Director of R&D

This role is on-site in Stockton, CA. This is not a remote or hybrid role. Open to relocation. Is this your next job Read the full description below to find out, and do not hesitate to make an application. The Director of R&D at Kevin’s Natural Foods plays a critical leadership role in advancing and scaling our clean-label product portfolio. This role is responsible for leading the Product Development function, managing commercialization, and ensuring both new and existing products consistently meet our high standards for quality, nutrition, and flavor. This position combines expertise in food science and culinary development with strong people leadership, operational excellence, and cross-functional collaboration. The Director ensures that R&D execution is efficient, scalable, and aligned with company priorities, supporting Kevin’s mission: empowering even the busiest people to eat clean without sacrificing flavor. What You’ll Do: Lead, mentor, and develop the R&D team, building a high-performing organization grounded in accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Oversee all aspects of product development and commercialization, from concept through production, ensuring successful, timely product launches. Drive project prioritization, resource planning, and timelines, ensuring alignment with business needs and efficient execution. Own product specification, formulation and costing ensuring products meet margin targets while maintaining clean-label standards. Provide technical and culinary leadership across product development, including troubleshooting formulation and production challenges and ensuring consistency at scale. Partner closely with cross-functional teams to meet all food safety, regulatory, quality and cost requirements. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support product launches, packaging development, and commercialization plans. Ensure all products meet Kevin’s standards for product claims, flavor and quality. Establish, standardize, and continuously improve R&D processes, documentation, and best practices to support scale and consistency. Manage plant trials, scale-ups, and commercialization runs, ensuring seamless transition from bench to production. Monitor product performance and drive continuous improvement of existing products as needed. Maintain accurate and detailed records within formulation and R&D systems to ensure reproducibility and compliance. Act as a key cross-functional partner, ensuring strong alignment between R&D and broader business objectives. All other duties as assigned or necessary. What You’ll Need: Passion for delivering safe, quality, and shockingly delicious food to the Kevin’s Natural Foods consumer. Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Culinology, Food Technology, Nutrition Science or similar applied experience; advanced degree a plus. Culinary experience strongly preferred Minimum 8 years of experience in food product development in a manufacturing environment, with at least 4 years in a leadership role. Strong expertise in ingredient functionality, formulation, sensory evaluation, and clean-label product development. Solid understanding of food safety, GMP, HACCP, GFSI audit schemes and regulatory compliance (USDA, labeling, certifications). Proven ability to manage multiple projects, timelines, and cross-functional initiatives in a fast-paced environment. Strong analytical, organizational, and project management skills. Experience working with co-manufacturers and commercialization/scale-up processes. Experience with paleo, keto, or specialized dietary products is a plus. Proficiency with nutritional software, R&D systems, spreadsheets, and documentation tools. Healthy, Diverse Teams Breed Innovation: Kevin’s Natural Foods is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We deeply believe that diverse backgrounds and experiences make better teams, and we seek to attract talent from all walks of life. The team at Kevin’s is smart, humble, and passionate and we value a work environment that fosters personal development and opportunities to move within our small, but quickly growing organization. More About Kevin’s Natural Foods: Kevin’s Natural Foods is a line of healthy entrées, sides, and sauces, on a mission to make clean eating delicious and accessible. Kevin’s guilt-free, sous-vide entrées and sides, and signature certified paleo, keto, and gluten-free sauces allow health-conscious home cooks to whip up delicious meals in five minutes or less. With restaurant-quality ingredients and recipes, Kevin’s products are readily available on the shelves at leading grocery retailers nationwide including Costco, Whole Foods, Albertsons, HEB and Publix. All Kevin’s products contain no refined sugar, artificial ingredients, grains, or soy, and are made with antibiotic- and hormone-free meat. xywuqvp A true market disruptor, Kevin’s Natural Foods is the first clean refrigerated entrée brand.