Job Title : Manager - New Product Development & Quality

Subject Matter Expert (SME) - Bakery Products NPD & Quality

Products Category: Bakery & Baked Goods (Bread, Buns, Croissants, Sourdough, Kulcha, Cakes, Brownies, Rusks, Cookies, Biscuits) and more.

Role Objective

- We are looking for a highly skilled Manager - Product Development & Quality (Bakery SME) to lead end-to-end development and quality assurance for our private label bakery portfolio.

- This role will drive product development, standardization, and quality excellence across categories, working closely with suppliers, cross-functional teams, and regulatory bodies to ensure consistent quality, innovation, compliance, and scalability. This skilled role will bridge culinary expertise and food science, ensuring every product-from croissants and sourdough to biscuits-meets our highest quality standards.

- The role also focuses on delivering trend-forward innovations while maintaining world-classProducts & High food safety and consistency.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Product Development & Innovation

- Lead end-to-end product development for bakery portfolio (Bread, Buns, Croissants, Cakes, Cookies, etc.)

- Develop and optimize recipes/formulations aligned to target cost, quality, and shelf-life

- Drive innovation based on market trends, competitor benchmarking, and consumer insights

- Conduct trials (lab & plant scale) and ensure successful commercialization

2. Quality Assurance & Standardization

- Define product specifications, SOPs, and quality benchmarks for all SKUs

- Establish sensory, physical, and microbiological quality parameters

- Conduct supplier audits, product evaluations, and ensure batch-to-batch consistency

- Implement quality improvement initiatives and root cause analysis for deviations

3. Supplier Management & Capability Building

- Identify, Audit, onboard, and develop bakery suppliers/vendors

- Work closely with manufacturers to ensure adherence to product specs and process controls

- Drive vendor performance through audits, scorecards, and continuous improvement plans

4. Regulatory & Compliance

- Ensure compliance with FSSAI and other applicable food safety standards

- Validate label claims, nutritional information, and ingredient declarations

- Support regulatory documentation and approvals for new product launches

5. Cost Optimization & Productivity

- Drive value engineering initiatives without compromising quality

- Optimize formulations, ingredients, and processes to meet cost targets

- Support scale-up efficiency and wastage reduction initiatives

6. Cross-functional Collaboration

- Collaborate with Procurement, Supply Chain, Marketing, and Operations for seamless launches

- Align with packaging and logistics teams for shelf-life and stability considerations

- Support customer feedback analysis and continuous product improvement

Travel Requirement:

- This role requires extensive travel (~20-30%) across multiple cities and supplier locations.

- Travel will be primarily for product development trials, plant validations, supplier onboarding, audits, and quality alignment.

- The candidate should be comfortable working closely with manufacturing partners on-site to drive faster commercialization and consistent quality execution.

Key Skills & Competencies

- Strong expertise in bakery science (fermentation, dough rheology, baking processes)

- Hands-on with trials, troubleshooting, and commercialization

- Knowledge of ingredients (flours, fats, improvers, enzymes, emulsifiers)

- Hands-on experience in NPD, trials, and commercialization

- Strong understanding of food safety systems (HACCP, GMP, GHP)

- Analytical thinking and problem-solving (quality issues, shelf-life, texture defects)

- Stakeholder and vendor management skills

- Sensory evaluation and benchmarking capability

- Strong experience in multi-vendor management & scale-up

- Ability to balance speed, cost, and quality in a high-growth environment.

Qualifications & Experience

- B.Tech / M.Tech in Food Technology / Bakery Science / Food Science

- 7-10 years in bakery product development and quality

- Certification in Bakery & Confectionery (preferred)

- Experience in FMCG, QSR, or Private Label business preferred