Sr Director, Research & Development

SR DIRECTOR, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
• BOLINGBROOK, IL
• FULL-TIME • $220,000-$235,000 BASE

Real Good Foods started with a pretty simple idea: food should taste great and be made better. Today, we’re building something bigger around that belief—challenging the status quo with real ingredients, more protein, fewer carbs, and food people genuinely crave. Through it all, we keep it real: real food, real ingredients, and really good taste. Because eating well shouldn’t be complicated.

It should be Real Good.

As a Real Good Senior Director, Research & Development you will be accountable for the performance of our development pipeline from concept through commercialization. You will lead the team that turns ideas into products consumers love and buy again, and you will partner across the company to bring those products to market quickly and well.

This role is built for a leader who wants real accountability for a pipeline and a team, and who is ready to build the R&D bench alongside an industry-veteran Chief R&D & Quality Officer.

Over time, as the team and process mature, the seat is built to grow into ownership of the end-to-end project lifecycle, from charter through launch, a deliberate path for advancement.

• Lead the R&D development pipeline from concept and feasibility through formulation, process development, scale-up, commercialization, and post-launch review, using agile R&D principles to compress learning cycles and keep the pipeline moving without going backwards.
• Develop products that meet Real Good Foods’ nutritional platform, including high-protein and low-carb targets.
• Partner with Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Food Safety and Quality to define the capabilities needed to launch, vetting in-house and co-manufacturing options and balancing speed to market with cost and margin.
• Build food safety and quality into formulation and process from the outset, partnering closely with the Quality and Food Safety teams (quality by design).
• Ensure products and labels meet USDA/FSIS and FDA requirements, partnering with regulatory, legal, and labeling resources on claims and nomenclature.
• Partner with Supply Chain and FP&A to improve quality and drive cost out of existing products.
• Monitor competitive products and consumer and regulatory trends to shape the pipeline and formulation approach.

• Partner with the Project Management Office on sequencing and cross-functional coordination.
• With the PMO, coordinate with cross-functional partners including Marketing, Operations, and Procurement to commit to and de-risk each launch through the company’s commercialization process.

• Set the standard for trial rigor at the bench so formulas, BOMs, specifications, and label declarations are complete and aligned to perform at scale on the production floor.
• Create function-wide standards for product development, bench trials, and formulation approvals.
• Own the development of protocols for product specifications, testing methods, and stability and shelf-life approaches, with clear documentation standards that keep the work repeatable.
• Create a culture of feedback and performance to ensure the whole team performs at a high standard.

• The development pipeline moves predictably from concept through launch, and launch commitments hold.
• Learning cycles are compressed through agile, parallel-path development, improving speed without going backwards.
• Trial rigor is consistent at the bench, with formulas, BOMs, specifications, and labels complete and aligned to perform at scale.
• New and reformulated products meet Real Good Foods’ nutritional platform and land on the right production path,…