Manager of Beverage Innovation

About Mood

Mood is a category-defining omni-channel hemp brand offering a full product suite across DTC online and retail partners. We are scaling fast and doing it profitably. We win through a premium product experience that brings best-in-class shopping to one of the most highly regulated industries. Our mission is simple:
Enable access to premium hemp products of the highest quality, conveniently.

We are still early in our journey, and the right operators can make a lasting impact.

Location:

This role has a strong preference for candidates located in New York, Charlotte, Miami, Dallas, Austin, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. Remote within the United States will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Mood is seeking a Head of Beverage R&D to own and execute the end-to-end development of our beverage portfolio.

This is a hands‑on, individual contributor role for someone who can operate across strategy and execution. You will be responsible for taking products from idea -> formulation -> testing -> commercialization, while continuously improving existing products to be best-in‑class.

You will act as the internal owner of beverage innovation, working cross-functionally while personally driving the work forward. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in ambiguity, moves quickly, and takes pride in building great products from the ground up.

• Own the full beverage R&D lifecycle from concept through commercialization.
• Constantly scan the market to identify opportunities for Mood to be a market leader in new beverage concepts, then translate those into technically feasible formulations.
• Develop new beverage products including scientific formulation, benchtop prototyping, and iterative optimization based on sensory and analytical data.
• Run hands‑on formulation experiments yourself or in partnership with formulation houses, testing, sampling, and refinement to achieve target taste, onset, stability, and consistency.
• Lead scale-up from benchtop to production with co‑manufacturers.

• Continuously improve current formulations to enhance taste, mouthfeel, onset time, bioavailability, and shelf stability.
• Identify cost optimization opportunities without compromising product quality.
• Prevent production issues and ensure rigorous adherence to best‑in‑class manufacturing standards

• Analyze consumer feedback, reviews, and behavioral data to inform product improvements and new product concepts.
• Track competitive products across beverages, alcohol, functional drinks, and other beverage categories.
• Translate insights into clear product opportunities in our innovation pipeline.

• Ensure all products meet potency, safety, and quality standards through appropriate analytical testing and validated specifications.
• Own shelf‑life testing, stability programs, and formulation documentation.
• Partner with Compliance to ensure regulatory alignment across markets for ingredients, claims, labeling, and manufacturing practice.

• Manage relationships with co‑manufacturers, labs, ingredient suppliers, and flavor houses.
• Source and evaluate new ingredients, technologies, and partners.
• Manage production runs, tech transfers, and ongoing manufacturer performance.
• Ensure partners meet quality, cost, and timeline expectations.

• Partner with Supply Chain, Sales, and Marketing to bring new products to market successfully.
• Support forecasting, inventory planning, and launch readiness.
• Contribute to packaging, pricing, and positioning decisions.
• Ensure products are built for real‑world distribution, including DSD and retail environments.

• Create repeatable R&D processes, documentation, and SOPs to guide formulation, testing, and scale‑up.
• Establish formulation standards and testing protocols for sensory, analytical, and stability performance.
• Help define what “best‑in‑class” beverage quality looks like at Mood —then systematically raise that bar over time through data‑driven…