Customer Development Manager Jobs in Port Richey, FL

Position Summary

The R&D Manager is responsible for leading PMAD's research and development function, including formulation, sample development, product improvement, customer feasibility review, commercialization readiness, and R&D to-production transfer for PMAD's private-label and white-label CPG manufacturing business. This is a hands-on technical leadership role for a small but highly visible R&D function. The R&D Manager converts customer concepts, sales priorities, production realities, ingredient availability, quality requirements, and PMAD's manufacturing capabilities into documented, scalable, compliant, and commercially viable products. The role may supervise R&D Associates or other assigned R&D personnel as the department grows.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

R&D Function Leadership

• Manage PMAD's R&D pipeline, including product-development requests, sample priorities, formula revisions, troubleshooting needs, internal innovation, and commercialization projects.
• Translate customer concepts and business priorities into practical R&D plans, timelines, sample requirements, resource needs, and decision points.
• Maintain visibility into R&D priorities, project status, customer-development risks, resource constraints, formula-change risks, and commercialization timelines.
• Coordinate R&D priorities with Sales, Customer Success, QA/QC, Procurement, Production, Packaging, Warehouse, Finance, and Operations leadership.
• Build repeatable R&D routines that reduce reliance on memory, informal formula notes, uncontrolled spreadsheets, or single-person knowledge.
• Support department growth by helping define role clarity, training needs, tools, trackers, SOP needs, and scalable R&D workflows. Formulation, Sample Development, and Product Improvement
• Lead formulation and product-development work across applicable PMAD product formats, including gummies, center-fill products, blister products, liquid fills, powders, chocolates, and other PMAD-supported product lines.
• Develop, improve, and document recipes, formulas, ingredients, process steps, target specifications, sensory attributes, process notes, and sample records.
• Oversee prototype development, bench samples, trial batches, pilot work, reformulations, ingredient substitutions, and flavor, texture, color, appearance, and performance adjustments.
• Evaluate ingredient functionality, active load, process stability, customer requirements, manufacturability, sensory feedback, and packaging fit during product development.
• Ensure sample work is clearly labeled, traceable, controlled, protected, and prepared according to approved R&D instructions and PMAD quality expectations.
• Protect confidential customer formulas, prototypes, samples, specifications, product concepts, development records, and proprietary information.

Commercialization and Production Transfer

• Lead the movement of products from concept to sample, sample to approved formula, approved formula to production-ready documentation, and production-ready documentation to commercial manufacturing.
• Partner with QA/QC to confirm specification readiness, testing needs, release criteria, label considerations, documentation controls, customer approvals, and quality approval requirements before commercial use. PMAD - R&D Manager Job Description
• Partner with Production and Packaging to confirm that formulas and processes can be manufactured at scale using PMAD's equipment, staffing, batch sizes, sanitation practices, environmental controls, and packaging formats.
• Prepare or support R&D-to-production transfer materials, including approved formulas, process parameters, ingredient and packaging requirements, quality checks, yield expectations, labor assumptions, sanitation considerations, and training needs.
• Support trial batching, pilot runs, scale-up batches, first production runs, and production troubleshooting that may require formulation, ingredient, process, equipment, or packaging adjustments.
• Escalate manufacturability, quality, cost, timeline, equipment, material, or customer-approval risks before PMAD commits to pricing, samples, or production deadlines.

