Senior Product Development Specialist

Our client in the food industry in Mississauga, ON is looking for a Senior Product Developer (NPD & Commercialization) to join their growing team.
The Senior Product Developer (NPD & Commercialization) is a senior technical and leadership role responsible for owning the execution of product development and commercialization activities from concept through launch. This position serves as the operational lead within R&D, ensuring that products are designed for manufacturability, packaging, compliance, and scale-up, and are fully ready for production at the time of launch.
The position is accountable for translating innovation and customer requirements into commercially viable, scalable, and production-ready products, while enforcing disciplined stage-gate execution, robust documentation, and strong cross-functional alignment.
This role is suited for a highly organized, hands-on product development professional with strong commercialization experience and demonstrated leadership capability, who can support and guide others while remaining deeply involved in technical execution.

Competitive salary and company benefits

• Opportunities for professional learning, development, and growth
• Product Development & Commercialization Leadership
• Own the execution of product development and commercialization projects, ensuring clear scope, timelines, responsibilities, and deliverables from concept through launch.
• Lead products through all development stages, including bench-top development, feasibility trials, plant trials, and first production.
• Review and validate formulations, ingredients, and nutritional information to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, clean label standards, and customer and market expectations.
• Partner with QA, Regulatory, and Supply Chain to ensure ingredient selections meet functional, nutritional, labeling, and cost targets throughout development and commercialization.
• Proactively identify technical, operational, packaging, supply, and compliance risks and drive mitigation plans early in the development cycle.

Lead and enforce stage-gate discipline, ensuring projects meet defined readiness criteria before progressing.

• Packaging Design & Commercial Integration
• Own R&D input into packaging design and commercialization, ensuring packaging solutions are fit for product performance, shelf life, food safety, line efficiency, and customer requirements.
• Lead packaging selection and development in collaboration with Operations, QA, Supply Chain, and external packaging suppliers.
• Support development and validation of packaging specifications, packaging BOMs, and packaging-related SOPs.
• Identify packaging-related risks early and ensure testing and validation during feasibility trials, plant trials, and first productions.

Act as the primary R&D interface for Operations, QA, Supply Chain, Packaging, Finance, and Sales on commercialization projects.

• Support customer-facing initiatives by providing technical input, feasibility assessments, and execution plans.
• Work in close collaboration with R&D Continuous Improvement to identify gaps in processes, tools, and communication and implement practical improvements.
• Leadership, Coaching & Team Development
• Provide technical guidance, direction, and day-to-day support to R&D team members as needed.
• Act as a mentor and coach, supporting the development of less experienced team members and reinforcing R&D best practices.
• Contribute to building R&D capability, structure, and discipline as the team and organization continue to grow.
• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Food Engineering, or a related scientific discipline, or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Minimum 8 years of experience in food product development, preferably within baked goods or commercial food manufacturing.
• Demonstrated experience integrating packaging design into product development and launch execution.
• Strong understanding of ingredient functionality, formulation development, nutrition, regulatory compliance, and clean label considerations.
• Solid knowledge of food manufacturing processes, equipment, and production constraints.
• Demonstrated leadership capability, including experience coaching, mentoring, or guiding others in a technical environment.
• Highly organized, structured, and disciplined in project execution and documentation.
• Proficiency in MS Office, ERP systems, and formulation/nutrition software (e.g., Ability to work in a food allergen environment (wheat, dairy, eggs, soy, etc.).
• Willingness to support plant trials, line commissioning, and travel as required.

If this is the position for you, APPLY ONLINE or email resume to Mina Khalil at mina.Randstad Canada is committed to fostering a workforce reflective of all peoples of Canada. As a result, we are committed to developing and implementing strategies to increase the equity, diversity and inclusion within the workplace by examining our internal policies, practices, and systems throughout the entire lifecycle of our workforce, including its recruitment, retention and advancement for all employees. In addition to our deep commitment to respecting human rights, we are dedicated to positive actions to affect change to ensure everyone has full participation in the workforce free from any barriers, systemic or otherwise, especially equity-seeking groups who are usually underrepresented in Canada's workforce, including those who identify as women or non-binary/gender non-conforming; Indigenous or Aboriginal Peoples; persons with disabilities (visible or invisible) and; members of visible minorities, racialized groups and the LGBTQ2+ community.
Randstad Canada is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible workplace for all its candidates and employees by supporting their accessibility and accommodation needs throughout the employment lifecycle. We ask that all job applications please identify any accommodation requirements by sending an email to Voir email sur randstad.com.