and technical documentation.
• Familiarity with ERP systems and nutrition software such as Genesis, Nutracoster, or similar programs is considered an asset.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and tight timelines.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with the ability to work cross‑functionally.
• Self‑starter with a hands‑on, proactive, and solution‑oriented mindset.
• Passion for baking and food innovation.
• Ability to work both in an office and manufacturing environment.
• Ability to lift up to 50 lbs occasionally.

What Success Looks Like

• Bringing innovative, high‑quality bakery products to market successfully.
• Acting as a key technical and innovation resource across the organization.
• Building scalable R&D systems, processes, and documentation.
• Contributing to company growth through innovation, optimization, and customer partnership.
• Evolving into a future leadership role with the opportunity to build and lead an R&D team.

Why Join?

• Opportunity to build and shape the R&D function within a growing bakery business.
• High visibility and direct impact on innovation and business growth.
• Entrepreneurial environment where ideas and creativity are valued.
• Career progression into future leadership opportunities.
• Collaborative and team‑oriented culture within the food manufacturing industry.