Little Spoon · 3 weeks ago
Senior Director, Product Development & Innovation
New York City, NY
Full-time
Onsite
Director/Executive
12+ years expLittle Spoon is the fastest growing baby and kids food brand in the United States, dedicated to modernizing the baby and kids food category. We are seeking a strategic and execution-minded Senior Director, Product Development & Innovation to lead our R&D team and oversee the development and commercialization of our product roadmap.
BabyConsumer GoodsFood and BeverageNutritionOrganic Food
Responsibilities
Lead, mentor, and develop Little Spoon’s R&D team, developing best-in-class capabilities across formulation, sensory, culinary, packaging, and process development
Own the full technical development lifecycle across all DTC and Retail products from concept through commercialization
Serve as the technical steward of Little Spoon’s culinary point of view, nutritional philosophy, and ingredient standards
Partner with Food Safety & Regulatory to ensure all new products meet Little Spoon’s rigorous quality and compliance standards
Partner with the Director of Portfolio, Innovation & GTM Strategy to prioritize and translate innovation briefs into fully realized, technically viable product concepts
Manage all formulation workstreams — from rapid prototyping to iterative testing, reformulations, sensory evaluations, and ongoing quality optimization
Own budget management, documentation, specs, SOPs, testing plans, and ingredient library
Partner closely with the Director of Portfolio, Innovation & GTM Strategy who owns roadmap definition, positioning, and innovation strategy, and the Director of Consumer Insights
Provide early feasibility assessments, technical guardrails, ingredient considerations, and formulation routes during concept development
Collaborate on claims validation, competitive landscape reviews, and ingredient / nutritional differentiation
Align early with Marketing and GTM teams to ensure technical decisions support positioning, claims, packaging needs, and customer-facing storytelling
Ensure seamless product handoff to GTM teams at the completion of foundational development stages
Own technical commercialization, working with Ops, Supply Chain, and external partners to bring product and packaging prototypes into scalable production
Interface directly with co-manufacturers, suppliers, and ingredient partners to ensure reliability, product consistency, and cost feasibility
Collaborate with Retail Sales to adapt or develop products specifically for in-store category requirements, retailer needs, and velocity expectations
Work with Finance to evaluate COGS, identify cost-reduction opportunities, and ensure margin targets align with strategy
Provide guidance on and lead complex manufacturing trials to ensure successful rollout OTIF
Continually refine the stage-gate process across categories to accelerate speed-to-market while maintaining rigor
Own process development and refinement at co-manufacturers
Partner with operations to ensure manufacturing network and capabilities support supply chain needs
Work to identify and onboard additional manufacturers and/or equipment as needed
Lead renovation efforts across the portfolio, identifying opportunities for cost savings, product improvements, and complexity refinement
Lead the rollout and maintenance of our new Product Lifecycle Management system and integration with our future ERP system
Build structure, clarity, and process into a rapidly growing product organization — identifying bottlenecks and implementing systems that help teams move faster
Serve as the senior product development voice in strategic business planning conversations, providing insight into feasibility, timelines, ingredient trends, and nutritional considerations
Prepare briefs, product strategy updates, dashboards, and leadership readouts that enable quick decision-making
Support post-launch reviews, providing technical perspectives on performance, reformulation needs, and continuous improvement
Qualification
Required
Extensive experience leading R&D within a food company, with deep expertise in formulation, food science, commercialization and innovation
Proven track record of bringing multiple food products from concept to launch — ideally across both DTC and retail environments
Strong culinary, formulation, and food science intuition paired with the ability to operate strategically at a 10,000-ft level
Experience leading and developing R&D teams; ability to inspire, coach, and push innovation at pace
Expertise in commercialization, co-manufacturer management, testing protocols, sensory evaluation, and scale-up
Exceptional project leadership — highly organized, structured, decisive, and able to move multiple workstreams forward simultaneously
Data-driven approach to innovation; comfortable evaluating product performance, customer data, nutritional metrics, and category dynamics
Scrappy, resourceful, bias-to-action mindset — comfortable navigating ambiguity, building from zero to one, and iterating quickly
Collaborative and low-ego team player who thrives in cross-functional environments
12-15+ years of food R&D, culinary innovation, or product development experience, with 5+ years of people leadership experience
Degree in Food Science, Nutrition, Culinary Science, or related field (or equivalent industry experience)
Experience strategically driving innovation, renovation, and supply chain maintenance projects with manufacturers and cross functional partners
Strong understanding of food safety, regulatory, and nutritional standards for infants and children
NYC-based or able to work hybrid at our HQ; willingness to travel to facilities as needed
Passion for Little Spoon's mission to modernize the baby & kids food category
Benefits
Equity
Comprehensive Health Coverage
401(k) with Company Match
Flexible PTO + Holidays
Paid Parental Leave
Learning & Development
Little Spoon Perks
Company
Little Spoon
Little Spoon is the DTC brand on a mission to make parents’ lives easier through healthy meal and snacks for babies, toddlers + big kids.
51-200 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Little Spoon has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2022 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$73MKey Investors
Valor Equity PartnersVaultier7Kairos HQ
2021-07-20Series B· $44M
2020-01-01Series A· $22M
2019-02-05Series Unknown· $7M
Leadership Team
Ben Lewis
Co-Founder + CEO
Angela Vranich
Co-Founder + Chief Product Officer
Recent News
2025-05-06
Company data provided by crunchbase