JOB TITLE: Director of Research & Development

LOCATION: Viola, WI

DEPARTMENT: Research & Development

POSITION TYPE: Full Time

REPORTS TO: COO/CFO

LEADS OTHERS: Occasionally

YRS OF EXPERIENCE: 8-10

DATE CREATED: June 2022

In 2003, GoMacro co-founder Amelia Kirchoff was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a lot of research, she decided to fight the cancer with a plant-based macrobiotic diet in addition to a local lumpectomy. In the face of adversity, Amelia and her daughter Jola came together, fought the cancer, and Amelia won.

During her battle with cancer, Amelia created the first MacroBar™ recipe in her kitchen on the Wisconsin family farm. In the years following, Amelia and Jola began spreading awareness for the power of a balanced, plant-based lifestyle through GoMacro’s healthy and delicious MacroBars, which are now available in stores nationwide.

Today, our work is still guided by the values upon which Jola and Amelia built GoMacro: Live Long, Eat Positive, Give Back, Tread Lightly, and Be Well. It’s our goal to inspire people to have a healthy body, sharp mind, and bold spirit—and we believe doing fun, and meaningful work is part of that.

That’s why we:

• Hire people who share our company values and support the growth and development of their careers.
• Embrace the opportunity to do meaningful work that has a positive impact on the planet and people’s lives.
• Offer competitive benefits, plus holistic perks like our Annual Give Back Day, gym, PTO, and more.

Join us as we make the world better, one bite at a time!

Position Description:

The Director of Research and Development will be expected to provide technical expertise and leadership in the development of nutritious, plant-based snacks. This position will design and implement research and experiments resulting in new and improved products, cost savings and unique technologies providing business advantages.

This research and development role relates to a wide range of technical skills and many non-technical company functions. A successful candidate will apply scientific and engineering principles in research, development, production technology, quality control, packaging, processing, and utilization of foods by performing the following duties. As a fully competent scientist in all conventional aspects of food science and product innovation, this position will apply a mastery of specialized techniques and ingenuity in selecting and evaluating approaches to innovate and continuously improve our food products and manufacturing processes. May be asked to lead technically complex and multi-functional project teams.

Strategic Responsibilities:

• Build R&D Department and Innovation Capability: Set out a vision and definition of the department to help achieve GoMacro’s short term and medium-term goals.
• Build Technology & Nutrition Capabilities and Roadmap: Based on strategic direction of company and innovation opportunity areas, this role will be responsible for accessing or building enabling technologies and nutrition partner/credentials to realize the full potential of those opportunities.
• Help Build Innovation Approach & Stage Gate: Partner with the Director Innovation to implement a world-class innovation approach and stage gate process.
• Leadership Team: This role will be a part of the leadership team of the company.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Formulate and develop new products, that have been conceptualized and developed from Director of Innovations, from bench-top samples to commercialized products by successfully managing the scale up process with all pertinent operations departments
• Conduct lab experiments and line trials to ensure accuracy of process and quality of product
• Create and maintain formulations, product specifications, processes, and testing procedures
• Monitor product stability through shelf-life testing and trials
• Proactively identify and drive awareness on product improvement, cost reduction, and efficiency improvement opportunities across our core product portfolio
• Apply an analytical approach to problem solving and assimilate the details and significance of various scientific analyses, procedures, and tests
• Develop strong cross-functional relationships
• Evaluate technical trends in food manufacturing, and make recommendations for new or improved process or product opportunities
• Organize and direct sample development for sales presentations, consumer testing and food safety assurance
• Provide technical support/serve as product development contact for Sales, Customer and Operations
• Other duties as assigned by management

Skills Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in food science or related field required
• Master’s degree in food science or related field highly preferred
• 5+ years’ experience in CPG field preferred
• 8-10 years’ experience in product development
• Previous experience working with nutrition bars preferred
• Previous experience working on varying product types (cookies, bars, drink mixes, etc.) preferred
• Ability to read, analyze, and interpret common scientific and technical journals
• Ability to effectively present information to senior management
• Strong computer skills are necessary for this position, including Microsoft Office tools (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
• Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions
• Ability to create and update nutrition labels in compliance with all FDA/USDA regulatory requirements preferred
• Experience working with nutrition software (ESHA Genesis R&D) preferred
• Experience with regulatory requirements for Canada preferred