Director, Research & Development

At Philz, every product we create is an opportunity to deepen the experience our customers know and love. We’re looking for a Director of Research & Development to shape the technical future of our product portfolio and build the R&D capabilities that will support Philz as we grow. Bringing deep expertise in food science, ingredients, sensory, process development, and commercialization, this leader will help turn bold product ideas into high-quality, scalable experiences across beverages, food, and other customer-facing offerings.

Partnering closely with Product Innovation, Operations, Supply Chain, and business leaders, the Director will establish the technical standards, processes, and discipline that allow Philz to innovate with rigor, move with agility, and protect the quality and consistency that define our brand.

This role is currently remote and must be based within the Greater Los Angeles area. Our teams will return to a hybrid office environment in Long Beach, CA in Q1 of 2027.

• Partner with Product Innovation to translate the long-term product portfolio strategy across beverages, food, and other customer-facing offerings into a technical R&D roadmap, identifying formulation, process, equipment, supplier, quality, and capability requirements needed to deliver it.
• Provide technical input on product-category opportunities and the Product Innovation pipeline, identifying feasibility, ingredient and technology opportunities, process and equipment requirements, supplier capabilities, quality risks, cost implications, and scalability constraints.
• Assess the technical health and complexity of the portfolio and recommend opportunities to improve product consistency, quality, cost, ingredient or process simplification, and operational scalability.
• Assess emerging consumer and category trends for their technical implications and identify science-, ingredient-, or process-led opportunities that may enable future innovation.
• Develop a multi-year technical R&D roadmap aligned to the Product Innovation portfolio roadmap, including technical research, quality improvements, supplier development, and process or equipment needs.
• Lead technical research and development once an opportunity or product brief is established by Product Innovation, from technical discovery through formulation, prototyping, sensory validation, pilot testing, scale-up, commercialization, and post-launch technical optimization.
• Direct formulation, recipe development, ingredient functionality, and process development for beverages and food, ensuring approved product concepts can be delivered safely, consistently, efficiently, and at the intended sensory quality across a multi-unit retail environment and by frontline store teams.
• Own technical commercialization, including final recipes and specifications, supplier and plant trials, process validation, shelf-life and quality validation, troubleshooting, technical risk assessment, and launch readiness.
• Partner with Product Innovation, Supply Chain, Operations, Strategy, Marketing, Technology and Finance to ensure products meet safety, labeling, nutrition, quality, operational, and financial requirements.
• Apply sensory science to translate consumer learning and target product attributes into measurable technical targets, assess prototypes, confirm product quality and consistency, and guide formulation optimization; support consumer testing when technical learning is required.

• Provide technical cost, capital, complexity, risk, and resource inputs used by Finance, product teams and business leadership to evaluate product opportunities and portfolio investments.
• Provide technical recommendations and resource implications to inform portfolio prioritization discussions and business decisions.
• Monitor post-launch technical performance, product consistency, quality issues, waste, process execution and other R&D measures; use learnings to improve formulations, processes and future development.

• Define the R&D operating model, including roles, decision rights, technical governance, standards, and expectations across the product lifecycle.
• Co-develop the end-to-end stage-gate framework with Product Innovation and lead the technical criteria required to move approved concepts through formulation, validation, scale-up, commercialization, and post-launch learning. Product…