R&D Technical Commercialization Director

Sunny Sky Products is a leading B2B beverage solutions provider serving convenience foodservice enterprise specialty and healthcare markets. With a diverse portfolio across Hot Cold Frozen and Beverage Enhancer categories we serve customers through owned and licensed brands including Dr. Smoothie Upouria El Nino Hershey Sour Patch Kids and Jolly Rancher.

Our manufacturing spans multiple processes and facilities hot-fill (Fullerton CA) pasteurized and frozen juice (Frostproof FL and Chicago IL) low-acid aseptic (Douglasville PA) and dry blend (Tinley Park IL and Houston TX). This breadth of process technology is central to the technical demands of this role.

The Director of R&D Technical Commercialization is the critical bridge between Sunny Skys innovation pipeline and its commercial execution engine. This role exists to close the gap between bench science and market-ready products ensuring that what R&D develops reaches customers on time on spec and producible at scale in the plant that will actually run it.

The role requires someone equally fluent in food science and in commercial conversations comfortable reviewing a formulation spec and validating its thermal process in the morning and presenting a launch-readiness assessment to the commercial leadership team in the afternoon. Critically this person is expected to know how our formulas are actually produced the real time temperature and equipment conditions at each plant and to design and validate against those conditions.

• Process-matched formulation. Ensure every formulation is designed and validated against the actual production process and conditions it will run on hot-fill pasteurization low-acid aseptic or dry blend including verified time and temperature parameters at the specific plant.
• Ingredient stability. Verify that raw materials and flavor systems are specified to withstand their intended process (e.g. heat-stable vs. solvent/alcohol-based flavor systems under sustained hot-fill exposure). Disqualify ingredients that degrade under the real thermal load.
• Analytical discipline. Establish and enforce use of titratable acidity (TA) pH and Brix as standard measured design targets for all new product development and competitive benchmarking/matching.
• Specification integrity. Drive a program to tighten legacy and new quality specs so that product made at the high and low ends of a pH/Brix (and TA) range is sensorially consistent eliminating specs so wide they yield two different-tasting products.
• Process authority & food safety. Partner with QA and operations on scheduled processes acidified-food and low-acid aseptic requirements and shelf-life validation; ensure formulations are documented against approved process parameters.

• Own the handoff from R&D lab to commercial launch formulation finalization through scale-up shelf-life validation regulatory sign-off and first production run.
• Serve as the primary point of contact between R&D and Sales Marketing Operations and Supply Chain on all active commercialization projects.
• Maintain and enforce a stage-gate commercialization process: track project status flag risks early and proactively escalate bottlenecks and emerging product issues to the VP R&D and CCO such issues should surface from R&D not reach leadership by other routes.
• Translate technical R&D outputs (specs test results process parameters) into commercial-ready language for internal stakeholders and customer-facing conversations.

• Own the active commercialization-stage R&D portfolio currently 55 open projects
• Prioritize projects in alignment with commercial channel needs (C-Store Foodservice Healthcare DSD) and REFILL revenue targets.
• Hold Cross-Functional Teams accountable to Milestone dates.

• Lead systematic review of existing recipes formulations and production processes to identify cost reduction margin improvement and performance/quality optimization opportunities.
• Collaborate with Operations and Supply Chain on COGS initiatives reformulations ingredient substitutions process efficiency without compromising product quality or customer spec.
• Manage sugar/color reduction and label-change programs; ensure regulatory and customer-spec compliance across the active portfolio.
• Champion a continuous-improvement culture: post-launch reviews lessons learned specification discipline and lab-to-plant knowledge transfer.

• Provide day-to-day operational leadership for the R&D labs (dotted-line initially; solid-line over time).
• Develop and mentor the team in the disciplines above. Actively train product scientists and technicians in TA/pH/Brix discipline process-matched formulation ingredient stability and proactive issue escalation building bench strength not just managing tasks.
• Maintain lab quality standards compliance protocols and equipment readiness; serve as technical mentor and escalation point across SSP lab locations.

• Support Sales and Marketing in customer-facing product development new product requests customization specs and technical questions from key accounts.
• Participate in key customer meetings distributor summits and trade-show product showcases where technical depth is a differentiator.
• Partner with Category Management and Marketing on white-space analysis and innovation pipeline priorities for the next 1224 months.

• Commercialization velocity reduction in average time from formulation finalization to first commercial shipment.
• Project on-time delivery >85% of active commercialization projects hitting committed milestones.
• Cost optimization measurable COGS improvement from reformulation and process-optimization initiatives.
• Specification & analytical discipline TA/pH/Brix targets defined and measured on 100% of new products; legacy specs reviewed and tightened to ensure sensory consistency across the full range.
• Process-matched launches zero launches with ingredient/process mismatches (e.g. heat-unstable inputs in hot-fill); formulations validated against actual plant time/temp conditions.
• Pipeline coverage R&D pipeline remains aligned with commercial revenue targets; no critical launch gaps.

• 10 years in food and beverage R&D with at least 4 years in commercialization application science or technical project management.
• Hands-on thermal-process expertise across two or more of SSPs processes hot-fill pasteurization low-acid aseptic and/or dry blend with a working command of the time/temperature parameters each requires and their impact on ingredients and shelf life.
• Demonstrated analytical fundamentals: routine use of titratable acidity (TA) pH and Brix in product design and competitive matching and the ability to set meaningful defensible specification ranges.
• Ingredient and flavor-chemistry knowledge sufficient to specify systems that survive the intended process (heat time fill conditions) and to diagnose stability failures.
• Working knowledge of food-safety/process-authority requirements acidified foods low-acid aseptic (e.g. FDA 21 CFR 113/114) scheduled processes and shelf-life validation protocols.
• Beverage formulation knowledge across hot cold frozen and/or dispensed categories plus manufacturing scale-up experience.
• Demonstrated experience managing multi-project portfolios with commercial deadlines and cross-functional accountability.
• Proven ability to translate technical language into commercial terms for Sales Marketing and executive audiences.
• Regulatory experience (FDA nutrition labeling allergen compliance).

• Required: Bachelors degree in Food Science (or Food Chemistry/Chemical Engineering with demonstrated food/beverage formulation experience).
• Strongly preferred: Masters degree in Food Science or related discipline. Advanced theoretical depth is valued but applied action-oriented manufacturing and commercialization experience takes priority over purely academic/research backgrounds.

• Background in B2B beverage or foodservice CPG familiarity with broadline distributor commercialization cycles operator spec requirements or convenience-channel product standards.
• Experience managing a small lab team or leading application scientists.
• Familiarity with stage-gate development and project management tools (Smartsheet Asana or equivalent).
• Exposure to cost-optimization and reformulation programs tied to COGS improvement.

• Technical Depth formulation and process knowledge deep enough to earn the trust of lab scientists and the VP R&D and to catch problems before they reach the plant or the customer.
• Commercial Acumen understands the revenue implications of R&D decisions; connects product development to business outcomes.
• Project Discipline manages complexity across many concurrent workstreams without dropping critical details.
• Cross-Functional Influence builds credibility with Sales Marketing Operations and customers without direct authority.
• Communication crisp confident communicator; writes and presents clearly to executives and technical audiences alike.
• Ownership & Escalation surfaces issues early and proactively; treats leadership found out before R&D did as a failure to prevent.

• Travel: 2030% (customer meetings plant visits for scale-up distributor technical presentations trade shows).
• Location: Houston TX lab-based (relocation support available). Limited remote flexibility given lab leadership responsibilities.
• Compensation: competitive base commensurate with experience; annual bonus tied to project delivery and commercialization milestones; comprehensive benefits.

Required Experience:

Director