cGMP, SOP, QA/QC, and Documentation Controls

• Ensure R&D activities follow approved SOPs, cGMP expectations, sanitation requirements, ingredient controls, allergen or cross-contact controls, documentation requirements, QA/QC review, and customer approval requirements.
• Ensure new formulas, revised formulas, process changes, ingredient changes, supplier changes, packaging changes, and customer specification changes are reviewed and approved through appropriate PMAD qualitysystem or change-control processes before commercial production.
• Maintain accurate R&D records, including formulas, ingredients, sample records, test results, sensory feedback, process notes, trial outcomes, customer approvals, and commercialization decisions.
• Partner with QA/QC to document and resolve R&D-related deviations, failed trials, formula errors, ingredient concerns, sample complaints, process concerns, and production-transfer issues.
• Ensure R&D does not create uncontrolled formulas, undocumented process changes, informal production instructions, unapproved substitutions, or customer commitments that conflict with PMAD's quality system.
• Reinforce good documentation practices and data integrity for all R&D records, calculations, trackers, labels, sample logs, and system entries. Ingredient, Material, Cost, and Supplier Collaboration
• Partner with Procurement to confirm ingredient availability, supplier capability, lead times, minimum order quantities, alternate sources, documentation requirements, supply risk, and cost before customer commitments are finalized.
• Support the sourcing and evaluation of ingredients, flavors, colors, actives, excipients, packaging components, sample materials, lab supplies, and development materials needed for prototypes and customer samples.
• Evaluate formula and sample decisions for commercial scalability, not only sample-stage success.
• Partner with Finance, Sales, Customer Success, Procurement, QA/QC, and Production to evaluate product opportunities for material cost, labor assumptions, batch-size assumptions, yield expectations, QA/QC burden, procurement risk, and customer profitability.
• Identify margin or commercialization risks caused by complex formulas, difficult-to-source ingredients, unstable processes, excessive R&D iterations, packaging constraints, low yields, long changeovers, or customer-specific requirements.

Systems, Communication, and Department Accountability

• Use PMAD's designated systems for product-development requests, sample tracking, formula records, ingredient lists, customer approvals, trial results, commercialization status, R&D priorities, cost assumptions, and production-transfer documentation, including Replit or any successor system implemented by the Company.
• Provide clear updates to the VP of Operations, CEO, and leadership as requested regarding R&D priorities, bottlenecks, resource needs, customer-development risks, sample status, and commercialization readiness.
• Communicate clearly and promptly when R&D work is delayed by missing materials, unclear customer requirements, unresolved quality questions, equipment limitations, staffing constraints, or incomplete approvals.
• Train, coach, and direct R&D Associates or assigned personnel on sample preparation, documentation, sanitation, equipment use, confidentiality, cGMP expectations, and PMAD procedures.
• Maintain a clean, organized, safe, and audit-ready R&D work area. PMAD - R&D Manager Job Description Required Qualifications
• 3+ years of experience in R&D, formulation, product development, food science, culinary science, nutraceuticals, supplements, confectionery, CPG manufacturing, or a related manufacturing environment.
• Experience developing or improving formulas, samples, prototypes, trial batches, or production-ready products.
• Working knowledge of cGMP, SOPs, sanitation, documentation practices, ingredient controls, quality checks, and regulated manufacturing discipline.
• Ability to translate customer concepts and business priorities into practical sample plans, formula work, project status updates, and commercialization steps.
• Strong math, measurement, organization, recordkeeping, communication, follow-up, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work cross-functionally with QA/QC, Procurement, Production, Packaging, Warehouse, Sales/Customer Success, Finance, and Operations leadership.
• Ability to protect confidential formulas, customer information, product concepts, specifications, and proprietary manufacturing information.

Preferred Qualifications

• Degree, coursework, certification, or equivalent practical background in food science, chemistry, biology, nutrition, culinary science, engineering, formulation, or a related field.
• Experience with gummies, confectionery, chocolate, powders, liquid fills, nutraceuticals, dietary supplements, food, beverage, private-label, white-label, or contract manufacturing.
• Experience with NSF, FDA-regulated, cGMP, HACCP, SQF, PCQI, food safety, dietary supplement GMP, or similar quality systems.
• Experience supporting scale-up, R&D-to-production transfer, commercialization, customer sampling, sensory evaluation, stability or shelf-life work, or troubleshooting production issues.
• Experience using project-management, formula-management, documentation, inventory, production, quality, or business systems.
• Bilingual English/Spanish skills are helpful.

Compensation: $70k - 90k based on experience