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Senior Manager, Research and Development (Bakery/Food)

Dessert Holdings is the leading premium dessert company in the world. We craft artisanal, scratch-made desserts at scale, combining culinary innovation with the finest real ingredients. With a rich heritage spanning seven distinctive brands, we bring unmatched expertise and tailored solutions to our Retail and Foodservice partners.

Dessert Holdings is looking for a Senior Manager of Research and Development in Humble, Texas. This individual will be responsible for managing a technical team and developing and managing timelines on new product scale ups, cost savings initiatives, and operational support. This position also leads the enhancement of existing items and spearheads improvement initiatives.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead technical activities to advance multiple projects concurrently through the Stage Gate commercialization process while considering the level of risk, operational constraints, and overall cost.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives for the commercialization process to enhance our win rate, reduce our costs, improve our new product scale up, and expedite our speed to market.
• Communicate progress of all products under commercialization.Leverages methods and procedures for monitoring project success, such as metrics, resource investment, research findings, progress reports, and staff meetings.
• Work collaboratively and develop strong relationships with cross functional teams including QA, Plant Operations, Engineering, and Procurement to solve key business issues and drive profitable growth.
• Establish goals, appraise performance, recommend training, and provide input into final review for all direct reports.Coach reports on job performance and build a high functioning team.
• Identify and implement innovative, practical application and modification of ingredients, formulations, and process.
• Provide and communicate technical and business risk assessment to upper management.
• Provide technical support with customer on product information and process capability.
• Support the process design and review on new capability expansion, cost enhancement, and/or process improvement opportunities.
• Direct and prioritize work for the R&D department, ensuring R&D processes/data are complete, accurate, and consistent.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Degree in Food Science / Food Engineering with a strong functional Baking Science background (minimum 10 years bakery/food development / manufacturing experience) with 5 years management experience
• Experience with leading new products through commercialization within a manufacturing environment.
• Recipe / Formulation and raw material knowledge / experience.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Working knowledge of MS Office (Outlook, Word, Excel), SharePoint, ERP systems
• Working knowledge of US food standards and regulations.
• Strong bench work skills with the ability to execute solutions rapidly
• Experience in baking, pastry arts, R+D and Food / Baking Science
• Ability/willingness to work off hours or extended amounts of time during product scale ups.
• Ability/willingness to travel up to 25% of the time.

About Dessert Holdings

Dessert Holdings is a collection of premium dessert companies and brands: The Original Cakerie, Lawler's Desserts, Atlanta Cheesecake Company, Steven Charles, Dianne's Fine Desserts, Kenny's Great Pies, and Willamette Valley Pie Company. Dessert Holdings is owned by Bain Capital, is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, employs more than 3,500 people across ten manufacturing facilities, and is continuing its journey of rapid growth.

EEO Statement

Dessert Holdings and its related entities provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or any other characteristics protected by law.

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