Associate New Product Development Specialist

Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream New Product Development Role

Are you looking to catapult your career by driving high-impact transformation with household brands? Do you crave an entrepreneurial, fast paced and engaging growth assignment working with incredible people from across the globe?

At Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, we are excited to start a new chapter of accelerated growth as part of Froneri – a global pure-play ice cream leader. With nearly 100 years of winning experience in the U.S, a robust portfolio of powerhouse brands that consumers know and love such as Häagen-Dazs, Drumstick, Dreyer's/Edy's, Skinny Cow, OREO®, Outshine and Frollies, and the backing and coaching of European-based ice cream experts, we know we have the winning recipe.

Headquartered in Walnut Creek, the Bay Area's hub for up-and-coming food trends, our DGIC team across our offices and factories is raising the bar on all things ice cream. Our growth has been tremendous in the past few years – moving from being #2 manufacturer in market to being #1 in 2024. The brands have strong investments in marketing support, quality improvements and exciting line extensions and innovation.

DGIC has also been recognized by retail partners as the top manufacturer partner, winning the #1 position in the prestigious Advantage Award in 2024.

At DGIC, we don't just hire for roles, we grow future business leaders. Here, everyone is encouraged to think like a general manager. That means owning your piece of the business, making bold decisions, and seeing the big picture. What makes us unique? You won't just stay in your lane, you'll get hands-on exposure to everything from Sales, Marketing and operations to Finance and Supply Chain.

It's like getting an MBA on the job (but with way more ice cream). If you're curious, driven, and ready to learn a lot about a lot, this is the place to stretch your skills and fast-track your career.

Unleash your potential at Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream and discover what a sweet career we have in store for you!

At the heart of our culture are four core values that guide our actions and define how we work together. We Take Ownership by staying committed from start to finish, making thoughtful decisions, and focusing our efforts on initiatives that drive growth, efficiency, and sustainability. We Do What Is Right by prioritizing transparency, setting clear roles and responsibilities, and speaking up when something doesn't align with our values.

We Seek to Improve through continuous innovation, embracing feedback, and learning from both our successes and setbacks. And We Are Better Together by making decisions that benefit the whole organization, fostering inclusion through diverse perspectives, and treating everyone with fairness and respect. These values are not just ideals—they are the behaviors we live by every day.

Main Purpose of the job:

This role is an entry-level role into the New Product Development (NPD) position. The incumbent is expected to participate in new product development for innovation and renovation projects in support of the ice cream business and gain the skills and confidence to lead simpler projects under supervision.

The role provides a technical and project management resource on project teams working on "Innovation & Renovation", "Factory support", "Quality improvement" and "Material sourcing" projects. By working and assisting on these types of projects the NPD Associate Scientist gains product & process knowledge to further their impact and build their professional skills to be able to lead simpler projects themselves.

The incumbent ensures that all the products are developed and handed over effectively to run efficiently in the factories by running feasibility studies and technical trials before product launch.

Role and Activity:

• Implementation of Innovation & Renovation projects under the supervision of Seniors/Mentors.
• Actively participate and shadow seasoned team members to learn all aspects of product development and project management – including and not limited to: formulation, bench work, Pilot Plant and factory trials, raw material selection and specifications, finished product evaluation and testing. It also involves learning the administrative aspect of the role (material creation and onboarding, recipe management, regulatory compliance etc.) and requires a grasp of project management skills and tools and timeline management.

• Perform below tasks under supervision:
• Product & process development activities, e.g. new product prototyping, bench top and pilot plant trial management.
• Raw material and finished product testing.
• Completion of costing analysis, preliminary manufacturing dossiers, trial and first-production technical and commercial sign-off documentation, quality specifications (CRQS) documents.
• Assure accuracy and a timely hand-over of new product documentation (manufacturing dossier) to the factory team to allow for a successful industrialization.
• Ensure that raw material and finished product…